During the Quit India Movement in 1942, as a primary school boy, I joined my Marine Drive neighbourhood kids. It was explained to us that we would march because Gandhi Bapu wanted independence from the gora sahibs.

In those days, ball pens were not heard of, while fountain pens like Parker and Sheaffers were prized possessions known to us as “indipens”. Even rich kids didn’t own any. You got an indipen fountain pen if you passed matriculation or graduated or got married. I’d get to borrow my father’s indipen now and then. In that scenario, what I understood thus was that Gandhi Bapu wanted the gora sahibs to give us several indipens so I was happy to join a little procession in front of our home at Marine Drive.

We were to burn an effigy of Winston Churchill. We were instructed to shout “Hai re Churchill hai hai.” Not knowing who Churchill was, nor what an effigy was, (I thought it was F, E, G, so perhaps feg, but I didn’t know what a feg was either), I understood that if we marched, shouted and burnt a feg, we would get indipens. That was okay by me as we’d play with burning matches in full view on a street, under adult approval, and to top it all, Gandhi Bapu would get us indipens.

A contemporary told me of a similar experience. There would be a procession, initiated by Gandhi Bapu and there would be cries of “Inquilab Zindabad”. He thought “Zinkilab Zindabad” sounded better, and heard that all those who shouted that would be transported in a police van by gora sipahis to the town jail.

... contd.