Chapter 84 - Rue de Ponthieu
Convalescence in Paris
Many Indian revolutionaries headed to Paris in 1909 due to harassment by the authorities in London. In Paris, they weren’t considered Persons of Interest, so they went about establishing underground bomb factories, stockpiling guns, and creating and disseminating anti-British literature.
Savarkar was convalescing while all of this was happening around him. I wonder how he must have felt, being physically unable to do much, but seeing this flurry of activity. Everyone suggested that he stay in France and make a life for himself here. He did consider it for a while. But, as we’ll see in the next chapter, he realizes he can’t just stay in luxury while people in India are getting offed by the British, and revolutionaries in Europe are losing faith in the resistance. I explore in this chapter how he might figure he’d make a life in France.
Rue de Ponthieu
Paris in January was nothing like Cardiff in December. Here, the sky sometimes shone bright and clear, the sun lighting up the snow-blanketed streets. After years of grey London winters, Tatya found himself reconsidering the season altogether. As long as one dressed properly, winter could even feel joyous.
He was living in Madame Cama’s cramped three-room apartment on Rue de Ponthieu. All three rooms together wouldn’t fill a single one in Shyamji’s grand house in Neuilly-sur-Seine. But Tatya preferred it here. For one, the moong dal at Shyamji’s house seemed fatal to his recovery. For another, this apartment buzzed with life—young people, conversation, connection. It was the kind of warmth he didn’t know he needed while convalescing.
