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"The assistant described spending a fortune on many hours in taxis, on many days during the US visit, so that he could search NYC to find the pure and natural (and rare and expensive at the time) ingredients for Gandhi’s “humble” meals that he insisted on, to maintain his Gandhi simpleness."

As an undergraduate I took a number of courses in GPLS (General Program of Liberal Studies) whose core comsisted of seminars based on the great works of World Literature.

For some reason none of us could figure out, one of the required books was the Autobiography of Gandhi.

On the day the seminar met and was scheduled to discuss this book, we all sat apprehensively and the Prof leaned back in his chair and said "Who wants to start the discussion?" After several moments of silence he said "None of you finished reading this steaming pile of crap, did you?"

After several more moments of silence he mercifully broke the tension with: "Let's take this away as our lesson from Gandhi: Most of these supposedly "great men" of history are equally great at being pretentious bores. Gandhi was a pain in the ass."

The rest of the 90 minute class was spent discussing the upcoming World Series.