Inquisitiveness, thunder, valor, perspiration, and spirituality— explosion of a persona that shook and is still shaking the world

The nation does not cry on August eighteen, 

It cherishes January twenty-three.

You willed to see India free,

India got freed but not the way you had seen;

Because everyone was interested in the cause, 

But you were allegiant to the cause.

Few are those whose start is known and their end is unbeknown,

And very few are those whose end would reveal many unknowns known.

Your end perhaps will always remain unknown to us,

But August 18 shall never be the end that shall be taught to us.

When the love of Janakinath Bose and Prabhabati Bose gifted them with their ninth child out of fourteen and sixth son out of eight, 18 August 1945 was surely have not been the day, perhaps 1985 may have been the year or there may have been no day and no year, rather it has been unending. The gift was Subhash Chandra Bose who eventually transpired to be the gift to the nation and a character to the world. At age of 12, when many of us were enjoying Pokémon and Shinchan and our parents were busy stopping us to do so, Subhas Babu fled home searching for his spiritual guru but unsuccessfully came back home; at 19, when many of us were preparing for entrance exams for getting a college and searching for the pleasure of our adulthood, Subhas Babu, on the hallowed ground of the Presidency College, was up against the might of Mr O, a professor, who maltreated the students thereof. At 44, when we perhaps would be still attempting to settle down, Subhas Babu was busy at making the so-called "Great" British fool by escaping from home-arrest thereby commanding the first-cry of an 'earned independence' but not a 'gifted independence'. The sun never set for the British Empire; however, allegedly the dead night of 16 January 1941 at Kolkata’s Elgin Road was prepared with German Wanderer Sedan of 1937 to set the sun of the British rule in Hindustan forever. Allegedly, in that car, there was Subhas Babu.

One does not have to smell his inimitability either from his victory as President of the Indian National Congress against Bapu-baptized Sitaramayya or from the event of his 'taciturn escape' or his building of Hindustan’s first defence, the Azad Hind Fauj. But his childhood and early stages of adulthood are enough to understand that his soul is inimitable. The first cut of the foreign policy of Hindustan was cut by Subahs Babu when he persuaded Hitler, Mussolini, and Hirohito for aiding Hindustan against the British.

The autobiography of Subhas Babu— 'An Indian Pilgrim' and many other books written by eminent people are there, but there has been a question how a fighter like Subhas Babu can live an isolated life of a Sanyasi. The answer to this question is there in his autobiography, wherein he writes that he has been enlightened by Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, and Aurobindo Ghosh, all of whom happened to be spiritual leaders of eminence. He also writes that from his childhood he has been searching for spiritual enlightenment. However, why he has not come to the nation’s eager eyes is a matter of debate, presided by the 'grand-old party of India'. Arguing that an indomitable fighter like Subhas Babu can never be a Sanyasi, would go on to question the indomitable fighting spirit of the spiritual leaders namely Narendranath Dutta.

Interestingly, full stop does not apply to Subhas Babu because his end is unreported except a class’s favourable report of August 18, 1945. I feel that the nation must know when Subhash Babu exhaled his last breath, but at the next moment, I am reminded that his last breadth at least will mean his physical end and why should we mourn the end of a persona who is unending in every sphere of his life. However, we must know the truth that followed after 18 August 1945, but not the false that followed it.

Editorial by Hritam Saha