मेरा आजीवन कारावास / माझी जन्मठेप (स्वातंत्र्यवीर सावरकर - काले पानी का ऐतिहासिक संस्मरण)

of Barrack No. 6, close by. So they removed me there early in the morning In a sense, I
was delighted with the change of quarters. For there I saw some of the political prisoners
and they could occasionally exchange a few words with me. I entered the cell and found a
Burmese prisoner put to work with me on the same oil-mill. He was there, I was told, to
lighten my work Were not two to a yoke better, any way, than one? But I must not, they
insisted, in any way, slacken; I must push the handle and go round the mill continuously,
unfailing and infesting. I had been better treated than any other political prisoner but it
was 'Kolu' after all. The labour on it, however lightened, was more than enough to
exhaust one who was not habituated to the task. I put on the barest piece of loin-cloth
round my waist. My work began precisely on the hour of six and it continued unbroken
till ten. The continuous round gave me a sensation of dizziness. My body ached all
through, and, as I lay upon the plank of a bed for rest and sleep, I felt feverish so that I
could not sleep soundly as I did before. Wake up I must the next morning and resume the
work. So it went on for a week, and I had not finished my quota. One day Mr. Barrie
came to my room and said loftily, "A prisoner in the next room gives me his daily quota
of thirty pounds of coconut oil, at 2 p. m. sharp, every afternoon. You have worked till
evening and still you fall short of two pounds You must be ashamed of it " I replied,
"Yes, you are right; I must be ashamed of it. But when? If I had been inured to hard
physical labour like him from my early childhood. Each one to his work, that I know too
well Let him compose a sonnet in an hour. I will do it for you in half an hour. You will
not, on that account, be justified in crying shame upon that prisoner; you cannot say that
he had shirked the work He can well retort, 'No body taught me the art of poetry in my
childhood Hence you cannot expect me to do it now.’ You employ in your office
unlettered peasants, robbers and dacoits for writing work If they do not speak fine
English like you, surely enough. you do not blame them. And they are not ashamed of
that drawback. Equally I need not be ashamed if I cannot turn out as much work from the
oil-mill as my next-door prisoner does. Those really are to be ashamed of it who yoke
intellectuals like us to the oil-mill, and employ hodmen to do the work of a desk. They
fail both ways, for they do not get the best out of either."
Generous friends come to my help
While I was turning the oil-mill, one or two of the political prisoners, my
neighbours, who could slip in unnoticed always came to help me from time to tame.
Some of them washed my clothes, even with my protests to the contrary, though they had
more than enough of their own hardships to bear. And they cleaned and washed my
drinking pot and my dining plate as well. The petty officer and the Jamadar often
reproved them for it, and even beat them occasionally; but like true friends they helped
me on in my daily work. I tried many times to stop them. I washed their clothes without
their knowledge, which, when they learnt, gave them exceeding pain. They laterally went
down on their knees and besought me to refrain from it. When I realised that my not
allowing them to do my work, and my doing their work on the sly, both harassed their
mend, I thought it the better part to let them do what they liked. On the whole, I found all
of them affectionately disposed towards me Their selfless devotion for me touched my
heart Sometimes, there was a regular rivalry among them to serve me, and it went the