May 18, every year is observed as the Museum Day all over the world. Most of the museums organize programmes to celebrate the day. In Delhi itself half a dozen museums observed the day by staging different programmes. On this great occasion, the National Gandhi Museum, Rajghat also came forward with a unique programme in its own auditorium attended by about a hundred selected professionals of different fields. Bageshwar Jha, Curator, Sulabh International Museum of Toilets, New Delhi represented his museum. For this occasion, the organizers had coined a beautiful slogan, ‘MUSEUM COLLECTIONS MAKE CONNECTIONS’. However, the main function was to dedicate the collections of Madhuben to the public. They are all rare objects, related to day-today life of Mahatma Gandhi and Ba.
Prof. Aparna Sen, Chairperson, National Gandhi Museum, delivering her welcome address expressed happiness over the celebrities sparing time for the occasion. It was followed by the launching of the museum’s new website www.gandhimuseum.org by Prof. Rajeev Lochan, IAS and Director, National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi. The special qualities of the portal were also explained in a demonstration. They also screened a small documentary on Gandhi, beautifully produced by the BBC. After that Dr M.A.Sikandar, Director, National Book Trust, introduced the book “Thambi Naidoo and His Family” (a great Gandhian of Madurai) by E.S. Reddy, which was released by Ashok Vajpeyi(IAS Retd.),Former Secretary, Ministry of Culture. In his inaugural speech, Sh. Vajpayee recalled some brief but highly touching anecdotes pertaining to Gandhi to prove his great personality. Ram Chandra Rahi, Treasurer, National Gandhi Museum also shared some similar experiences while proposing the vote of thanks.
The concluding part of the programme was the inauguration of Manuben’s collection on the first floor of the Museum by Ashok Vajpeyi. The collection includes some rare objects like the coatee of Ba, specs of Gandhi, his pens and a pashmina shawl with a hole which was personally stitched and patched by Gandhi. The needle used is also displayed.
Gandh was a legendary person and it is our duty to collect, conserve and display objects connected with him and throwing light on his life and achievements for the posterity.
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