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FULLER PORTRAITS
53 them. He found only one woman Mrs. N. R. Dharmavir an appropriate one to keep friendship. Dilip Roy advised Subhas Chandra to pay a visit to Dr. Dharmavir and Mrs. Dharmavir in Lancashire. Mrs. Dharmavir who was born of English parents in Russia, married to Dr. Dharmavir, a Punjabi physician. Subhas Chandra stayed with them for some time in 1921. He called Mrs. Dharmavir didi'. He was fascinated by her beautiful personality and warm-hearted hospitality. She was the only English woman in England to whom he had opened himself emotionally. After his return from England he understood "the educative value of feminine contact and good will; but there he stopped: his almost ascetic aloofness precluded always any emotional response.":93 In 1931, when Subhas Chandra had to go to Vienna for the treatment of T. B., he stayed with Mrs. Muller, Roy's friend. Roy writes:
"He had come to realise that a stolid indifference to all that is best in the sex he tabooed once as "woman" must mean a dead
loss to all that is best in a "man" 294
While drawing Subhas Chandra's seriousness of goal and gravity of attempts, Roy also remarks now and again on his simple love of fun and capacity for unlimited laughter. Once, during Roy's conversation with Subhas Chandra at Calcutta, Roy saw him laughing for the first time. Roy remembers:
"Subhash laughed. I never found Subhash more bewitching than in the grip of laughter. It always reminded me of the old simile of the grim rock-overlaying a spring. Just a push, a thud-and lo, the entire scenery is transformed! His ordinary exterior often made one wonder whether he had not asked in his cradle: Mother,
what is laughter?"95
Subhas Chandra knew that his love of laughter was always nourished by Roy's laughter. Being a true friend, Roy knew that:
"High seriousness had been almost the alpha and omega of his existence. Consequently he needed laughter more than the likes of us."96
So, Roy took care to bring him into contact with men like Sarat Dutt, Sarat Chatterji, Krishnaprem, Gagan Vihari Mehta and others who had a vivid sense of humour.
Subhas Chandra, many people claimed, was temperamentally domineering and he liked to impose his views on others. But, during his personal contact with Subhas Chandra, the author found that the case was opposite. In 1923 or 1924 C. R. Das started his Swaraj Party, Subhas Chandra joined that party and he was working very hard for it. C. R. Das wanted Roy to join his party and stand for election in his own constituency, against the Maharaja of Nadia. Roy approached
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