Mr. Gandhi was best known for being a leader in the early 20th century peaceful resistance movement in colonial India, even though his moral complexities have tarnished his reputation when viewed through a 21st century lens.

The rebuses and GHI which, when you think about it, can be parsed as “G and HI,” or GANDHI.

This was a puzzle that came to be over the course of many iterations, as you will read in Mr. Ghogre’s notes below. In its final version, I liked the pride of country that Mr. Ghogre has injected into his puzzle by lacing it with entries like ROTI, DELHI, MATA, BRAHMA and SRI. I also like the liveliness of his theme entries. In particular, HIGH INCOME crossing ROUGH IDEA and LONG HISTORY crossing BIG HIT stood out to me.

There is more to this theme, but I will let Mr. Ghogre explain.

I am a crossword constructor from India. Professionally, I am an investment banker. My wife Rupali and I stay on the outskirts of Mumbai with our daughter Eva (named after my favorite crossword answer) and son Advait. I have been flirting with American crosswords since 1997.

This puzzle is easily one of the biggest moments of my life — as an Indian, this puzzle is a humble tribute to the father of our nation. I am lucky to get this invaluable opportunity to celebrate a global icon like Mahatma Gandhi through the medium of crosswords. And what better occasion than his 150th birthday? While I have had bylines in the New York Times Crossword before, this crossword is also special in another way. It is my debut solo crossword for The New York Times. This is the day I have waited for all my life!

This puzzle is actually an outcome of the very encouraging response I received for the Fourth of July puzzle I made with Brendan Emmett Quigley for The Times in 2017. Once again, I wish to thank all those who showed their support. Having celebrated American Independence Day, I wanted to celebrate India with crosswords.

Last November, an idea sparked in my mind about this puzzle theme. How cool would that be — a puzzle made in India, by an Indian, about an Indian personality who had such a wide global influence across generations. I immediately wrote to Will that I had a puzzle idea to celebrate a momentous occasion. Will liked the idea and the thought of celebrating Gandhi’s birthday.

My initial entries were FLYING HIGH, BIG HIT, HIGH INCOME, NOTTING HILL, WEIGHING DOWN, WEIGH IN, WEIGHING SCALE, GIVING HINTS, SEEING HIM, GETTING HITCHED, ROUGH IT. Will said if this rebus puzzle had to be accepted, the sequence G-H-I needs to span two words and all theme entries had to be lively. Those conditions limited the set of words I could use in the puzzle. I came up with few more entries (some iffy, some dubious) like TOUGH IMAGE, FLYING HIGH, AIMING HIGH, GO THROUGH IT, HIGH INTENSITY, BROWSING HISTORY. Will didn’t want multiple entries ending in ING. That further limited the set of entries I could play with. He also didn’t want entries which had words not part of the GHI sequence (say LAUGH IT OFF). To fit them in the grid, I needed one short entry to pair with a long entry. To make it more interesting, while filling the nontheme entries, I added my own condition — to have only one G in the puzzle — outside of the theme entries. That G was in the revealer, Gandhi.

Eventually, after a few weeks of effort, I was able to get the final set of entries. I had only three pairs of entries, but all of them were solid.

Designing the puzzle grid was quite challenging for me. I wish to thank Erik Agard for being a sounding board for all my silly questions. After a few more weeks of iterations, I thought I had the fill in place, but it had too much crosswordese and I had to rework the entire grid. I was about to give up, but Rupali kept me going. Back to the drawing board with fresh energy, I kept working and, finally, the puzzle was accepted in March.

As a crossword constructor from India, who makes crosswords for a global platform like The New York Times, I aspire to bring more meaning to my puzzle endeavor. For me, crosswords are a medium for bringing people closer and to help us understand each other better. This puzzle is also another step to drive home that point, just like the three letters GHI snug closely in a single box. It represents making space for more people in our lives if we open up our minds and hearts. If we open our mind, there is space for others’s ideas. And that only makes the crossword of our life more meaningful.

At a more broader level, this puzzle and the historic occasion have a special meaning to me. In today’s world, marked with conflicts and violence, every moment devoted to spreading Gandhi’s message of peace and nonviolence is a small step toward making this world a peaceful place. I sincerely hope this puzzle’s theme, G AND HI, inspires us to find our own AND message of life. As a proud Indian, my AND message is unity AND diversity. What’s yours?