THE JOY THAT IS JAYANTI RAKSHIT, GRANDNIECE OF NETAJI, AS SHE WALKS DOWN MEMORY LANE
The best part of this interview, other than the plethora of facts, personal and familial, revealed herein is the sheer transparency and sincerity of the interviewee as she goes about, as if inspired, unto unravelling layers of the story in her absorbed and exquisitely restrained way. The depth of reflection of the interviewee is immaculate and, despite interventions at times by the interviewer, the spell remains unbroken right till the end when it breaks with the termination of the talk.
It has been a meditative exercise for me as I visualised the great escape in vivid detail from a secondary source who had heard it from a primary witness of the epic episode, her experience during her stay and travels in South-east Asia and later in Myanmar and her disappointment at not having been able to elicit much information from eye-witnesses in places other than Myanmar, and, finally, her stance as to the Uttar Pradesh angle to the entire narrative of Netaji's disappearance.
The remarkable feature of this interview is the exquisite culture of the interviewee, her sophistication amidst transparent simplicity and her forthrightness and rectitude that cannot but impress the viewer and draw him or her to this endearing grandniece of Netaji. There is no attempt on her part to convince any with her point of view as she remains content to place before the audience facts that she is privy to, and this she does in a curious admixture of restrained emotion and dispassionate objectivity. Her humility, simplicity, straightforwardness and guilelessness touches us with what one feels inclined to call 'the touch of truth'.
May God bless this sweet emissary of the softest memories of the hero that in sadness sinks us into the fathomless depths of the mystery that is yet to unfold !
Written by Sugata Bose
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