Esther David explains why she decided to give Father of Nation ‘wings’

Sculptor, painter and author, Esther David, launched her book — Man with Enormous Wings at Sumeru Haveli in Ahmedabad on Monday, in the presence of Narayan Desai, son of Mahadev Desai, secretary of Mahatma Gandhi.

"When I started listening to Narayan Desai's lecture on Gandhi at AMA, I occupied the last seat, thinking I will ‘escape.’ But the seven-day lecture completely floored me, and I just couldn't miss a single lecture. Post this, when I wrote the book, I realized that Desai was the apt person to launch my book. What I liked the most about his lectures was that Narayan Desai used to address himself as 'Gandhiji's son'," David said.

David took 8 years (2002-2010) to complete her book - 'Man with Enormous Wings'. She said, "During my stay in an area like Gupta Nagar in 2002, I once travelled to Gandhi Bridge. Although, I instructed my auto driver to take right from the Gandhi statue, he couldn't really understand me. And post 15 minutes of argument, his statement, 'You mean to take right from that black statue' shocked me. I then realized that people consider him just a black statue. I thought what if during 2002 Gandhiji got wings, and turn into a bird and start flying. It is then that I started penning down my thoughts," David said.

In this book, David has portrayed Gandhiji in different shapes and sizes and towards the end when he is hurt during the riots in India, few women provide him with medications and he walks away. For David, this was Gandhiji's second death. "It is not documentation but has fables which are weaved into my novel, telling the tales of Gandhiji and what he must be going through when things go wrong in India. This book is my stand of coming out from a comfort zone and hence, it is a fable about people and pain," concluded David.