Arun Gandhi, author & Mahatma Gandhi's grandson, dies

KOLHAPUR: Arun Manilal Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi's grandson and eminent author who had a long association with The Times Of India in his early days as a journalist, passed away Tuesday in Maharashtra's Kolhapur. He was 89.
Arun breathed his last at Avani Sanstha, an institution that works for underprivileged girls and homeless women, in Kolhapur's Hanbarwadi. The staunch Gandhian had arrived this February from the US's Rochester, where he lived.
Arun is survived by son Tushar and a daughter.The last rites were performed Tuesday evening in the presence of family and Shahu Chhatrapati Maharaj, head of Kolhapur's erstwhile royal family.
Arun was born and brought up in the Mahatma's Phoenix ashram in South Africa. "My father spent nearly two-and-a-half years with Bapu at the Wardha ashram (near Nagpur)," Tushar said.
"The vital organs were weak due to pre-existing conditions. He had come to India to attend my son's wedding. He decided to go to Kolhapur. I visited him when he was admitted to hospital."
According to Anuradha Bhosale, who runs the sanstha, Arun fell ill before he could leave. He had been writing into the night on Monday and passed away in bed Tuesday morning, Bhosale said.