However, once pushed to talk on the freedom struggle, Tailor was unstoppable, drawing from his memory a young man of 22 years who threw himself to Mahatma Gandhi's call for civil disobedience in 1942.
Vishnu Radho Koli alias Tailor (96), who is one of the last two remaining freedom fighters from dingy fishing village of Versova in suburban Andheri (West), is apparently sad on the eve of the 67th Republic Day. Reason: His close friend and partner in the freedom struggle Ramchandra Dharu died last month, leaving void in his life.
However, once pushed to talk on the freedom struggle, Tailor was unstoppable, drawing from his memory a young man of 22 years who threw himself to Mahatma Gandhi's call for civil disobedience in 1942.
Recalling his meeting with Gandhiji one evening in 1942, Tailor said he was part of a "tasha" team (a kind of band), which was to play at a wedding in Andheri. "On learning that Gandhiji has come and is put up at Khar Danda, I felt the urge to meet him. Coincidentally, one of my elders from the village handed me a goat for delivering it to Gandhiji so that he can drink fresh milk. I took the goat and handed it over to Gandhiji. To date, that fortune of meeting Gandhiji in flesh and blood has been the treasure of my life," says Tailor, sitting outside his ancestral home near Bazar lane in Versova village, clad in a khakhi short and shirt.
Tailor was jailed for six months for participating in the civil disobedience movement. Talking about Jawaharlal Nehru, he said, "Once in 1945, Nehru was supposed to hold a meeting in our village. Then he had come to Kalina near the airport. Out of excitement, we walked all the way to Kalina to welcome him and bring him to our village. The original place in our village where the meeting was kept soon brimmed with people. We had to shift the meeting to the beach where a cemetery stands at present. The meeting was a roaring hit."
Tailor was among 114 residents of the village who had participated in the freedom struggle and gone to jail. They would often lead morchas in the village shouting slogans against the British rule. The British police and soldiers would come down very heavily on them. "The place at the entrance of the village where the bus stop stands today used to be the hotspot of our activities," Tailor said, adding, "Once eleven of us were being taken to the Bandra court to be produced before the magistrate. En route, we took the police by surprise by our sloganeering 'Gandhiji ki jai, Nehruji ki jai'."
For the past several decades, the locals have been demanding construction of a huge gate at the village entrance in memory of these freedom fighters. However, so far they have failed to secure an NOC from the traffic department as it might create vehicular chaos in the area. Sunil Bole, a prominent member of the village and a Shiv Sena shakha pramukh, said, "It will be the ultimate homage to such freedom fighters from the village as people from all castes and religions participated in it."
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "Vishnu")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}