President Barack Obama has said given an opportunity he would like to have dinner with Mahatma Gandhi, whom he believes a true hero.

Obama expressed his wish in reply to a question from a student during his conversation with 9th graders at Wakefield High School in Arlington Virginia where he gave a national speech welcoming students back to school.

“Hi. I’m Lilly. And if you could have dinner with someone, dead or alive, who would it be,” Obama was asked by one of the students. “Dinner with someone dead or alive? Well, you know, dead or alive, that’s a pretty huge list,” Obama responded amidst laughter. The next second he was serious.

“You know, I think that it might be Gandhi, who is a real hero of mine,” Obama said. “Now, it would possibly be a small meal because he didn’t eat a lot,” he said amidst laughter. But Gandhi is a star who has inspired people across the globe for the past several generations, he said.

Terming Gandhi as the source of inspiration for many, Obama said, “He is somebody whom I find a lot of inspiration in. He inspired Dr. King (Martin Luther), so if it hadn’t been for the non-violent movement in India, you might not have seen the same non-violent movement for civil rights here in the United States.”