His bald head is gleaming in the evening sun, when the oval-rimmed spectacles look up from that benevolent face. The frail form wrapped in a crisp white Khadi shawl leans onto a polished stick for support. The little black-binded Bhagavath Gita is held close to his heart while the gold chain of a pocket watch is hanging from his Dhoti. Such small connotations are all that is needed for an Indian to remember his father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi. And who else knows it better than George Paul, a man who has been enacting Gandhi on reel and real life for the past 30 years. Ben Kingsley’s Gandhi would give a run for his money, if he ever sees George in his Gandhi avatar. George, who has portrayed Gandhi in around 4,000 occasions, first impersonated him for a fancy-dress competition.

“I first dressed up as Gandhi in 1985, April 24 for a fancy-dress competition held in our company. A few of my colleagues in the Punnapra Scooters company, Alleppey, suggested that my face will suit Gandhi‘s role perfectly. Sreekantan, one of my friends who used to act in plays painstakingly did the make-up. Once done, from the admiring glances of the onlookers I instantly knew, it was a success,” says George. People stood up from their seats the moment he entered the arena and greeted him with starstruck gestures.

George, who was just 37 at the time, had to shave-off his long and curly mane, for the act. Henceforth, he had never let it grow. His steady strides to his custom-made leather slippers, there is nothing in George that does not remind you of Gandhi. A staunch vegetarian and a teetotaler, George has been adamantly following Gandhi‘s footsteps for the past 30 years.

“The only luxury I have is a bicycle I use for travelling. Otherwise, I try my best to follow Gandhi‘s teachings. This is a god-given gift and I cannot tarnish it with my bad lifestyle,” says George. From naming his house ‘Sabarmathi’ to entering into myriad philanthropical activities, George is reigniting Gandhi‘s name in his own little ways. From school, colleges to cultural fests, there ‘s not a place George has not blessed with his presence. Ask him about the costume and he says he recreated it from the scratch.

“One of the local shoemakers made the leather slippers, while an optical shop made the spectacles. One of my friends’ father, who participated in Vaikkom Satyagraha gifted me the watch saying I should return it to him. But when I gave it back to him, he didn’t take it, instead asked me to put it to good use,” says this Gandhi.

An exact replica of Mahatma, George often has to deal with the dizzying adoration of Gandhi fans. But, he says he enjoys the attention and seeks for more.
When asked how his wife and son took his sudden decision to impersonate Gandhi 30 years ago, he says, at first his wife Valsa could not digest him losing the good hair for an impersonation. “Later, when she saw the people’s reaction she conceded,” he says.

George has a spate of feature films, documentaries and shortfilms to his credit where he reprised his Gandhi act. ‘Yugapurushan’, ‘Methiyadippadukal’ and ‘Hansen’s Disease’ are some of his significant works.

“I have even received an appreciation certificate from the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1985. One of my friends prompted me to send my details to Rajiv Gandhi and he conferred a certificate to me within a few days,” recalls George.

Currently, George is working on a stage-documentary with a spew of students from St Aloysius School, Punnapra. He also travels around with the speed cartoonist S Jithesh for a stage show Jithesh designed with Gandhi.

Not many would know, it is not Gandhi but George, who has been the model to many Gandhi statues we see in and around the state. This Kothamangalam native, who settled in Alappuzha eons ago, is in a resolve to bring back Gandhi in his walks and talks.