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

the boiling vessel along with the greens. When it was served out to us, sometime we
discovered in the vegetable boiled pieces of these reptiles. But the sauce to these strange
dishes was furnished by the spicy words of Mr. Barrie. He praised the greens, mixed with
these pieces of boiled flesh, to the skies and interspersed that praise with showers of
abuse on us who objected to it.
Whenever we lifted up these pieces of centipedes and serpents from the boiled
vegetables and showed them to Mr. Barrie, he would exclaim, "O, it tastes very well." If
we complained to the Superintendent, he would say ditto to Mr. Barrie. We had, then, no
other alternative than to throw out the pieces and eat the vegetables. For there was
nothing else on our plates to eat bread or rice with. If we went without food, that was
going to give us no respite from our routine work. Mr. Barrie knew this too well and
would, therefore, not care. Occasionally, the discussion between me and my friends on
this matter brought some condemnation to Mr. Barrie. On one such occasion he came to
me and sought to pacify me with these words: "Oh Savarkar, don't you think much of
these scoundrels." "If you so choose", he added, "I will ask the man to prepare it
separately for you. But do not expose its defects before them. They are no better than
beasts. They will override me in no time. Thousands before them have eaten these boiled
centipedes, but not a single death has occurred as its result."
It seemed that Mr. Barrie would improve matters only after a fatality had occurred
in the jail in consequence of such eating. He had another card up his sleeves to silence us
in this matter. When he saw that neither cajoling nor threat were to stop us from protests
and complaints against this kind of food and other mismanagement in this prison, he
would throw the blame of it all on the Hindu warder or petty officer.
Hindu Jamadar the cause of it
Whenever we lodged the complaint that there was kerosene in the conjee or the
vegetables had no oil in them, and, perhaps, the oil was stolen instead of being put in the
boiled vegetable, Mirza Khan used to defend himself before Mr. Barrie that the mischief
was all the doing of the Hindu petty officer, and not he but the Hindu Officer was guilty
of the offence. Mr. Barrie, of course, supported Mirza Khan and added that he shall
have to proceed against the Hindu petty officer. In this situation, not wishing to make a
scape-goat of an innocent person and knowing that the decision would be his dismissal
and supercession by a Mussulman Jamadar, we preferred to remain silent and not press
the matter any further. At least, that was my attitude, all along, in such cases in my
prison-life.
Later on, these complaints began to produce their desired effect and the prisoners
got better food than they had ever done before. This was the result of continuous and
relentless vigilance and agitation. In five or six years, a distinct improvement had taken