UDHAGAMANDALAM: It was a historic and emotional moment for Madhuri Bose when she entered the heritage bungalow located a few yards away from Sim's Park in Coonoor, where her grandfather Sarat Chandra Bose , the illustrious brother of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose , was under house arrest for five years in the 1940s."I haven't seen my grandfather as he died before I was born. But I do live with his memories as I hear him spoken about day in and day out by the Bose family. I always have this feeling that I had mingled with him so closely," an emotional Madhuri told TOI.Her visit, along with her husband, Maxwell Gaylard , a UN official, to the 'Fairlight' bungalow has a purpose. Assisted by her husband, she plans to pen a book on Sarat and she is starting the journey from 'Fairlight'.A human rights advocate with United Nations agencies in Geneva and East Africa and with the Commonwealth Secretariat in London, Madhuri, said, "I am starting the journey of writing a book on my grandfather Sarat right now in this 'Fairlight' bungalow. I am happy that the place has been kept very well by the owners. My thoughts right now go back to the 1940s when Sarat was detained here, that too for no valid charges."Citing Sarat's alleged contacts with the Japanese and the subsequent threats posed to the British and upon the declarations of war on Japan in December 1941 by Britain and the United States, Sarat was brought to Coonoor and kept isolated under detention at 'Fairlight'. He had been under arrest for almost four years from December 1941 to September 1945. "Thus the British also destroyed the imminent prospect of Sarat as minister in the ministry of Bengal," added Madhuri. "When my great grandmother (Sarat's mother) passed away in 1943, he was not allowed by the British to attend his mother's funeral. It should have been one of the saddest moments for him," says Madhuri. She mentioned a few lines in Sarat's diary after he heard of the death of Subhas, "...Terrible, Mother, your blows are too hard to bear. Your last blow was the heaviest and cruellest of all."

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