Some quotes

All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath – F. Scott Fitzgerald

Unsung heroes of Indian freedom struggle

I was watching a documentary on Rash Behari Bose recently. Rash Behari Bose??? I am sure the name wouldn’t ring a bell and 99.99% Indians would draw a blank when quizzed about the man in reference. Frankly speaking even I wasn’t aware of the level of his contribution to the Indian Freedom struggle except that I knew that he was a freedom fighter after whom a popular avenue in Kolkata is named.

Rash Behari got involved in the freedom movement towards the last quarter of the 19^th century under the influence of one of his teachers in Chandannagore. When his activities came under the scanner of the Imperial powers he had to flee from one place to another. For sometime he worked in the Forest Research Institute in Dehradun.

He was a master of disguises. Once he disguised himself as a kin of the Rabindranath Tagore family and escaped to Singapore. He spent many years in Japan and tried to raise an armed force there to fight against the British. He married a Japanese and learnt the language. He even translated Tagore’s SESHER KOBITA in Japanese.

His assistance to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in building the INA strengthened the force. He died in Japan a few years before the country attained Independence. A memorial has been erected in his memory there and he has been decorated with the second highest Japanese honor.