Sarfaroshī Kī Tamannā

                                

Travel sojourns not only fill the void of monotonous life but also widen our horizon and enriches us with beautiful experiences of life. Lately, we travelled to our honeymoon destination - Andamans & Nicobars after twenty-three years. The only difference was that this time we visited with the price tag (that usually comes along with marriage) - our little miss Snoopy :)


Her bizarre questionnaire and queer understanding have pushed our travel experiences to another level. Along with regular touristy tasks, the most which intrigue her is the history and the tales of the freedom fighters associated with the place. Port Blair offers such fables in abundance! The most picturesque archipelago and pristine beaches roar the weirdest tale of brutality by the British and the darkest chapter of India’s struggle for freedom.

                                           

KALA-PANI or CELLULAR JAIL stands tall till date and quavers with rage while narrating the soul-breaking stories of our great freedom fighters. As the light and sound show chronicles the barbarity of the Irish jailor, David Barrie: children like my Snoopy realise the cost of freedom our martyrs have paid for the privilege of the motherland.

                                          

As the grand Peepal tree started reverberating inhumane suffering of the Patriots, (Fazl-e-Haq Khairabadi, Yogendra Shukla, Batukeshwar Dutt, Babarao Savarkar, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Sachindra Nath Sanyal, Bhai Parmanand, Sohan Singh, Subodh Roy and many more) goosebumps appeared all over the body and eyes welled up involuntarily. Their sacrifices jolted equally irrespective of their caste, creed or religion. They only sang one song in harmony “Sarfaroishi Ki Tamanna Abb Hamare Dil Mein Hai.”

Forty-five minutes show infused us with patriotism, we moved out with the mixed bag of emotions. Snoopy fretted, so much so wanting to flog David Barrie’s ghost.
I appeased her with candy and a book about freedom fighters, and myself tuned in a news channel. Regardless to say the fight on the news channels was more heinous, and many appeared to me like jailer David Barrie.

Our forces were being questioned.  Communal fissure being created to propagate 'KISSA  KURSI KA' more critical than the motherland. Coincidentally that day our Braveheart, Abhinanadan was handed over to India. The euphoria of the public was unparalleled. The whole nation was glued to the television, young men were dancing with the drums --- for a moment I thought his contribution would go to the history like freedom fighters, but the very next day he went into the oblivion and talks about ‘only trees being uprooted by our forces’ surfaced all across the news channels. They belittled the gutsy effort of our forces.
In the times, when our netas are addressing dreaded criminals as ‘JI’ and forces as ‘KYA KIYA JI?’ is it even heroic to fight for the country?

In case netas have forgotten the price tag for the freedom, and need some insight,  I think they should board a flight and visit KALA-PANI!