A very interesting incident happened when Huxley attended another session of the Congress in Kanpur in December 1925. It was a mammoth gathering and people were made to sit on mats laid on the floor of the pandal. Huxley sat too and wrote in his book, “These nine foodless hours of squatting on the floor were very nearly my last. By the time they were over, I was all but dead of sheer fatigue." At this session Mahatma Gandhi formally handed over charge to Sarojini, his successor. Once again her speech drew high acclamation from the audience as she spoke very substantively. Dr. Pattabhi Sitaramayya, the historian of the Congress commented, "Sarojini Naidu took charge with a few choice words. Her presidential address was perhaps the shortest delivered from the Congress rostrum, while of course, it was the sweetest ever delivered ........"
There was huge coverage of her ascending to the presidency of the Congress both at home and abroad. The New York Times described her as "Joan of Arc who rose to inspire India", "Darling of English Society" and "The first high-born Brahmin girl to break with the strict tradition of veil and caste ....... who returned home, and obtained the support of the progressive Nizam." Her mannerisms during the time she delivered her presidential address were also highly lauded. Sengupta remarks, "The whole session was a tremendous success, thanks to one dynamic woman." In 1928-29 she travelled to America and Canada as the representative of Mahatma Gandhi and won the hearts of all.
Helen Reed of Montreal, Canada, wrote in Young India, published on February 7, 1929, on Sarojini's visit to Canada. "You, who so well know her wide range of thought and experience, her poetic expression in both word and voice, her humour, her rich and happy use of our English language -- you cannot picture the surprise, the amazement deepening gradually and inevitably into admiration, the quickening mental challenge which she brought out on that occasion!" Her third book of poetry, The Broken Wing, "gave Miss Reed a 'shock of delight'.” Another unofficial ambassador to America at the time when Sarojini was touring America and Canada was C.F. Andrews, who wrote elaborately to Mahatma Gandhi on Sarojini's achievement as she travelled across America. There was nothing but praise showered on her and thus India with its ancient civilization shone once again before distant people. On her return to India, Mahatma Gandhi commented that the Nightingale of India or Bharat Kokila, as he called her, was back after conquering the bigger world and now it remained to be seen how much of her effort was actually implemented.
No matter how intensely Sarojini Naidu was occupied with politics both within India and in relation to the British rulers, she found time to say a few poetic words, recite a poem, take a break from the hullabaloo of politics and attend a session of ghazals and nazms. She would love to listen to Hindi and Urdu poets and attend Mushairas. On one such occasion, amidst the uproar of the First World War approaching, at Anand Bhaban, she read out her poem, The Illusion of Love, which she considered her best to her friend, Prof. Amarnath Jha taken from her book The Broken Wing:
Beloved, you may be as all men say
Only a transient spark
Of flickering flame in a lamp of clay-
I care not ... since you kindle all my dark
With the immortal lustre of the day.
And as all men deem, dearest, you may be
Only a common shell
Chance -- winnowed by the sea-- winds from the sea--
I care not ... since you make most audible
The subtle murmurs of eternity.
And tho' you are, like men of mortal race,
Only a helpless thing
That death may mar and destiny efface--
I care not ... since unto my heart you bring
The very vision of God's dwelling place.
Poetry and things that are beautiful would give her peace from the stress and strain of politics. She would take refuge in them as her balm in order to re-energize herself to move forward with the ultimate goal the path of which war never ran smooth. On top of all these, she had her quick wit and humour to fit any occasion that refreshed not only those who heard it but also herself. She enjoyed the company of the young children and cracked jokes with them. She said, "Life must be worth living, and the young sustain me." As Gandhiji and Sarojini Naidu arrived in England to attend the Second Round Table Conferences held in 1931, both the leaders got a warm reception. John Haynce Holmes, author of My Gandhi, published in 1954, described Sarojini Naidu as the "greatest Indian woman." He says further, as she entered the hall "and strode to her place and received the rapturous acclaim of this crowded assemblage of Englishmen and women, one instructively felt as though we were looking upon a queen." He comments, "Any list of Gandhi's friends and colleagues would be incomplete without mention of Mme. Sarojini Naidu, the greatest of Indian women. In her we find a perfect illustration of Gandhi's power to capture the souls of men, and bind them to him with bonds not of steel but of the spirit". Thus praises for her coming from various quarters were profuse where such people themselves were all illustrious in various fields of their careers.
Between 1944 and 1947, she made many visits to Bengal, the main reason being that she was not keeping well and her doctor BC Roy lived in Calcutta. Still in the midst of her sufferings, she would not lose her sense of humour and enliven every moment of her interaction with people, having "... the amazing ability to fit into any age group", says SK Sen -- her other doctor. Among other things, Dr Sen talks about Sarojini's fondness for good food. She would ask a friend, "to take her out for a second meal after some formal dinner which she described as 'terrible'. " She could talk about herself as the 'Governess' of the UP in a lighter vein when she became its governor. The same voice soared in eloquence as she addressed the Asian Relations Conference,"... whatever your creed, whatever your faith, whatever your tongue, remember there is no birth, there is no death, we move onward and onward, higher and higher till we attain the stars. Let us move on to the stars. We will forbid us and say 'halt, thus far and no further?' We do not cry for the moon. We pluck it from the skies and wear it upon the diadem of Asia's freedom."

Sarojini's bantering would not subside even when the British Governor of the UP, Sir Francis Wylie, wrote to her, the Governor-designate: "I am waiting to hand over. When are you arriving?" She replied as was her wont, "I shall come with a note book and pencil to learn the art of administration from you." She proved herself to be an exceptional governor in free India. People found her simple, fill of human qualities, kind and approachable compared to the British Governor. At this stage, she often called herself she-lat (lady governor).
An enormous task fell on Sarojini when on January 30, 1948. Mahatma Gandhi was shot dead and Allahabad was "the main place for the immersion ceremony" of Gandhiji's ashes for pure religious purposes. Overwhelmed by the brutality of the act and still in shock, she made all arrangements for the ceremony. On Gandhiji's death, Alan Campbell-Johnson says in his book Mission with Mountbatten, "Nearly every Congress leader has spoken, several with outstanding eloquence and with an astonishing mastery of the purest English prose. Among the thoughts and phrases that have remained in my mind was Sarojini Naidu's assertion,' It is therefore right and appropriate that he died in the City of Kings', and her dramatic plea, 'My father, do not rest. Do not allow us to rest, keep us to our pledge."
All her life, Sarojini felt that 'Mahatma Gandhi was a part of her life' yet she maintained her individuality in every external way of life.  With the final decision to vivisect India, when Gandhiji was divested and forlorn, it was only Sarojini Naidu who could fathom his pain. As he was leaving for Bihar all alone, Sarojini wrote to him:
Beloved Pilgrim,
You are, I learn, setting out once more on your chosen Via Dolorosa in Bihar.
The way of sorrow for you may indeed be the way of hope and solace for many millions of human hearts. Blessed be your pilgrimage.
I am still incredibly weary or I should have attempted to reach the Harijan Colony to bid you farewell.
But even though I do not see you, you know that my love is always with you -- and my faith.
Your Ammajan
Sarojini
Exactly thirteen months after the death of her great master, the Bharat Kokila passed away. This passing away for her was "merely a process of passing into a higher and nobler life" as her father, her guru believed. All of India was in a state of shock, leaders were broken-hearted and the public in the deepest of sorrow. "The capital of the U.P in one instant was stricken dumb. The other cities not only in the U.P. but throughout India, seemed paralysed." When she was brought into the north verandah of the government house, Pandit Nehru was one of those who carried the bier. The government paid its tribute profusely by calling her "a brilliant orator, great poet, a person endowed with unusual charm and sense of humour as well as a genius in oratory, administrative skills and popular leadership."
Sarojini's own epitaph is most befitting of her own philosophy of life and death:
Farewell, O eager faces that surround me,
Claiming my tender services of my days
Farewell, O joyous spirits that have bound me
With the love-sprinkled garlands of our praise.

O golden lamps of hope, how shall I bring you
life's kindling flame from a forsaken fire?
O glowing hearts of youth, how shall I sing you
Life's glorious message from a broken lyre?

To you what further homage shall I render,
Victorious city gilded by the sea,
Where breaks in surging tide of woe and splendour
The age-long tumult of humanity?

"Need you another tribute for a token
Who reft from me the pride of all my years?
Lo! I will leave you with farewell unspoken,
Shrine of dead dreams! O temple of my tears!
One wonders which is greater --- her work or she herself --- and finds an answer in Tagore's assertion in reference to Emperor Shahjahan, "But you are greater and nobler than your creation."
It is a living biography, as vibrant as the person whose life is portrayed here and along with it comes the full enactment of the struggle for the independence of India, fraught with known and unknown perils at every step of the way. (Concluded)

Dr. Nazma Yeasmeen Haque, an educationist, researches history and is a music enthusiast