One Man and a World at War 189laced European shoes for the long journey. Once Dwijen signaled from
a room upstairs that there were no government agents or passers- by in
front of the house, Subhas kissed his niece Ila goodbye. It was a moon-
lit night. Aurobindo, carrying the bedroll, was followed by Subhas and
Sisir; they hugged the inner wall of the long corridor as they tiptoed
their way down the back stairs to the car. Subhas sat quietly in the left
rear. Sisir took the driver’s seat (on the right), started the engine, and
drove the Wanderer BLA 7169 away from 38/2 Elgin Road, as he had
done on so many past occasions. The lights in Subhas’s bedroom were
kept burning for another hour.^17
The Wanderer went through the gate, turned right, then took an-
other immediate right southward onto Allenby Road, avoiding the cor-
ner between Elgin Road and Woodburn Road. Soon, Sisir turned left to
join Lansdowne Road and began their northerly journey. As Calcutta
slept, uncle and nephew sped along Lower Circular Road, Sealdah, and
Harrison Road, then crossed Howrah Bridge over the River Hooghly.
Now they were beyond the city’s precincts. The conversation between
uncle and nephew turned to the Irish anticolonial struggle, from which
Subhas had taken inspiration. Pouring Sisir hot coffee from a thermos,
Subhas asked whether his nephew knew about Eamon de Valera’s es-
cape from Lincoln Prison in 1919. Sisir knew that de Valera had made a
wax imprint of the key to his cell, and that a key had been delivered to
him hidden in a cake. But he also knew that Michael Collins, the other
great hero of the Irish struggle, had thought he had lost the key to the
outer gate at a critical moment. Fortunately, the key was retrieved and
Collins was able to help his friend “Dev” to break free.^18 In the midst of
the discussion of de Valera’s escape, Sisir had to brake to a sudden stop
at a closed railway crossing. An over flow of petrol stalled the engine,
and there were a few anxious minutes before the Wanderer started up
again.
Sarat’s fears proved groundless: the drive through the French enclave
of Chandernagore was uneventful, and no policemen barred the car’s
prog ress. Had uncle and nephew been stopped anywhere, Subhas was
to pretend to be the Muslim chauffeur who was allowing the young
owner to drive the car. But the trip was unimpeded by any sort of hu-
man interference. As Sisir was dashing along at high speed through the