mumbai ceos and world leaders namecheck him indian currency notes and postage stamps would seem incomplete without an image of him management gurus say he was an originalmarketing genius students learn about his life and no government office is complete without a picture of him did the real mohandas karamchand gandhi get lost somewhere in the fog of reverence that surrounds him gandhi museum mani bhavans new website aims to put the man and his ideas into sharper focus making them immediately accessible from anywhere in the worldmost of the clicks to the site currently come from abroad especially europe or america says anuradha iyer who worked on the team that revamped gandhimanibhavanorg a site that offers a wide range of gandhis writings and other resources although gandhimay not have favoured technology for its own sake he would surely have appreciated the internets ability to foster grassroots activism and link small groups across india women in panchayats switch on immediately if you mention gandhi says mani bhavan honorary secretary usha thakkar among the activists inspired by gandhis ideas of nonviolent resistance to social injustice she puts mumbais mohalla committees along with nelson mandela or martin luther kingalthough mani bhavan president alooben dastur says the mahatmas ideas should be followed wholesale since he wrote about every aspect of life tushar gandhi the mahatmas greatgrandson and thakkar agree that gandhism today need not imply an allornothing choice either a chaste vegetarian khadiwearing and socially committed existence or wholeheartedly embracing materialismtwo very different projects inspired by gandhi illustrate his influence across the world in mumbais modi street a fourstorey building houses the shri kot hindu stree mandal an organisation founded in 1938 that trains women regardless of religion or background to become selfsufficient by learning to sew cook and use computersfounder member mridula gohil typifies its ethos elderly but upright and smiling she still washes and starches her own irreproachably white khadi sarisin england a project to tackle social problems in londons east end led to david robinson founding community links a social change network based on gandhis remark that we must be the change we want to see in the world a gaggle of marketing and advertising experts together came up with a brand to sell the networkcalled we are what we do wawwd it has produced abook change the world for a fiver that advocates simple ideas like declining plastic bags when shopping spending time with someone from another generation or making contact with neighbours small ideas combined can create massive change robinson says even though the ideas wawwdpromotes are simple we want everyone to think that they can do these thingswhen you consider that violence and social disintegration are rising thakkar says its heartening to see that things like this are being done we shouldnt be blinded to the small lamps that are lit