Book Review: The Lost Diary of Kastur, My Ba

Tushar Gandhi, The Lost Diary of Kastur, My Ba, Harper Collins: Gurugram, 2023, ix+299 pages, Rs 399

‘I have already said that Kasturbai was illiterate. I was very anxious to teach her, but lustful love left me no time. For one thing the teaching had to be done against her will, and that too at night. … I must therefore confess that most of my efforts to instruct Kasturbai in our youth were unsuccessful. And when I awoke from the sleep of lust, I had already launched forth into public life, which did not leave me much spare time. I failed likewise to instruct her through private tutors. As a result Kasturbai can now with difficulty write simple letters and understand simple Gujarati’ – thus wrote Gandhi in his autobiography (Gandhi 2018: 12–13).