During the Civil Disobedience movement, she was sent to East Africa to establish contact with overseas Indians living in those parts. The khoja community living in that area organized a public meeting in her honor to greet her.
The principal speaker was a rich khoja businessman. As his knowledge of English was limited, a teacher wrote out a speech to be read by him. The teacher addressed Sarojini Naidu as 'Nightingale of India' at one place in the speech.
The khoja business faltered as he reached this portion of the speech. He never heard of this word in his life. He paused for a while and using his common-sense read - 'the famous naughty girl of India' making a mess of the entire speech!
As soon as he said this the entire assembly was drowned in laughter, at this unintended mistake. But was Sarojini Naidu offeneded? Not at all! Indeed it was she who brought home the story! An example of her famous and well loved sense of humor!
source: Stories from Here and There, Ekalavya Education Foundation - By: Sunil Handa - http://www.eklavya.org/storyhere.html
No comments:
Post a Comment