188 HIS MAJESTY’S OPPONENT
rubbing off the initials “SCB” and inscribing “MZ” on it with Chinese
ink. On January 16, he had the car ser viced and returned home early
from medical school. That evening, he had a conversation with his fa-
ther on the lit- up terrace of Woodburn Park: Sarat was worried that
Subhas and Sisir might be stopped by the police in the French enclave
of Chandernagore. Sisir had dinner early, with his mother sitting qui-
etly by. She gave him some money for the journey and said with a faint
smile, “God knows what you people are up to.” After managing to load
the luggage unnoticed, Sisir drove across from Woodburn Park to Elgin
Road at about 8:30 p.m. and parked the car near the rear entrance of
the house.^16
In order to deceive the British, Subhas and Sisir unfortunately had to
deceive family members as well, including Subhas’s elderly mother. Si-
sir found his Rangakakababu changing into a silk dhoti and chaddar, in
preparation for a ritualistic dinner that would be served on a marble
plate and bowls and eaten in the presence of his mother and other fam-
ily members. Subhas had told them of his pious resolution to go into
religious seclusion for a period of time, and he was not to be disturbed.
Henceforth, food was to be served from behind a screen. Meanwhile,
Subhas had scribbled various notes on small pieces of paper, to be
handed to visitors depending on the nature of their business. He had
also written a number of postdated letters, mostly to comrades in
prison, to be mailed in sequence after his departure. “I shall be back in
jail very soon, because there are two cases going on against me,” he
wrote to Hari Vishnu Kamath, expecting that the letter, dated Janu-
ary 18, 1941, would be opened by police censors. The departure from
the house was delayed until the youn ger members of the family had
retired for the night. Earlier in the day, Sisir’s cousin Aurobindo had
grown suspicious and had been let into the conspiracy, but Subhas was
unwilling to expand the circle of confidants any further.
At last, around 1:35 a.m., the coast was deemed clear. Subhas had
changed into his disguise as “Muhammad Ziauddin.” Dressed in a long,
brown, closed- collar coat, baggy shalwars, and a black fez, he wore the
gold wire- rimmed glasses that he had stopped using more than a de-
cade before. He felt uncomfortable in the Kabuli chappals (Afghani
sandals) that Sisir had bought for him, so he chose to wear his own