M. K. GANDHI'S autobiography, The Story of My Experiments With Truth, is famously incomplete, stopping abruptly in 1920. But while he gave up writing his memoirs, Gandhi continued to speak and write about his life, family, work, colleagues, those who opposed and venerated him, his hopes, anxieties, challenges, fasts, many jail stints, enthusiasms, and disappointments. When knitted together, these autobiographical observations scattered over several pages of the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, as well as in some works that were published in his lifetime under his gaze, make for a gripping and powerful story. 'Restless as mercury', is how his only sister, Raliyat, described the young Mohandas and her stunningly accurate characterization of her brother provides the title of this work, which Gopalkrishna Gandhi has reconstructed from Gandhi's own words.
The account is divided into six sections: Book I starts with Gandhi's birth in 1869 and focuses on his early years in Gujarat, his schooling, immediate family, and marriage to Kasturba. In Book II, we see him away from his home and family in a new environment-England-where he goes to study law. He continues his commitment to vegetarianism and engages in a brief flirtation with becoming an English gentleman. He then makes a quick visit home to Rajkot before going to South Africa to practise law. There, he experiences racial prejudice and struggles to balance the demands of home and public life. In Book III, we see Gandhi being drawn into two wars in South Africa The Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) and the Bambatha Rebellion (1906). He sets up the Ambulance Corps with other Indians, becomes politically engaged, and starts fighting for the rights of Indians in South Africa. It is during this period that he starts his journal, Indian Opinion, and his first ashram in Durban-the Phoenix