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

conveyed in pipes and stored in the reservoir for such use. The whole body had become sticky The hair had become hard and stiffened. It was better I had not bathed in at. But I thought over again, and realised that it was to be my daily habit in this prison In London and Paris I had enjoyed the luxury of a Turkish Bath. Should I not enjoy in India the pleasure of the "Andamanish Bath", by way of change? The expiation of all my sins as a patriot and nationalist could not be done by washing in warm water and with soaps and fragrant oils and under shower- baths It has to be done in pots of sea-water drawn from the reservoir, with the mantra of the Jamadar priest: "Now dip the pot for water", repeated by him thrice, and no more. I put on my clothes and walked on till I came in front of a three-storied building of stone and mortar. It was solidly barred from top to bottom. Every floor of it had separate rooms equally barred. The building had no wood- work in it. It was entirely fire- proof. It had broad steps reaching up from one floor to another. It was all white-washed and clean without. The stair-case and the symmetry of the rooms gave it the appearance of a big, roomy mansion. And the heart delighted at the sight."This was then shawl number seven. It was here I was to stay on the top-floor, and in a room all to myself, and barred and bolted from without", I said to myself. A fine place this, me thought, I shall have free and fresh breeze to breathe in. I shall have plenty of light in it. If this tenement had been my own, I would have gone down as a rich man in my society And for four months in summer I would have used it as a pleasure-resort, with this fine green court- yard around it. If I drive away from my mind the notion that it is a prison after all, I can still be happy in it. Speaking for its use alone, it is true enough that the pleasure or the pain of it, as the Vedantist puts it, arises from the fact that it does or does not belong to me. Let me then be entirely indifferent to the notion of mine and thine, which is the seed of ail our miseries in this world. As far as in me lees, I shall try to be indifferent about it, and derive all the joy that I can from it The building is mine so long as I occupy it. It is a fine building and I pay no rent for it. What if they call it a prison? Let me pass my days in it as happily and as long as I must. But, then, how long and for hoe many days? Ah! there is the rub ! According to prison regulations I may be free within six months. If the gaoler is particularly harsh to me, then, at the most, within a year. The warders had told me that three years were the limit here. The Silver Jail knew not a single instance of a prisoner being detained within its portals for more than three years. Hence I concluded that I would be let off after three years But facing the worst, as it had been a rule of life with me, I took it for granted that, at the longest, they will confine me in this room for a period of five years. I, therefore, decided to accept the situation, stay in this fine building for five years, and spend the time in composing the epic that I had already planned in the jail at Dongri. This I took as the Government order as well as a matter of personal choice. I was revelling in this play of fancy when I climbed up to the third floor of the