Mind blowing facts about Indian freedom fighters

Here is a short video featuring myself explaining these amazing facts to my work colleagues during my company's independence day celebration:

A. KAMARAJ:

1. His honesty can be known through the fact that he even refused to give a water tap connection to his own house even after a request from his mother.

2. It is less known that Kamaraj actually smokes. Though he had this habit, he managed to keep it a secret as he believed that a good leader should only display his positive qualities to his followers.

3. Kamaraj was once arrested for participating in the freedom struggle. At that time, his party projected him as their candidate in the Municipal elections and won it by a considerable margin too. 8 months later, Kamaraj came to know about his election victory after his release. He immediately resigned his position as the Chairman of Municipal Council, since he believed that a public servant should have been available for service all through his tenure at the office.

B. VO CHIDAMBARAM PILLAI:

1. He directly competed against the British by establishing a Swadeshi shipping company and operating passenger ships exclusively for Indians.

2. He was made to undergo extremely severe punishments like driving the oil cart by the British for participating in freedom struggles.

3. Many top lawyers visited the court just to witness VOC's oratory skills. He was equally merciful too and hence appeared in many cases on the behalf of economically backward people at free of cost.

C. RAJENDRA PRASAD:

1. He was an outstanding student all through his academics. Once an examiner commented on his sheet that "Here the examinee is better than the examiner", after getting thoroughly impressed with all his answers.

2. Once Rajendra Prasad was travelling with Nehru for a general meeting in a train. At that time, Nehru unknowingly wiped off and threw away a piece of paper that contained the hints for the speech that Rajendra Prasad was about to deliver in the meeting. But, Rajendra Prasad did not panic. He had such an outstanding memory with which he managed to deliver his speech successfully without missing anything!

D. MAHATMA GANDHIJI:

1. He had once participated as a stretcher bearer in one of the wars for the British.

2. Gandhi walked around 79,000 km throughout his freedom struggle, which is equivalent to covering the earth twice on foot.

3. Mahatma was actually not a good lawyer and had poor cross questioning skills

4. To everyone's surprise, Gandhiji was born on Friday and assassinated too on Friday. Coincidentally India too got its independence on a Friday!

5. In his entire lifetime, Gandhiji wrote around 10 million words and served as an editor for several magazines.

6. Around 53 roads in India & 48 roads around the world are named after him.

7. Gandhi’s 'Kaithari', used in Jail was auctioned for 1,10,000 pounds.

8. A stamp was released by British in honour of him on his 100th birthday.

E. PERARIGNAR ANNA DURAI:

1. Anna Durai played the pivotal role in renaming ‘Madras’ State as ‘Tamil Nadu’ in the year 1969.

2. His funeral ceremony was attended by a record 1.5 crore people, the biggest ever till date for any political leader.

3. Anna was an honest politician, who even failed to accept the government’s sofa & other luxury facilities during his tenure as the CM of TamilNadu.

4. When Indian government tried to forcefully impose Hindi on Tamils, he opposed it vehemently by proposing the '2 dogs theory'. He explained it saying that if you want to make way for a big dog and small dog into your house, all you have to do is just make a large hole for the big dog and let the small dog use it too. Hence there is no need for Tamil people to learn Hindi to communicate with Indians, as they already study English which could itself be used to communicate both nationally and globally!

F. RANI LAKSHMI BAI:

1. Her real name was ‘Manikarnika’ and she acquired this name after getting married to Jhansi King at age of 7.

2. She became the ruler of Jhansi at a very young age of 18 years.

3. Rani Lakshmi Bai learnt shooting, horsemanship & fencing at home.

4. Her body was burnt contradictory to customs as she didn’t want British to capture even her body.

G. SUBRAMANIA BHARATHIYAR:

1. Once a local rowdy after hearing the songs of Bharathiyar became his die-hard fan. He started accompanying Bharathiyar wherever he went as a bodyguard. When others questioned Bharathiyar about his friendship with the rowdy, he replied, "So let it be. Let them speak to my soul friend just for now". He always had a love for suppressed people deep in his heart and this incident is a mere proof of that quality...

2. He had intense devotion for Goddess Durga called as "Parashakthi". Once when he was not able to pay his monthly house rental charges, Goddess Parashakti appeared in the dream of his landlord and asked him to waive off the rent of his devotee Bharathi!

3. Subramania Bharathiyar was a very bold person. Once when he encountered a lion in a jungle, he faced it bravely uttering the lines "Kaatukku Raja Nee. Paatukku Raja Naan" (You may be the King of the jungle. But I am the King of the country). It was said that the lion fled away from the place after witnessing his courage.

H. NETAJI SUBHASH CHANDRA BOSE:

1) Although Netaji was a brilliant student, he once got expelled from his college for assaulting Professor Oaten for his anti-India comments.

2) Even though Subhash Chandra Bose came 4th in the difficult Indian Civil Services exam, he resigned for participating in the Indian freedom movement.

3) He formed ‘Azad Hind Fauj’ to liberate Andaman & Nicobar islands from the British rule.

4) Though informed as died, some still believe that Netaji is currently living in Uttar Pradesh in disguise as ‘Gumnami Baba’.

 JAI HIND!!!