96 HIS MAJESTY’S OPPONENT
and gave the impression of a collapsing state. It possessed neither “the
romance of the East” nor “the material prosperity of the West.” The
Balkan countries were “very interesting.” The movements of national
self- determination in this region fascinated him. He thoroughly en-
joyed his visits to Sofia, Belgrade, and Zagreb, despite British success in
stopping the leading paper in Yugoslavia from publishing an interview
with him.^28
From the second week of June 1934, Bose settled down in Vienna,
since he had a contract from the publishing company Wishart to write
a book on the Indian struggle since 1920. In the course of looking for
clerical help with preparing the manuscript, Subhas met a woman who
would bring about a dramatic change in his personal life. Until then, he
had been immersed in the freedom struggle and had taken little inter-
est in relationships with women. “So many did love me before,” he
would write later, “but I never looked at them.”^29 Family elders, his po-
lit i cal mentor C. R. Das, and Das’s wife, Basanti Devi, had been inun-
dated with marriage proposals for Subhas, all of which he had spurned.
He was particularly indignant on one occasion when Das was offered a
large po lit i cal donation by a wealthy benefactor, if only the Desh-
bandhu would persuade Bose to marry his daughter. Another aspiring
father- in- law went further. On being told by Basanti Devi that Subhas
would probably be sent to the gallows one day, he responded that his
daughter would be proud to be Bose’s widow. Basanti Devi, who dis-
cussed the subject of women with Subhas, always maintained that her
adopted son never said he would not marry—he simply gave prece-
dence to the fight for his country’s freedom.^30 His more ardent follow-
ers thought he had taken a vow of celibacy and was determined to lead
an ascetic life until Indian in de pen dence had been won. In Europe,
Subhas managed to break free of the tyranny of these expectations.
It was June 24, 1934. A petite and pretty young woman named Emi-
lie Schenkl arrived to be interviewed for the clerical job. Born on De-
cember 26, 1910, to an Austrian Catholic family, she knew En glish,
could take dictation in shorthand, and had competent typing skills.
Jobs were scarce during the Depression. Her father, a veterinarian,
was initially somewhat reluctant to let his daughter work for a strange
Indian man, but in time her whole family—father, mother, and sister