Something that I can probably find is an old description by an assistant of Mahatma Gandhi in the 1950s where he describes how Gandhi kept the most expensive “humble” menu possible.
The assistant described spending a fortune on many hours in taxis, on many days during the US visit, so that he could search NYC to find the pure and natural (and rare and expensive at the time) ingredients for Gandhi’s “humble” meals that he insisted on, to maintain his Gandhi simpleness.
Legends are often developed out of hope and myth.
I have the same admiration for ol’ Moe Gandhi as I do for Mikey Luther King aka Junior.
As an undergraduate I took a number of courses in GPLS (General Program of Liberal Studies) whose core comsisted of seminars based on the great works of World Literature.
For some reason none of us could figure out, one of the required books was the Autobiography of Gandhi.
On the day the seminar met and was scheduled to discuss this book, we all sat apprehensively and the Prof leaned back in his chair and said "Who wants to start the discussion?" After several moments of silence he said "None of you finished reading this steaming pile of crap, did you?"
After several more moments of silence he mercifully broke the tension with: "Let's take this away as our lesson from Gandhi: Most of these supposedly "great men" of history are equally great at being pretentious bores. Gandhi was a pain in the ass."
The rest of the 90 minute class was spent discussing the upcoming World Series.