FYI: Bernie is the new age Mahatma, ‘the American Gandhi’ who lives by the Gandhian guide and works for world peace. “It’s not as simple as it sounds,” the 70-year-old former priest, who resisted war in Vietnam and is a constant critic of the US Government, smiles through his round rimmed Gandhi glasses. “It took me five years to find an authentic pair,” Bernie looks pretty comfortable in the Mahatma’s signature attire along with his endless walking stick. In India for an international conference on peace and non violence, Meyer stopped by Chandigarh, and amongst other commitments, interacted with the students at KB DAV School, Sector 7. “When you are a part of a peace group, then you automatically look up to leaders like Martin Luther King and Gandhi. I must say following them in spirit is difficult, but for change to be radical, drastic measures need to be taken.” And these can be non violent in nature. “What I am trying to do here is apply Gandhi’s principles to the modern world and its issues like terrorism, poverty, global warming…and in the process create an awareness among people to assert their freedom, to be in control of their own lives and be the change they wish to see,” Meyer’s banking on the change through his peace walks, talks, and a non violent approach to a solution. “It took years for Gandhi to be Gandhi. It will take me too. But we must understand one thing - it’s not the utopian dreams of these leaders we need to glorify and hail, it’s the principles and teachings we need to apply and experiment with. It’s sad how the system is educating the masses in leading a consumer materialistic lifestyle instead of providing them with a sustainable one. And the US of A tops this list. They are not going in Iraq for democracy, they are at war for oil control. The question is when are we going to mature? When will we evolve as humans and fight destruction?” Meyer’s train of thought desperately runs in search of a better future. “A future which has smaller communities that have a local network of food, transport, resources, communication - that work on a village model,” he leaves us with a solution.