Gandhi Page #38

PATEL:

(joyous -- it's been

a long time)

Ah, Herman!

(Of the bags)

No, no -- don't destroy my good

intentions. I'm feeling guilty about

traveling Second Class.

Kallenbach is smiling too. He reaches for the bags again.

KALLENBACH:

I do it as a friend -- and admirer --

not a servant.

PATEL:

Ah, in that case!

And grandly, he relinquishes the bags and looks back.

PATEL:

Maulana is made of sterner stuff.

Our trains met in Bombay, but he's

back there in that lot somewhere.

Their point of view. In the chaos of the Third Class we see

Maulana Azad coming out of a section of the coach. He is

carrying a baby wrapped in rags. The child's mother with two

little ones hanging on her has followed him out.

PATEL'S VOICE-OVER

There he is -- out Gandhi-ing Gandhi.

Azad hands the woman the baby and she obviously thanks him.

He makes a little salaam to her and moves through the

confusion of the platform toward the camera.

Resume Patel and Kallenbach.

PATEL:

(shaking his head at

it all)

When I think what our "beloved

Mahatma" asks, I don't know how he

ever got such a hold over us. Is he

back?

KALLENBACH:

Yes. Now that things are moving he's

going to write and only take part

when it's necessary.

Azad approaches them.

AZAD:

(to Patel)

It was a Hindu child and it tried to

wet on me.

He and Kallenbach clasp with their free hands, both grinning.

PATEL:

Of course. A Muslim beef eater --

I'm only surprised he missed.

AZAD:

He was a she.

PATEL:

Ah, that explains it.

(He grins.)

Well, do I carry your luggage as

penance or --

KALLENBACH:

There's another passenger -- a Miss

Slade.

(He turns

automatically, as

Patel and Azad do,

toward the First

Class section.)

She's the daughter of an English

admiral.

(Patel and Azad look

back at him in quick

surprise. Kallenbach

smiles.)

She's been corresponding with him

for a year.

And the camera pans with their glances at they look back

with real interest toward the First Class coach.

Porters are unloading the baggage of two or three passengers

here and helping some others (English and Indian) to board.

In the foreground we see a tall Indian woman in a red sari.

Farther along there is a large stack of luggage being added

to by a porter. An English woman is hovering about it. She

is well dressed, but rather dreary and unprepossessing, and

the camera zooms in toward her.

PATEL:

And what does the daughter of an

English admiral propose to do in an

ashram -- sink us?

AZAD:

(quietly -- his manner)

From the looks of the luggage, yes.

Patel grins. Like most witty men, he loves wit in others.

KALLENBACH:

She wants to make her home with us --

and Gandhiji has agreed.

Patel groans. They turn back to the train and just as they

do, the tall Indian woman in the red sari tips a porter,

taking one small bag from him and turns: Mirabehn (Madeleine

Slade) is tall, quite pretty and extremely English despite

the sari. The minute she turns, she stops on seeing the now

startled Kallenbach.

MIRABEHN:

You'd be Mr. Kallenbach.

Kallenbach recovers sufficiently to --

KALLENBACH:

...And you would be Miss Slade.

MIRABEHN:

(proudly)

I prefer the name Gandhiji has given

me -- Mirabehn.

The word means "daughter." Patel and Azad stare at each other

in something like bafflement.

THE ROAD TO THE ASHRAM - EXTERIOR - DAY

An ox labors along in harness. We follow him for a moment,

then move along the traces of the harness to the Ford touring

car that it is pulling. In the car Kallenbach and Mirabehn

sit in the front seat, Patel and Azad in the back.

Closer.

KALLENBACH:

(of the car)

It was a gift and it only worked a

few weeks, but when Gandhi came home

he struck on this idea. He calls it

his ox-Ford. Comfortable -- and yet

more our pace.

He does what little steering is necessary and Mirabehn smiles

at it all, finding everything delightful. She peers ahead in

the direction of the distant ashram.

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