Author Ambalika

46th Heavenly Ascension Day of the brave Helen Lepcha, a remarkable but under rated freedom fighter from the Lepcha community.
💐🙏🏻
She's special for many reasons:
Hailing from a remote village in Namchi, Sikkim then migrating to Kurseong, she quickly picked up charkha spinning skills as a 15 yr old school student in 1917 and together with her skills as an organizer, caught the eye of all the leading Congress leaders of the day. 🧍🏻

Despite having an arrest warrant to her name, she rode her way through the police on horseback while bullets flew around her during the boycott movement of 1921. 😎🏇🏽

And oh, did I mention that the breads baked by she and her husband in their bakery were the secret link of communication with the world when Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was in Kurseong recuperating. ?? 😊

She was very close to the Nehru family, especially Indira Gandhi. However the INC social handles never post any remembrance posts for her 😐

1 day ago | [YT] | 0

Author Ambalika

** Madan Lal Dhingra Balidaan Diwas**
#OTD in 1909, 25 yr old Madan Lal Dhingra was executed at the gallows of the Pentonville Prison, London for having assassinated in London on 1 July, 1909, Sir William Hutt Curzon Wyllie, the political Aide-de-camp to the secretary of State for India .
He was the first Indian freedom fighter to be executed in London.
The original plan had been to assassinate Lord Curzon, former Viceroy of India and former Lieutenant-Governor of East Bengal, Bampfylde Fuller. However, he missed due to timing asynchrony.

Curzon Wyllie was a friend of Dhingra's family. But more importantly, he had been the head of the Secret Police and so, was trying to obtain information about Dhingra and his fellow revolutionaries. Madan Lal was a member of the Abhinav Bharat secret society founded by V.D Savarkar.

During his trail on 23rd July, he represented himself because " no English law court has got any authority to arrest and detain me in prison, or pass sentence of death on me ".

Madan Lal went on to be an inspiration for the Ghadr movement 1912-14 and his life story was taught to those joining the Azad Hind Fauj in Far East during WW2. ( He and Sardar Uddham Singh were compulsory syllabus amongst other topics/ incidents).

After his death, Savarkar printed a postcard portraying Dhingra as a revolutionary.
Winston Churchill was outraged but called his statement the "the finest ever made in the name of patriotism".
M. K Gandhi described his actions as the result of "ill-digested reading of worthless writings." and felt " those who incited him to this that deserve to be punished "

Madan Lal's remains at Pentonville were accidentally discovered in mid 1970s during the exhumation of the body of Udham Singh- another revolutionary. Upon exhumation, it was found that his body was intact. The lime put to decay the body had instead protected it forming a cocoon around it.

I discuss this and more with his grand niece- Ms Leena Dhingra in my podcast. Check it out here:
shows.acast.com/celebrate/episodes/leena-dhingra

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Author Ambalika

"I had always been Ashima B. Brendon, daughter of Mr. James Brendon who in turn was the older son of Jane and Chris Brendon who had travelled all the way from Tilbury in England by ship through Gibraltar, Marseilles, Port Said before reaching Mumbai and then took the train to Calcutta and later Jorhat, to take up the superintendence of the Duroni Tea Estate. Of the unexpanded ‘B’ in my name, I did not pay much attention to. I had lived my life without knowing it. It was enough for me that I was the offspring of a ‘firang’ father and ‘desi’ mother.

But then one day, my aunt told me about a letter my father’s lost-somewhere-long-in-the-lines cousin had left for me to be delivered after he had died. When she sent it to me, I found it had another letter inside it.

This letter changed everything I knew and suspected about myself and my life.
Not to mention, it started me on a journey I had never even thought I would have to take on.

The story of my life- A Letter For Gigglepot- is now FREE to download and read till 18 July.

www.amazon.in/Letter-Gigglepot-ambalika-ebook/dp/B…

regards,
Ashima"

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1 month ago | [YT] | 0

Author Ambalika

#NetajiWeek And that's a wrap!
Many thanks to everyone who joined in the celebration by reading and sharing to mark the occasion. 🙏🏽💐✨

Today, these events are not officially observed. Not good. These need to be told every year because otherwise they are nowhere else to be found. If Netajians don't talk about it, then the field will be left open to anti-Netajians to deny these ever happened or they will showcase it in poor light.

How will future generations of Indians know? How will even the present school going indian know?

The key to who we are as Indians, how and why lies in understanding India during WW2. Without that, we cannot claim to know ourselves as Indians- had not our revolutionaries, especially the Ghadrites not persevered bypassing even death, there would have been no transfer of power in 1947!

Hopefully one day, the central government will take cognizance of this and make it's celebration mandatory as it once was.

Until then it's going to be you, me and our collective efforts.
See you in the next Netaji Week, then !

Jai Hind.
Vande Mataram 🇮🇳

pic courtesy: screen grab from Films Division

1 month ago | [YT] | 0

Author Ambalika

So lovely of Reviews And Ratings.com to support the book during its promotion period 🙏😊 Truly appreciate this unexpected kind gesture 😊
For those who want to purchase, here's the link:
www.amazon.in/Joy-Being-Jay-Ambalika/dp/9388942256

1 month ago | [YT] | 0

Author Ambalika

#NetajiWeek 9th July, 1943 At a gathering of Indians at Singapore, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose delivered his ' Why I Left Home and My Homeland '. In this speech, he outlined clearly and persuasively the roadmap that would help India expel the British and why the best time to do so was right away.

He called for Total War Mobilization,which meant it wasn't just going to be about two armies fighting each other. It was a call to build a strong India in parallel while the army fought. This needed men and women, material and money to run a provisional government of Free India that would be responsible for setting up the machinery that is required to run a country.

Never before had the Indians present there heard an Indian leader present to them the possibility of such an India. They were left awestruck at how they now had the power to do so much. It was simply unbelievable!

Until the AHF's surrender in 1945, Netaji used every possible opportunity to keep up the momentum of this call. Here's a sample of how impactful these calls were:

👮🏽At the end of the speech which was given in Hindustani, it was translated into Tamil for the benefit of the 18,000 ( approx) tamilians present .After they heard the speech, they joined the Azad Hind Fauj en mass.

👮🏽Sindhi traders with absolutely no history of ever being on a battlefield, shut shop handing over their property to Netaji and joined the INA.

👮🏽The membership of the Indian Independence League soared to 3.5 lakhs and the strength of INA rose from 12,000 to 60,000! ( Approx)

#HistoryMakers

1 month ago | [YT] | 1

Author Ambalika

Hiya! 🤓The Kindle and ebook version of 'The Joy of Being Jay' is absolutely FREE for till 12 July. 🤩
So if a light hearted story about four Indian youngsters unwittingly caught in a murder mystery in a jungle resort sounds like something you'd like to read wrapped cozily while the scanty monsoon rain patters down the roof, please do download it right away.🙂

Also if you are itching to discover a new book to review, then, most definitely please put this book in line.😌

Or maybe you know someone who could do with some dark humour in their life? In which case, please do share the link with them so they can have a go! 🙏

You can maybe postpone the reading and/or reviewing and / or rating till winters come but atleast get the book lest you end up saying 'What cheek, man!' like our protagonist Jay Rastogi.🥲🥹
www.amazon.in/Joy-Being-Jay-Ambalika/dp/9388942256

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1 month ago | [YT] | 1

Author Ambalika

#NetajiWeek On 8 th July 1943, nothing happened but on 8th July, 1945 Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose laid the foundation for the Azad Hind Fauj memorial at the Esplanade Park, Singapore.

By then, the Fauj had spectacularly triumphed at Moirang Kangla ( present day Manipur) where Col Shaukat Ali Mallick hoisted the Azad Hind Fauj's tricolour flag on 14th April , 1944 making it the first region to be liberated from the British rule. By late 1944 though, owing to reverses suffered by the Imperial Japanese Army on the battlefields at Kohima -Imphal, they were withdrawing.

Lt. Col Cyril J. Stracey ( in picture), an Anglo Indian officer of the AHF designed and built it after Netaji approved one of the three designs he submitted.

The final memorial was constructed at a record speed of 3 weeks , just before the Allied forces arrived in their quest to retake Singapore. The pillars read- Itihad ( Unity), Itmad ( Faith), Qurbani ( Sacrifice).

Here's what Netaji said on the inauguration of the memorial:

“The future generations of Indians who will be born, not as slaves but as free men, because of your colossal sacrifice, will bless your names and proudly proclaim to the world that you, their forbears, fought and suffered reverses in the battle of Manipur, Assam and Burma.But through temporary failure you paved the way to ultimate success and glory.”

He's talking about you and me. 🙏🏽💐✨

Stracey was the first AHF officer to be captured by the Allied forces while Netaji was pushed into oblivion.

On 6th September, 1945 at the orders of Viceroy Lord Louis Mountbatten ( King Charles's great uncle) at 6 pm, the 17th Dogra Regiment dynamited the memorial.

If he thought this was going to demoralise the AHF soldiers, it didn't. Those present screamed, "Just like you have blown our memorial, you will also be blown up like this". As is seen from the photo, Indians continued to visit the ruins at night despite being forbidden and took away pieces as souvenirs.

The words came true on 27th August, 1979, when the Irish Republican Army -great admirers and supports of Netaji & the AHF who recognised Azad Hind Sarkar/ Provisional Govt of Free India- assassinated him using bombs planted on his fishing boat. The boat went up in 'flashes of red, green and then there was a mushroom cloud' ( Sounds eerily familiar, eh?)
Hours later, in two separate bomb attacks, 18 British soldiers were killed. This remains the worst incident in the history of modern Britain.

What to do- Karma is for real.

The memorial was rebuilt at Moirang Kangla in 1969 while a WW2 history marker was set up at the Esplanade Park by the Singapore govt in 1995, as they regard it as an important event of their country's history. The marker is like a book that reads the full story of the INA. ( They mispelt 'Itihad' as 'Ittefaq' which means coincidence 😬)

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1 month ago | [YT] | 1

Author Ambalika

#NetajiWeek Nothing remarkable happened #OTD in 1943. 😀 Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was in office of the Indian Independence League and held meetings with the Azad Hind Fauj.
Yet, something heartfelt did happen.

Circa to this date, a young doctor, Lt Col Dr Binoy Kumar Nandy, a student of Lt Col Dr A.C Chatterjee, who had followed him to joining the Indian National Army and continued into the Azad Hind Fauj, met Netaji. ( At that time, junior to Dr Chatterjee)

To celebrate the occasion of Netaji giving the 'Chalo Delhi' slogan, Dr Nandy had himself prepared rasgulla and had arrived to personally feed them to Netaji.
The wish was fulfilled 🥲

As you can infer from his photo, Dr Nandy was a meticulous man and a man of strength and a willpower that's strong but quiet. He suffered the challenges of the battlefield all the way upto his trial and imprisonment at the Red Fort. After that, he faced the trials of life with the forced stigma of being a soldier of the Azad Hind Fauj 💔
Yet, he carried on serving people.

Those who knew him, respected , loved and remembered him as a kind hearted man, a true patriot who was a living proof of Netaji's ideals. 💐🙏🏻
...and yes, Netaji found the rasgullas delicious ☺️

As shared by @Dr Sekhar Seth, nephew of Dr Nandy.
Pic courtesy: Dr Seth & Mr Prasun Chaudhari, The Telegraph.

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Author Ambalika

#NetajiWeek #BirthAnniversary On 6th July, 1943 the Japanese premier and War Minister, General Hideki Tojo ( with white gloves on) along with Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose took the salute of the Azad Hind Fauj atvthe grounds of the Singapore Municipal Building.
Tojo had arrived the day before for a conference with Field Marshal Count
Hisaichi Terauchi, supreme commander of the Japanese forces in the southern area, to inspect actual conditions in the region. ( Greater East Asia region)

Tojo was also present during the Chalo Dilli speech at the Padang. It moved him very deeply and afterwards during his own speech, reiterated that Japan had no territorial ambitions in India and that Japan was fully committed to helping India in her fight for independence.

In Japan, there exists a mixed opinion about Tojo. However, there is unanimity regarding his sincere contribution towards the cause of Indian independence.

BONUS: One of the soldiers who took part in the parade was Havildar Clerk, S. Lorat Singh from the Khasi hills of present day Meghalaya who was also celebrating his birthday!
#Itihaad #Itmad #Qurbani

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