POESY : 'TIS A LONG-LOST LOVE

'tis a long-lost love of yesteryears,

Crossing a century and more.
'tis a love, lost for so long,
Fading far in misty dreams
And yet, clear I remember.

The setting sun in its flaming hues
Charring my heart for good,
Sweeping waters of tidal times
Wrenching the love-locks free,
Sundering blossoming bonds,
They've carried her,
Carried her far away
Whither I know not.
But I remain to see,
See through the mist of times
Where fresh perchance
A bud so new
Has burst the bonds to forge,
Forge a fresher bond.
Or, perhaps, the dewy morn
Is shorn of fruit
Though springtime is
Alive everywhere.

My day is lost, 'tis evensong
And the birds must perch
In their leafy nests
And the boat sail off
With the rushing tide
To shores unknown,
Never to come this way.
Yesteryears of sunshine gone,
Lunar moods, stellar shine,
Melted into memory fine,
Wafer-thin mind's watery mark,
Rippling through subliminal streams,
Setting my soul on fire.

And here am I
The charred remains
Of a blossoming dream
That broke midstream
In patient wait
For my love long-lost
To set the dream aright.

The eve draws in,
The birds return,
The sky darkens,
The moon is up,
The shadowy night
Envelopes all
Save my hope
Of my love's return
Before I set afloat.

O Lord! a hundred years,
Is that not a long, long lapse
For the heart to fail
To feel its pulse,
For the soul to fall
Into oblivion
Of long-lost times,
Of Sunday chimes
Ushering the wakeful dawn?

Sleep my soul,
My love slumber,
In turbulent tide
My thoughts lumber
Sinking in to truth.
'tis a watchful dream,
A conscious stream,
A love-lost summer's
Bright sunbeam,
Autumn eve's
August form
That sunders law,
Dissolves all norm,
In icy chill
The cosmic thrill
Sweeping through
Every dale and hill,
Till springtime new
Freshens all
And blossoming buds
Send forth the call,
And the cuckoo sings
Her heart's delight
From eve to morn
And morn to night,
And all that clings
To this earthly face,
Melts to nought
Sans a trace.

The deeds are done,
The play's undone,
All that were
Have sunk to none,
Whence we sprang,
Thence we sink,
From love sublime
To the love-lost brink,
Broken, shattered, smashed the dream
In Knowledge, Existence, Bliss Supreme.

Composed by Sugata Bose

YET AGAIN I DECLARE MYSELF AS NOT BELONGING TO NETAJI'S EXTENDED FAMILY TO CLARIFY CONFUSION AND ESTABLISH SELF-HONOUR

Abhishek Sanyal : Take this as a good compliment and appreciation for the noble work which you are doing. People are feeling that you are the successor of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. That is good encouragement to carry on your work. Please do not be angry for it.

Sugata Bose : To rely on falsity for doing good work is a contradiction in terms and productive of no good ultimately, for nobility of being enjoins one to be truthful, and to live a falsified existence can have no kinship with it. I neither crave for encouragement from delusive fanaticism regarding imaginary familial associations nor do I feel angry at such gullibility or even purposeful pursuit of it. I simply like to keep my record straight and the honour of my own lineage intact, for I feel beholden to my parents and ancestors up the line for my very terrestrial existence, a debt which I will forever bear them but can never ever repay. My sense of familial honour prompts me to respond thus. May God bless all those who reside in clarified thinking as to my lineage and identity and all those, as well, who continue to harbour wrong notions about the same, which simply get by the day increasing number of adherents despite my pronounced protestations!

Bande Mataram!

BHARAT RATNA, FOURTH UPDATE : FRIENDS, UNITE ! YOUR ACTIVE SUPPORT IS VITAL TO THE SUCCESS OF THE MOVEMENT

FRIENDS, UNITE ! YOUR ACTIVE SUPPORT IS VITAL TO THE SUCCESS OF THE MOVEMENT

2 MAY 2018 — My dear countrymen and friends across the globe,

The signature campaign needs active support much beyond individual lending of a signature. We solicit all our sympathisers to sign, share and spread the word around. Facebook groups, pages and other like social media networking may be used to garner support for the campaign.

The revolutionary movement for freedom ranged over four decades of the twentieth century and threw up among a galaxy of stars four exceedingly luminous stellar beings in the form of Bagha Jatin, Rash Behari Bose, Masterda Surya Sen and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Of these a cloud of uncertainty hangs over the fate of our supreme liberator, Netaji. The other three have lived and died gloriously for their motherland but their memory is fading by the day in the minds of the modern generation, thanks to continuous official neglect of their contributions to the freedom struggle. It is here that you come in, friends, to reset the course of the historical narrative right and bring to light what is the most luminous chapter of our freedom struggle.

The unalloyed love they had for their motherland, the unparalleled courage of conviction they exhibited in meeting the Raj eye to eye and the unbridled aggression they showed thereof in striking hardest at the heart of the British imperial machinery, ought to have etched the memory of the revolutionaries permanently in the core consciousness of the people of free India. But, alas, quite the reverse has been their lot. They are a forgotten lot of heroes whose very names are being slowly obliterated from the surface consciousness of the nation by the exigencies of the times and the malefic intent of the powers that be. So, it is your foremost duty, your great opportunity to do something worthwhile for free India even as the martyrs to her freedom had done with their life's blood and toil to liberate her from foreign fetters.

With this I end my note, hoping for a grand response from you all, a collective effort whose might shall re-script history to undo the damages of the past and steer our nation in the direction these valiant sons of eternal India had dreamt of, even as they laughing walked up the scaffold to kiss the noose and fly to freedom through ethereal time and space. 

Thanking you,
Yours in the motherland,
Sugata Bose.

Bande Mataram ! Jai Hind!

BHARAT RATNA FOR RASH BEHARI BOSE, MASTERDA SURYA SEN AND BAGHA JATIN ... 1

My dear countrymen and friends across the globe,

This Petition is crucial to us who are working for the rewriting of the correct narrative of the freedom movement and for the resurrection of the heroes of the armed struggle for freedom from oblivion imposed on them by the perfidious powers that be. Our motherland will only then rise to eminence and strength again when these valiant soldiers of the soul are duly honoured and their lives laid before the citizens for them to stand in awe of their supreme sacrifice for the liberation of their motherland. It is, thus, imperative that everyone should come forward, casting aside petty differences of opinion and individual stance, and sign this Petition for the larger good of our country.

Is there any doubt in anybody's mind that these three preeminent revolutionaries supremely deserve the Bharat Ratna? I can anticipate the objection in the minds of many ardent devotees and followers who will posit the view that these liberators of our motherland were far above the reach of any accolade or decoration that free India can possibly offer them, for they were the makers of free India. They will say that the Government of India ought to first award the Bharat Ratna to Mahatma Gandhi before contemplating awarding it to Rash Behari Bose, Masterda Surya Sen and Bagha Jatin. And they have a point at that. There can no reason for making Gandhi so sacrosanct a personality that he cannot be given the Bharat Ratna. After all, is Gandhi greater than Bharatvarsha that his status will be lowered by offering him the nation's highest civilian award? Certainly not. This sort of deification of a freedom fighter or whosoever of however exalted a status is contrary to the basic tenets of democracy upon which stands the edifice of free India, and it is this sort of attitude that fosters the dynastic dispensations Indians are so vociferously against, apparently. Thus, applying a like logic, there ought to be in principle no opposition to the trio of Rash Behari, Surya Sen and Bagha Jatin receiving free India's highest honour.

Pursuing the earlier line of thinking, if this means that Gandhi must be awarded the Bharat Ratna first before the resistors of the Petition withdraw their stated opposition, it will sadly be a blow to the movement. To award Gandhi the Bharat Ratna atop all the honours and accolades he regularly receives on an official basis from the Government of India will be to feed a fully-fed person while starving people die for want of food. Instead, we, as responsible citizens, must stop deifying Gandhi and bring him down from his supposed superhuman status to face our unbiased and impartial scrutiny as to his contributions to the freedom movement. Thus shall we do a better service to the nation by an objective analysis of Gandhi instead of this negative clamouring for awarding him the Bharat Ratna which will serve no purpose of ours but will surely further delay the dispensation of justice to our heroes. After all, did the awarding of the Bharat Ratna to Nehru do any good to the cause of our heroes? It did not. So, we should not bother our heads anymore about Gandhi's receiving the Bharat Ratna which, for their purposes of maintenance of the soon-to-crumble supposed superhuman status of the supposed Mahatma, the Government will never accede to.

The Bharat Ratna, if awarded to Rash Behari Bose, Masterda Surya Sen and Bagha Jatin, will bring the limelight back on them, focus national and international attention on the trio which will enthuse our countrymen and kindred souls across the world to take up the study of their lives and profit thereby. For us there will be the great gain of at last getting three perfect patriots to guide and inspire us in our national life after the seven decades of sufferance at the hands of leaders who have virtually sold our best interests for their private gain. The resurrection of the trio will set in a domino effect in bringing to the fore all other revolutionaries who have literally been wiped out of the national narrative post-independence. And this will be the great gain from the success of the project our Petition attempts to serve.

In conclusion, therefore, I exhort all to cast aside differences and combine forces for the victory of our stated objective as enunciated in the Petition for Bharat Ratna for the three leading lights of the armed struggle for freedom.

Thanking you,
I remain ever yours in the motherland,
Sugata Bose.

COMMENTS : BHARAT RATNA PETITION (EDITED AND EXPANDED) ... IDEA, COURTESY, PRITHWINDRA MUKHERJEE

Sugata Bose The Bharat Ratna Petition has now been expanded to include Rash Behari Bose, Masterda Surya Sen and Bagha Jatin. Please support.Umasankar Mandal I do support, sir.Debaprasad Bhattacharya I signed and shared in FBPrabir Chakraborty SignedKalpana Sarkar I strongly supportRishi Keswani Sure sirJyotish Mondal Obosoi.... Kintu ank agei dewa jete parto.... Dei ni.Abhishek Sanyal It is always to be , " Better Late Than Never." Isn't it ? India is for all Indians like you and me. If any Indian takes a noble initiative like this then please support it like another fellow noble Indian. This is our only chance to give a proper recognition to these great freedom fighters and make our future generations know the history better.Jyotish Mondal They're freedom fighter.... Not to be like gandhi..... Here, politics r included... Sunechi, jarai oshro tulechilo tader naki oporadhi bola hoto R eta gandhi bolto,,,,,tahle tar sorkar ki kre tader somman krbe, krle to gandhir adorso dholoy pore mite jbe.... Eta manun to,,j.... without fought we couldn't get freedom..... I salute him freedom fighter's.... JaihindAbhishek Sanyal It is truly a great idea to include Masterda Surya Sen and Bagha Jatin in the Bharat Ratna Petition. Thank you for the great idea.Saroj Upadhayay jara debe tara e desher itihas jne naSoumyakanti Chakraborty They were martyrs. I have huge respect for them. But the Bharat Ratna was never meant to honour these people. They would be better honoured by building monuments in their name. The Bharat Ratna is meant to honour a certain body of work and public service that impacted the lives of millions of Indians. Like for instance, Visweshwariah or Ambedkar. As great as their sacrifices were, they did not impact the lives of millions of Indians. I understand that I'm going to be heavily trolled for saying this, but it's how I felt and I'm just putting it out here :)Prithwindra Mukherjee ARE NOT MONUMENTS QUITE COMPATIBLE WITH BHARAT RATNA ?

Sugata Bose You have an original way of thinking and I welcome you to that. I can see your point of view, that is, the angle form which you are saying what you are saying. However, the idea behind this campaign is as much the honouring of these heroes of the freedom struggle --- who, at any rate, were far higher in stature than any national award can make them appear to be, for they were the very builders of this nation by unshackling it of colonial bonds, and, hence, the very founders of everything worthwhile in the modern State of India including the awards that are the point of contention here --- as the bringing into focus the lives and attainments of these seminal armed revolutionaries to lend a potent force to rectify the partial and incorrect narrative of the freedom struggle that posits Gandhian non-violent resistance as the overwhelming cause of the colonists leaving India for good. Hence, you see, while not endorsing your point, I do appreciate your individual perspective, nonetheless, and welcome it, too, I still exhort you to join the movement, sign the Petition and do everything that your conscience permits to help bolster the movement we have launched. @Soumyakanti Chakraborty.Manotosh Banerjee Support with Full heart and Reasons.Hironmoy Chatterjee Full support Sir. Gradually to include all who sacrificed their lives for our MOTHER LAND.Prodip Banerjee Yes...they must get itNarayanan Gandhi Bharat Ratna for Rashbehari Bose and his second-in-command, A.M. Nair.Sumit Chandra If they are to be given then the award needs to be withdrawn from Nehru and gandis.Prabir Ghosh Of course I strongly support it. You are absolutely right. Why they haven't got it ! Why several Government has ignored it ! Ashtonishing.Prithwindra Mukherjee Sincere thanks to all the well-wishing friends of India.Prithwindra Mukherjee Sugata Babu, please suggest an easy way to sign the petition. Thanks.Sugata Bose I thinking the signing process is a fixed one and one has to follow the step-by-step method as per the directions provided on the Petition page.Prithwindra Mukherjee , Have you contacted Sj Bijoy Nag, editor of Jayasree ? He can secure a good number of signatures.Sugata Bose No, I have not yet contacted him. I will speak to him soon, though, to solicit his support.Abhishek Sanyal We are almost 1250 but we need a lot more. What I am seeing is that Sugata Babu that your posts used to have so many followers on facebook. However at the time of signing a noble petition like this the same people have disappeared. This is really interesting.Sugata Bose We cannot combine. This is the simple truth.

Abhishek Sanyal Sugata Bose The craziest replies which I got from a person is that, "Will I get God by doing this? Never ever send this to me again. " However it had earlier seemed to me that this person is a devotee of Swami Vivekananda and admirer of Netaji. I was even criticized by the same person for my positive views on Gandhi. Then I saw this response to the petition. How strange the psychology of people isn't it ? Anyways I am always positive with the response this petition has got. Maybe not from all the so called supporters of Netaji but this is a great learning curve to evaluate the psychology of people.Sugata Bose Abhishek Sanyal Good analysis.Chandan Sinha Mr.Sugata Sir, is Bharat Ratan award for those great iconic heroes necessary ??By demanding such award are we not equating with Rajiv Gandhi,MGR,ETC.???
If u think I am wrong in my logic,the plz forgive me.Sugata Bose You, sure, have a point there and a pertinent point, too. Kindly read up on my continuous series of essays in defence of the Petition. You may visit the Petition link and read there the several updates patiently and you will see where we stand on this issue. @Chandan Sinha

BHARAT RATNA FOR RASH BEHARI BOSE, MASTERDA SURYA SEN AND BAGHA JATIN (EDITED AND EXPANDED)

Sub : Awarding of Bharat Ratna to Rash Behari Bose, Masterda Surya Sen and Bagha Jatin

My dear countrymen and friends across the globe,

Today, I come before you with an appeal to support me in a very dear cause which is explained below. Do read through and pull in your might to make this patriotic project a superb success.

Rash Behari Bose, Masterda Surya Sen and Bagha Jatin are three preeminent Indian freedom fighters whose seminal contributions to the freedom struggle have not yet been properly recognised in India. With the awarding of the Bharat Ratna to them, posthumously, this neglect of three of the brightest stars of our freedom movement will be righted to an extent and their study encouraged in India and across the world for the benefit of all. It will also help resurrect the true narrative of our freedom struggle and rescue from increasing obscurity the role of armed revolution in securing eventual freedom from the British.

Indo-Japanese relations will be getting a fresh fillip and sustenance through revival of interest in this redoubtable revolutionary, Rash Behari Bose, who spent the bulk of his lifetime in Japan after a daring escape from his motherland, India, to avoid the clutches of the British police for his revolutionary activities. He had masterminded the Hardinge Attack in 1912, dubbed in history as the Delhi Conspiracy, had led the aborted Ghadar Revolution in 1915 and eventually escaped by sea to Japan in the guise of a P.N. Tagore. Here in Japan he was hounded by the Japanese Police for several years before he settled down as a Japanese citizen, married a Japanese girl, and kept at his revolutionary plotting to end British rule in India. Eventually, at the height of the Second World War, in 1942, he founded the Indian Independence League and the Indian National Army whose reins he handed over the following year to Subhas Chandra Bose. The INA assault, thereafter, against the British Raj catalysed the end of colonial rule in India.

The armed insurrection led by Bagha Jatin at Balasore in 1915 is a glorious chapter in the annals of our struggle for independence. Had it not been for internal treachery, the revolution that had been planned with German arms' help would have put paid to the British Empire in India in 1915. Bagha Jatin, along with his associates, died a martyr's death but, even in failure to liberate India, left behind a legacy for future revolutionaries to gain inspiration from and carry on the armed struggle for independence.

In 1930 Masterda Surya Sen and his young associates led an assault on the British Raj in Chittagong, raiding the armoury and liberating the city for three days. On the night of 18 April the revolutionaries took control of the Dampara Police Armoury, the Pahartali Auxiliary Force Armoury, the Telephone and the Telegraph Centre, and uprooted the railway tracks at the Laksam Junction to disconnect Chittagong from the rest of Bengal.They hoisted the Indian National Flag over Chittagong, cut off communication lines of the British Government with the city and effectively ended British rule there for 72 hours.

In the famous Battle of Jalalabad that followed on 22 April, Surya Sen and his Indian Republican Army valiantly fought the British Army for an entire day before dispersing in the dark of the night after the British troops had departed at dusk, not risking an encounter with the revolutionaries atop the hill in the dark. 55 revolutionaries had held guard on the Jalalabad Hills with musket rifles and repulsed for a day a large contingent of British troops armed with Lewis sub-machine guns. The British forces met with fierce fighting from the revolutionaries who beat them back twice before suffering even the first casualty. But musket guns of the revolutionaries proved no match for the Lewis sub-machine guns of the British army and by nightfall 80 British troops and 12 revolutionaries had fallen.

The rest of the soldiers of the Indian Republican Army escaped to different locations. Some were apprehended and some killed in encounters with the British police. Others carried on more armed attacks over the next couple of years before the entire lot was liquidated. Surya Sen lived in multiple disguise for three years before a traitorous relative handed him over to the British Police. Sen was hanged to death on 12 January, 1934 after being brutalised in incarceration hours before his hanging.

These three episodes of the revolutionary movement of the freedom struggle may, thus, be seen as the three phases of a single symphony beginning with Balasore in 1915, carrying through to Chittagong in 1930 and climaxing in the INA assault in the period 1943-45. These were not unconnected incidents but were the parts, vibrant and living, of an organic whole, whose pulse, now feeble, now vigorous, kept beating till our motherland was freed.

We, as a people, must come together to restore the memory of the life and achievements of these heroic figures of our freedom struggle whose epic efforts to free India spanned over four decades inside India and outside India and led to the eventual liberation of our motherland.

I exhort you all to join this crusade to pay homage to three of our greatest revolutionaries. Please sign this petition and do your bit to resurrect the memory of these heroes of seminal ideas, sterling character and supreme sacrifice. In it lies our national good.

Thanking you,
Yours in the motherland,
Sugata Bose

P.S. :

Comments :

Prithwindra Mukherjee Most constructive petition towards rectifying who's who in the history of India's armed struggle for freedom. Let us congratulate Sugata Bose for this noble initiative.

REVOLUTIONARIES : A REFLECTION

When I compare the armed revolutionaries like Ram Prasad Bismil, Chandresekhar Azad, Ashfaqullah Khan, Sachindranath Sanyal and others with the votaries of non-violence, I find that the latter are no match for the former in terms of patriotic fervour and pure burning love for the motherland. The revolutionaries were real men, armed in sincere aspiration to drive out the British from the motherland, and their sublime sacrifice has no parallels in the annals of the freedom struggle. Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki, Kartar Singh Sarabha and Bhagat Singh, Jatin Das and Batukeshwar Dutta, Sukhdeva and Rajguru, Masterda and Bagha Jatin, Rash Behari Bose and Netaji, where will you find their equals in love for the motherland in the whole of the freedom movement? They were simply nonpareil.

Bande Mataram!