Subhas Chandra Bose was under house arrest, yet he pulled out a daring escape from his Elgin Road residence in Calcutta to Germany via Pakistan, Afghanistan, Russia...
One of Kolkata's most famous addresses is a palatial Bengali mansion that was home to Subhas Chandra Bose.
Built by his lawyer father in 1909 whose name continues to be etched at the front entrance, the home still has the original marble plaque bearing the address.
There is a prevailing serenity as you go past the gate into the walkway where a parked vintage German-made Wanderer car takes your breath away.
The car is placed inside a glass enclosure and has been preserved with utmost care because of the storied journey it made more than 80 years ago.
It was the last time Subhas Chandra Bose sat in the family car as he made his escape from the British that January night in 1941 never to return to India again.
His 21-year-old nephew Sisir Kumar Bose drove non-stop to Gomoh in present day Jharkhand, 300 kms away, where Netaji boarded the Kalka Mail to Delhi on the first leg of his Great Escape to Germany via present day Pakistan, Afghanistan, Russia to seek outside help to free India.
Both the train and station were subsequently named after Netaji.
The car was restored on the 75th anniversary of the Great Escape and is serviced once a week.
The house was dedicated to the nation in 1947 by Netaji's elder brother freedom fighter Sarat Chandra Bose, and set up as a museum and research centre by Sisir Kumar Bose in 1961.
At the time of his great escape, Netaji, Bengal's most famous revolutionary, was under house arrest by the British.
The house was always under the watch of guards and secret police. Netaji did not step out of his bedroom for weeks as he planned the escape and grew a beard to impersonate a Muslim insurance agent.
A wooden staircase leads to the first floor bedroom that used to be his father's before his passing. Janaki Nath Bose's imposing four-poster bed is placed near Netaji's spartan cot.
The room is kept exactly as it was when he left. His clothes, suitcases, ayurvedic medicines and Bhagavad Gita are some of his personal belongings he left behind.
One can imagine Netaji quietly leaving the room fired by the desire to free India as he tip-toed out in the dead of night.
Footprints marked outside the long balcony show the path he had taken out of the second floor bedroom to the waiting car. Looking at them makes one think about the great risks he had taken in undertaking that long and perilous journey.
The museum also has the dhoti, chadar and bowl that he used on his last meal that night.
The adjoining room belonged to elder brother Sarat Chandra Bose, a barrister trained in England who not only gave up a thriving legal profession to join the freedom movement, but donated his personal wealth to the cause.
The selfless commitment that our freedom fighters nurtured for India is admirable. One is simply dwarfed by their colossal accomplishments.
The rooms display articles and furniture belonging to the family and uniforms worn by Netaji. On the walls are framed letters written by the brothers where the thoughts of India's freedom dominate the contents of every letter.
In one of the letters in Bengali, Netaji informs his family about his German wife and daughter. She was only four weeks old when Netaji left Europe on a three-month submarine voyage to Japan.
A photograph of him with the crew of the Japanese submarine is among the many pictures in the museum, along with the last photo taken in Saigon.
The house is the best documentation of Netaji's 48-year-old life covering his role as a freedom fighter in India, his travels abroad bolstering help because he believed non violence was not enough to rid India of the British and his command of the Indian National Army.
Today on his birth anniversary, we honour the towering legacy of Netaji, the man Gandhi called 'The Prince among Patriots' -- and whom Bose gave the title 'Father of the Nation'.
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com
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