Mahatma's kin leading lonely life in Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram -- As the nation Tuesday remembers Mahatma Gandhi on his death anniversary, his grandson's octogenarian widow leads a lonely life in the Kerala capital.

Saraswathi Gandhi, the 83-year-old wife of Kantilal Gandhi, lives by herself in the city. Her two sons are settled in the US.

Saraswathi, whose uncle G. Ramachandran was a noted Gandhian, married Kantilal, a doctor. Kantilal passed away in 1983 after 38 years of married life.

The woman tried to settle down in the US where her sons - one a doctor and the other a chartered accountant - live but she did not like it there.

"The culture was different (in the US) and I decided to return," Saraswathi told reporters who came calling on her Tuesday.

Saraswathi, who suffers from arthritis, made news when she joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in February 2004. "I decided to leave the Congress because today's Congressmen are interested only in positions and nothing else," she said.

After a long stint in Mumbai, where she did social work among the textile workers while her husband was a doctor, she settled down in the Kerala capital