尽管是忏悔录，甘地自传读来妙趣横生。我记忆中还没有见到过这样既娱乐又得精神享受的书。这一来是由于他从年轻时就开始编报纸写社论的深厚文字功夫，二来是他也不把自己看成什么神圣的救世主。《自传》第一部中最有趣的几章是甘地去伦敦留学的事。那是乡巴佬想扮城里人又怎么也扮不像的喜剧片。
我猜想甘地自传的编者Pritchett教授大概没有太多在亚洲穷国的直接生活体验，或许不能完全理解自传里的一些场面。这些在我读起来是太面熟了。售票口那段是一例。还有这段：
There is an incident which occured at the examination during my first year at the high school, and which is worth recording. Mr. Giles, the Educational Inspector, had come on a visit of inspection. He had set us five words to write as a spelling exercise. One of the words was 'kettle'. I had mis-spelt it. The teacher tried to prompt me with the point of his boot, but I would not be prompted. It was beyond me to see that he wanted me to copy the spelling from my neighbour's slate, for I had thought that the teacher was there to supervise us against copying. The result that all the boys except myself were found to have spelt every word correctly. Only I had been stupid. The teacher tried later to bring this stupidity home to me, but without effect. I never could learn the art of 'copying'.
Yet the incident did not in the least diminish my respect for my teacher. I was, by nature, blind to the faults of elders. Later I came to know many other failings of this teacher, but my regard for him remained the same. For I had learnt to carry out the orders of elders, not to scan their actions.
中国文化和印度文化里都是一样的唯上唯师。诚惶诚恐的年轻甘地就是这样来到当时的全球第一都市。甘地是老练且有幽默感的写手，把农民穿西装学绅士派头的各种窘事写得惟妙惟肖。读这段时，总是看见我自己年轻时的影子。我把这几章推荐给年轻人，尤其是初到海外留学的年轻人。不少人都该能从里头看到他们自己的影子 – 这就是好书的标志。
这几章中在我看来最精彩的部分还是甘地从诚惶诚恐到自信满满的转变。其中一个契机与他的素食习惯有关。甘地家庭严格素食，甘地母亲答应儿子去英国留学的一个前提就是甘地起誓不吃肉、不喝酒、不与别的女人有染。但船还没到地中海就开始有各种各样的朋友和长辈劝他吃肉。甘地苦守誓言许久，中间也有许多滑稽故事，直到有一天他在伦敦一家素食餐馆买到一本论素食好处的书：
From the date of reading this book, I may claim to have become a vegetarian by choice. I blessed the day on which I had taken the vow before my mother. I had all along abstained from meat in the interests of truth and of the vow I had taken, but had wished at the same time that every Indian should be a meat-eater, and had looked forward to being one myself freely and openly some day, and to enlisting others in the cause.
从前甘地的素食是出于家庭和宗教的约束。这是他律。约束从外边来，信仰是 “by chance” – 因为他的这一套不过是因为他正好出生在一个印度教家庭，不是出于他自己的独立判断。虽然还是会照这样的信仰去做，但里面不好受，有机会就起二意。好在甘地坐的是与大家零距离的三等车厢，不顾忌说他的各种二意。
后来甘地读到那本书，从心里接受了素食，他律就变成了自律，做事就是 “by choice”了。甘地这一章的名字就叫《My Choice》。还借用先贤的说法，我猜想这场发生在里面的打斗可能是甘地性格最重要的转折点之一。
从这里开始，诚惶诚恐的模仿者甘地就转头到里面去找他做人做事的标准。
