![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Nelson-Mandela-Desktop-2013-sm-300x300.jpg\")
<\/a>In this regard there is an interesting story regarding Nelson Mandela (1918 \u2014 2013) the President of South Africa who fought against apartheid and was jailed for a long time.<\/p>\nOnce, the President was waiting along with some of his security staff for the food they had ordered in a popular restaurant. He suddenly noticed that another person was also sitting all by himself at a nearby table and waiting for his order to be served.<\/p>\n
The President asked his companions if he should invite the lone person to join them. On getting their approval, Nelson walked over to the other table and asked the other person to join them.<\/p>\n
This individual reluctantly did join but he was trembling all over while waiting for his food. When the food was served to the President and the lone individual, the latter\u2019s fingers continued trembling while eating. Finishing his food, this person paid for the bill and silently walked away.<\/p>\n
The security staff was curious about the whole episode \u2014 why did the President invite the other person to join them and why did that man keep on trembling while eating. Nelson Mandela explained that the other person was the jailer of the prison where he was being held and committed all sorts of\u00a0antics, some of which amounted to atrocities against him. Once, on feeling thirsty, he asked for water. What he got instead was something unprintable.<\/p>\n
The former jailer was trembling with fear that the President would return his earlier cruel behaviour with something similar. That was how his mental makeup was built. But Nelson Mandela had a different attitude and value system. That was the foundation of the first post apartheid President of South Africa (1994 – 1999) \u2014 to forget and forgive.<\/p>\n
In a similar manner Mahatma Gandhi and India\u2019s first Prime Minister after independence \u2014 Jawaharlal Nehru, did not bear ill will against the British jailers \u2014 they only wanted independence from British rule.<\/p>\n
Incidentally, Nelson Mandela was invited to visit India and was conferred India\u2019s highest civilian award \u2014\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Bharat Ratna<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0in 1990 for his peaceful struggles against apartheid in South Africa. Mandela was also jointly awarded the\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Nobel Prize for Peace <\/em>in 1993 along with\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Fredrick de Klerk<\/em>\u00a0for their peaceful work for the termination of the apartheid regime.<\/p>\n The attitudes of Nelson Mandela, Indian leaders and others, help us to get rid of a feeling of revenge and to share a feeling of peace and justice with others.<\/p>\n ______________________________________________<\/p>\n In this regard there is an interesting story regarding Nelson Mandela, the President of South Africa who fought against apartheid and was jailed for a long time. Once, he was waiting along with some of his security staff for the food they had ordered in a popular restaurant. He suddenly noticed that another person was also sitting all by himself at a nearby table and waiting for his order to be served. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":73993,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[1177,1236,1218],"class_list":["post-201273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members","tag-inspirational","tag-nelson-mandela","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a> Dr Ravi P Bhatia is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment<\/a>, an<\/em> educationist, Gandhian scholar and peace researcher. Retired professor, Delhi University. His new book, <\/em>A Garland of Ideas\u2014Gandhian, Religious, Educational, Environmental was published recently in Delhi.<\/em> ravipbhatia@gmail.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"