On 4th September, 1888 Mohandas boarded a London bound ship named ‘Clyde’.
There were only two Indians on board. The other one was Trayambak Roy Majumdar. Mohandas was acquainted to him. So he preferred to pair up with him. The rest of the passengers were Englishmen. Mohandas felt shy of going out because he was sure to run into those whitemen. The real reason was that he could not speak fluent English. And didn’t know proper use of knife and fork. He shut himself in his cabin.
He could order food to be served in his cabin. Besides he had brought along enough home cooked food that could not go bad for a few weeks.
So much so that he would feel panicky even in talking to lowly ship hands. But Majumdar was just the opposite. Mostly he would be on the deck talking to other passengers and having a nice time.
When he noticed the shy behaviour of Mohandas he said, “Look, once you leave home you should leave that mimosa like domestic behaviour behind.”
Mohandas confided that his shyness was due to his inability to communicate in English. Then Majumdar told him that he should try to speak the English anyway that was how he would pick up the flow of the language. The speaking would automatically remove all the flaws and weaknesses, he revealed.
That gave some courage to Mohandas and he started walking up to the deck. But talking to anyone in English still was a daunting task.
One day an English copassenger asked him, “Why do you keep silent? And where do you go?”
Mohandas told him where he was going because it took only one word ‘London’. But telling him the reason of his keeping silent took some explanation which was beyond the scope of English he could speak. So he fell silent.
Then it came to eating. Perhaps that Englishman had been observing the peculiar behaviour of the funny Indian. He asked, “Why do you eat in your cabin only?”
Mohandas could answer that, “Because I am vegetarian.”
The Englishman laughed. He said that being vegetarian in India could be possible but very doubtful in England. He enunciated the advantages of eating flesh foods in detail. Mohandas could not debate with that man on the subject of desirability of meat foods.
So, Mohandas gave the patent Indian reply that he had promised his mother to remain vegetarian. Given the choice he would rather return to India, he firmly declared.
24 days of journey on high seas took them to their destination, London on 28th September, 1888.
The day the ship docked was Saturday. It was evening and the dock employees had retired. The next day was Sunday So, the luggage could not be off loaded on that day as well.
Majumdar and Mohandas had to take shelter in a nearby hotel. Mohandas had four letters with him to serve as golden keys to London. One was in the name of one Doctor Mehta. Mohandas went to see him to seek guidance on the mysteries of London.
Dr. Mehta told him a lot of thing. The most valuable of them was that learning the nuances of English culture was more important than the studies. And for that the best place was to live with an English family he knew that accepted Indians as paying guests.
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