8. Hedgewar Missing!:

With his background as mentioned above, Keshava joined another high school and graduated. Undaunted by his extreme poverty, he won admission to the National Medical College at Calcutta. He was already being watched by the British Government spies as an agitator and trouble-maker. Their watch intensified when they came to know that Keshava was traveling to Calcutta, which was the hot-bed of Freedom Fighters. Keshava's travel plan included a stop at Jabalpur, en-route to Calcutta. The spies began following him from Nagpur Railway Station.

The resourceful, young Keshava had his ticket to Jabalpur purchased by a friend, who was traveling to Calcutta on the same day. He himself bought a ticket to Calcutta, and boarded the train for that city. This train had some carriages which would be diverted to Jabalpur, at Gondia station.

The train ticket checker, who examined the tickets of all passengers prior to departure, saw Keshava's ticket for Calcutta and informed the authorities about it. Promptly, an undercover police detective boarded the same rail carriage and sat near Keshava.

During the train stop at Gondia station per his prior plan with his friend, baggage was transferred to the Jabalpur compartment, and the friend put his own Calcutta-bound baggage in its place. Both bags looked identical. Keshava got off the train under the pretext that he wanted to drink some water. Exchanging his Calcutta ticket with his friend's Jabalpur ticket, Keshava went and sat in the Jabalpur bound carriage. Within a few minutes, the high speed Calcutta train departed. The undercover policeman was dumb-founded to see that Keshava was missing. In great panic, the detective searched the entire train, but there was no trace of Keshava.

Beads of cold sweat broke out on the forehead of the detective, who now feared the loss of his job. He promptly got off the train at the next stop, and sent a telegram to his superior at the Nagpur headquarters: "Hedgewar Missing!". The police hunt intensified. Keshava's residence in Calcutta was now under round-the-clock surveillance.

After a comfortable two weeks of holidays in his uncle's home in Jabalpur, Keshava went to Calcutta. As soon as he reached home, the surveillance operative came to see him. He complained: "Hay sir! You took off and disappeared in your own merry way, and here, I have been demoted from corporal to an ordinary police constable (cop)! This is unjust!"

Such were some savory moments, few and far in between in the Keshava's otherwise deadly intense life of struggle, for the independence of Bharat.

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