120 HIS MAJESTY’S OPPONENT
misun der stand ing that had arisen between them over Sri Aurobindo’s
renunciation of the world was removed. Dilip was “shocked to see his
emaciated frame, though he looked more spiritual than ever.”^104 Subhas
decided that he would spend a few months with Dr. and Mrs. Dharma-
vir, whom Subhas and Dilip had known during their student days in
En gland, at the hill resort of Dalhousie in Punjab. En route to Dalhou-
sie from Calcutta in late April, Bose stopped for a few days in Allaha-
bad to meet Mahatma Gandhi, and spent another ten days in La-
hore, the cap ital of Punjab. By May 12, he was ensconced in Dalhousie,
where he felt completely at home with the Dharmavirs, just as he had
in their Lancashire home years before.^105 He was very affectionate to-
ward their daughters Sita and Leila, and supported Sita in her plans to
marry a fellow doctor named Santosh Sen, whom he had known in
Austria. In his letters to Sita, who was away from Dalhousie, he gave
full vent to both his lighthearted humor and his profound humane-
ness, as he skillfully persuaded her parents to nurture the young wom-
an’s aspirations in her personal life and professional career.^106
Dalhousie, situated high in the Himalayan range, did not allow Sub-
has to forget the Austrian Alps. On May 27, he urged Emilie to write a
few lines to him ev ery week. “Have you forgotten me?” he asked in Ger-
man in the middle of this letter in En glish. “Why do you write so sel-
dom? I wait for your letter— don’t you know?” At about this time, he
expressed his emotions in a letter written in block letters:
I have been longing to write to you for some time past—but you can
easily understand how dif fi cult it was to write to you about my feelings.
I just want to let you know now that I am exactly what I was before,
when you knew me. Not a single day passes that I do not think of you.
You are with me all the time. I cannot possibly think of anyone else in
this world.... I cannot tell you how lonely I have been feeling all these
months and how sorrowful. Only one thing could make me happy—
but I do not know if that is possible. However, I am thinking of it day
and night and praying to God to show me the right path.He asked Emilie to reply in simple German. On June 3, 1937, he asked
her in German: “Gracious lady, what will you do in the future?” A week