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

say is correct. For when the Mahatma is seen standing outside the prison wall and near its
gate, it is precisely the time when he is released after running his sentence. He thinks of
coming out and showing himself on the day when the Government lets him out of the
prison.
A young Chinaman was later put in a cell near my own on the charge of selling
cocaine. He danced, sang and frolicked for he imagined that within two days he was to be
free. I had not the good fortune like him of cherishing that hope.
Does a shot wound you?
The Chinaman knew the name of Sun-Yat-Sen. As I talked to him I knew that he
was not unfamiliar with my name. He could not believe his eyes when I told him that I
was that Savarkar of whom he had heard. How could a big man be contained in the
ordinary cell of a prison! His idea of a big man was that he must be a man of abnormal
size. Ordinary people have always similar notions of greatness and when they see that the
great man before them does not come up to their notion of him, they are often shocked
and disillusioned. So the Chinaman put me the question, "Does a gun-shot pierce your
body?" I answered, "No doubt, it will." And a deep disappointment was visible on his
face.
Another sepoy asked me, "How many days and nights were you swimming in the
sea?" Of course he meant at Marseilles. I answered, "What of days and nights? I swam
only for ten minutes before I reached the shore across." This reply gave a rude shock to
his admiration for me, and to the miraculous powers he attributed to me. If I had bragged
and lied to him, he would not have received any shock, but the barest truth that I told him
seemed to put him out. My habit of reporting correctly what happened at Marseilles had
lost me many friendships in life and their reverence for me.
Within a week I was despatched from Calcutta elsewhere. I did not know to what
prison I was being taken. In the train I had the same experience that I had on my way
from the Silver Jail to Port Blair. People used to put in my compartment fruit and
newspapers from station to station and quietly went away. Sometime they would gather
in large crowds to have a look at me. From the scenes I witnessed as I passed through, I
could not help thinking that the news of my departure from Calcutta must have been
communicated abroad by wire. As our train reached Nagpur and beyond, I saw
newspapers with big headlines announcing my release from the Andamans and
expressing their joy for the event. I also saw leaders and articles written upon it. A person
sitting on a bench behind me in the same compartment had held a newspaper open and
was reading it. He held it deliberately in a manner that I may also be able to see it. The
writing was in Marathi and the Anglo-Indian officer in charge could not make any head
or tail of the writing. The impression gathered from what I read in the newspaper was