The landlord in whose house Mohandas was put up as a paying guest was a very gentle and affable man. In his company Mohandas learnt to speak English fluently.
Since he had set his foot on England he was never satisfied with food. All the foods in England were meat, pork, beef, chicken or fish oriented. Mohandas would not touch any of them. Whatever vegetarian food was available it was so tasteless that he found it difficult to accept.
Foodwise life in England, for Mohandas, was like mentally being on indefinite fast.
His landlord found nothing wrong in flesh eating. Infact, he strongly recommended meat eating. Mohandas also felt that meat eating was a fact of life in England. There was no escape from it.
But Mohandas was bound by his pledge taken before his mother.
Some people told him that it was not wise to suffer because of a silly pledge or promise made to an illiterate woman who had no idea of the world beyond her home. But for Mohandas his mother was like goddess betraying whom was just unthinkable. He would rather die.
Indian mind was conditioned to yield way to the juggernaut of fears of braking traditions. The mother was the deity figure riding that juggernaut. It mattered little what educational qualifications she held. So, eating meat was out of question.
The food problem bugged Mohandas day in and day out.
Amid food crisis he took admission in ‘Inter Temple’ for Bat-at-Law course on 6th November, 1888.
Time was hanging heavy on Monia (Mohandas) being torn between vegetarianism and non-vegetarianism. To draw some consolation he wrote a letter to his mother—
‘Even here I am upholding my dharma. I am living on vegetables and cereals although the food without spices is tasteless. But what can I do? Belly has to be filled even if it means dipping pieces of bread in masalaless dal.’
The letter greatly pleased Putlibai. She prayed to Bhagwan to help her Monia resist the alien temptations and stay resolved on his dharma.
Meanwhile, Mohandas bravely continued to be vegetarian although it was a very tasteless exercise. To shore up his moral he explored and found some books that stood for vegetarianism and extolled its virtues. Then, he found some people who supported strict vegetarianism. It greatly encouraged Mohandas. He was also able to find a restaurant that served vegetarian food cooked a little tastefully.
But most of his friends and acquaintances kept up saying that those who did not eat meat remained dullard idiots and uncultured. Mohandas wanted to prove to every one that a vegetarian man could also be cultured.
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