102 HIS MAJESTY’S OPPONENT
and Nehru, were either in prison or in exile. Eamon de Valera of Ire-
land likewise read the book with great interest, and expressed the hope
that “freedom and happiness” would come to the Indian people in the
near future.^44First LoveSubhas Chandra Bose, according to his close friend and po lit i cal asso-
ciate A. C. N. Nambiar, was a “one- idea man: singly for the in de pen-
dence of India.” “I think the only departure,” he added, “if one might
use the word ‘departure,’ was his love for Miss Schenkl; otherwise he
was completely absorbed. He was deeply in love with her, you see. In
fact, it was an enormous, intense love.”^45 This love blossomed during
1935, in Vienna and in the mountain retreats of Austria and Czecho-
slovakia. The hills and valleys of Karlsbad, Hofgastein, and Badgastein
were the only witnesses to this romantic side of Subhas’s life—a side
that remained hidden from public view. Yet no un der stand ing of his
personality and psychology can be complete without taking account of
the way in which he dealt with the tension between private joy and
public duty. The stifling social conventions of Indian society had given
him little opportunity to forge genuine friendships with women. His
shy and reticent manner with them had not helped. In the cultural
world of the anticolonial revolutionaries of Bengal, women were ideal-
ized into mother fig ures. Any romantic attachment with a woman
tended to be viewed as an unworthy distraction from ascetic devo-
tion to the motherland. In the freer atmosphere of Europe, Subhas de-
veloped real friendships with women. Most of them happened to be
married European or American women, with a broad international
outlook and an interest in India. Young and single, Emilie was differ-
ent, and what started as a working relationship soon developed into a
close personal bond.
The year 1935 was dominated by Subhas’s own illness, including ma-
jor surgery and a long drawn- out convalescence. This was aggravated
by grief at the illness and death of loved ones. Before he could address
his own health prob lems, he felt compelled to travel to Gland, in Swit-
zerland, to par tic i pate in a memorial ceremony for Vithalbhai Patel.^46