The NRI who bid for Gandhi memorabilia, and lost

He was only 10 when he garlanded Mahatma Gandhi in Assam. More than six decades later, Canada-based Himadri Shekhar Roy has not forgotten that fleeting moment and was one of those who last week bid for Gandhi’s possessions.

An engineer and real estate businessman now living in Montreal, Roy drove here to participate in the auction of Gandhi’s belongings and bid passionately till liquor baron Vijay Mallya outbid him. With tears in his eyes, the disappointed 72-year-old looked at Gandhi’s possessions, happy only in the knowledge that another Indian had bought it.

“When I read about the auction I just had to go and was determined to bid till the very end. Although Mallya beat us, I am happy I went to New York and did my bit to retrieve Gandhi’s possessions. My memory of him when I met him as a child is still fresh on my mind,” Roy said.

Gandhi’s steel-rimmed spectacles, a pair of sandals, a Zenith pocket watch, an eating bowl and a plate went under the hammer at Antiquorum Auctioneers in New York on Thursday, despite an outcry by Indians, mounting Indian government pressure and even a reported change of heart on the part of the US owner James Otis.

But Mallya, who was among 40 registered bidders, including several Indian Americans, bid a whopping $1.8 million to get the memorabilia. Himadri had been in the news earlier when he became the youngest person to attempt to swim the English Channel. He was feted by Mihir Sen, who had swum the channel.