Sandy Sundaram

Among the two thousand passengers were mostly British families "quitting India, who wished India well and had only goodwill.  There were several Anglo-Indians, leaving India for the first time, but boasting "we are going HOME!". The Indian contingent was mostly students bound for UK and USA, sprinkled with a few businessmen returning to UK."

Half a dozen of us, students, including a Muslim girl from Lucknow, Saleema, felt that this historic voyage should not let pass without a fitting commemoration. We decide to organize a "Celebrate India Evening". There was no dearth of talent, singers, dancers, instrumentalists and even those who could do magic. But we needed the permission of the ship's authorities. Saleema and I were deputed for the job. We approached the PRO, Mr. Owen, who flatly refused. Never the ones to say "die", we decided to appeal to the captain. We impressed on him the significance of this unique voyage, and our intention not only to honour Free India, but Britain, too, which graciously had conceded India its Freedom, without a War of Independence. We also invited him to be among the honoured guests. Capt. Dixon, after an initial hesitation, gave the nod. We were on Cloud Nine. Some ladies got busy, cutting cloth and sewing, and delivered a 3 foot by 2 Tricolour. The ship donated the Union Jack, the P&O Flag and the flagpoles. So, on September 2 evening, as we sailed along the placid Mediterranean, we made history by saluting our Flag, singing "Jana Gana Mana" –

Before entering the Thames, we anchored at the mouth of the river, at Gravesend, to receive on board some distinguished guests, led by our own First High Commissioner, V.K. Krishna Menon, Rev. Reginald Sorensen, and the Labor MP from London's East End and a staunch supporter of India over the years, and some British officials. Krishna Menon extended a warm welcome to us, the first batch of Indians from Free India to set foot on the British soil. He added that we were the real Ambassadors of India. After the function, wee continued on our voyage along the Thames, the last leg, and finally docked at Tilbury on Monday, 8 September, where we disembarked and went our ways. Glorious feeling it was for us, that the Independence Day celebrations lasted over 3 weeks (beginning from 18 August on the ship and two days prior, on the shore at Bombay, during which time we were not only part of history, but we made history.

Finally, I must digress and make mention of another personal significance. My parents did me proud by giving birth to me on a day that would become special twenty-four years later. From then on, I had been sharing my birthday with that of my mother-land. And having lived in or visited 93 (now 97) countries, sometimes the double birthday was celebrated in exotic places and in extraordinary atmosphere. Like, for instance, when I was on an overnight train from Geneva to Paris, when a group of students (15) from Brazil were traveling in the same coach. One of them, Yolanda from Sao Paolo, happened to look at my passport and let out a shriek, "Hey, it is our friend's birthday". And when I told them that it was also my National Day, an impromptu celebration was organized and I have never been so moved as when I had to sing our national anthem that night. On another birthday, I was the leader of an international volunteer workcamp with young men and women from 14 countries, who toasted India and me, in the land of the Midnight Sun, on the shores of Lake Inari, in Finnish Lapland.  Or again, conducting a workshop for delegates from 20 Southern and East African countries, in Seychelles, when the leader of the Seychelles team, Ms. Monica Chetty, Secretary, Dept. of Tourism, organized a surprise party to which she had also invited the Indian Ambassador, befitting the occasion. For 3 years running, when I was in Bangkok, our Ambassador, Mr. Naranjan Singh Gill, never failed to raise the second toast "to our Sundaram", on the 15th of August.