Listen to Bapu’s heartbeat!

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 2

Visitors to the National Gandhi Museum were pleasantly surprised today to hear the recreated heartbeats of Mahatma Gandhi as the country began celebrating his 150th birth anniversary.

A special segment in the museum unveiled for people yesterday features a digital display of Gandhi’s recreated heartbeats. The recreation was done over the past two years by a specialist team of engineers and artists led by Dr Subodh Kerkar, Director at the Museum of Goa, who used the ECG (electrocardiography) reports of the Father of the Nation to conclude the project. This is the first time people can actually hear how Gandhi’s heartbeat for the nation and what it felt like.

But Director of National Gandhi Museum Annamalai is quick to clarify, “These are not the original heartbeats of Mahatma Gandhi. We have the ECG reports of Gandhiji from 1930 to 1940. These were enough to technologically recreate the heartbeat. This technology has been used for the first time to translate the ECG records of Gandhiji into his heartbeats.” The digital panel at Gandhi Museum, Rajghat, shows the ECG of Gandhi and has headphones attached for people to hear his heartbeat. The unique project was inaugurated yesterday by cardiologist Balram Bhargava, Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research.

The ICMR along with Gandhi Museum is working on a special project to publish a dedicated journal on Gandhi’s health and medical records, including his blood pressure details considering he had hypertension.

Dr Bhargava told The Tribune that ICMR was planning to release a Collectable Edition of Indian Journal of Medical Research called “Gandhi & Health @150” which will document the importance of Gandhian principles in relation to health. “Gandhi ji’s experiments in health ranged from a variety of diets to trying out various therapies. A major section of the publication would be devoted to the health file of Gandhiji and his medical legacy that he has practised on himself as well his closed ones that is documented on a number of occasions,” said Bhargava.