But 2nd October is also Lal Bahadur Shastri's birthday. He was born in 1904 in Mughalsarai, a railway town in Uttar Pradesh.
Most years, his birthday gets a little lost because it falls on the same day as Gandhi's.
And for many younger Indians, Shastri is probably more familiar because of The Tashkent Files, the 2019 film that brought renewed attention to the mystery surrounding his death. Even one of the film's young actors admitted at the time that she had not known much about Shastri before working on it.
I've been teaching for fourteen years, and I've met quite a few students like that.
They don't always speak the loudest or get noticed first, but they keep working, keep showing up, and surprise you later.
So today, this one is for them.
The Boy Nobody Expected Much From
His father died when he was about a year and a half old. He grew up in relatives' homes, moving between Mughalsarai and Varanasi. He was the smallest boy in the room.
And he was a small boy even as an adult. He was only about five foot two.
There is a story about him that you hear quite often. He apparently couldn't afford the boat fare to cross the Ganga on his way to school, so he would tie his books on his head and swim across.
I can't say for sure that the story is true. But it has been told for generations. People remembered a boy who had very little, but still found a way to get to school.
At sixteen, he left school to join the freedom movement, and at seventeen, he went to jail.
Most children who leave school at sixteen don't go back.
But he did.
So for the rest of his life, he was known by something he had earned, rather than the name he had been born with.
I tell my students something similar when they finish Level 3 and ask me whether they should put the letters after their name. Yes. You earned them. Don't be shy about letting people see what you worked for.
The Years in the Dark
Between 1921 and 1946, Shastri spent about nine years in British jails, in different stretches.
He wasn't famous at the time. He wasn't Nehru, whose prison letters later became books. He was a Congress worker from Uttar Pradesh, and for most of those years, very few people outside his immediate circle were paying attention to him.
He used the time to read.
During one of his prison terms, he translated Eve Curie's biography of Marie Curie into Hindi. He had no scientific background, but he still took on a book about Marie Curie's life and work because he wanted Hindi-speaking readers to be able to read it.
There is another story from his time in prison that I find interesting.
I think about that story whenever I talk to students about the work they do when nobody is checking.
I had a similar period in my own life. In my early twenties, I had a very long daily commute. I spent a lot of that time reading. No one was asking me what I was reading or whether I was using the time well. But quite a lot of what I teach today came from those hours.
Most of the useful work you do as a student is like that.
The months between Level 1 and Level 2. The first year of a job when nobody gives you credit for what you're learning. The commute. Going back to the questions you got wrong instead of just looking at the score.
No one is going to check most of it.
You have to decide what you do with that time.
When His Time Came
May 1964. Nehru died, and the Congress had to choose his successor. There were several bigger names in the party, men who had been around for years and expected to be considered.
They chose Lal Bahadur Shastri.
He wasn't the obvious choice, and some people thought he was only there until a stronger candidate came along. Then, within eighteen months, he had a food crisis and a war to deal with.
India was struggling with food shortages and importing wheat from abroad. Before asking ordinary families to give up a meal, Shastri tried it with his own family first. For one week, they didn't have dinner. He wanted to know what he was asking other people to do.
He later asked Indians to give up one meal a week. Restaurants even began closing on Monday evenings.
Shastri spent most of his life working quietly without being famous or getting much recognition. But when he suddenly became Prime Minister and the country faced serious problems, all those years of quiet work and experience helped him handle the situation.
The Students Who Remind Me of Him
Shastri faced a lot of problems. But he kept going.
And when his moment came, he was ready for it.
I've been teaching for fourteen years, but I still prepare for every class. I could probably walk in, teach from memory, and get through it. Some days, I'm tempted.
But I don't.
Because I know there is always one student sitting quietly in the room who is taking all of this seriously.
And sometimes, that student just needs someone to believe they're capable before they believe it themselves.
I believe in you.
Invest in yourself,
Aswini Bajaj