A letter to the Consul General

I went there and the Consul General said, “Ghose, sit down.” He was looking at me very compassionately. Then he said, “A letter has come from the Sri Aurobindo Ashram against you, saying how useless you are. It is asking why I have given you a job, saying you will bring disgrace to the Indian Consulate. All kinds of things they have written. They want me to dismiss you.”

Here I was, poverty-stricken, helpless — and I was on the verge of losing my job. I was earning only $230 a month and, out of that, sixty or seventy dollars used to go for rent. I had a tiny room in an apartment with two other workers. The length of the room was only one foot longer than my height. Sometimes I would get hurt if my feet came down the wrong way. When I remember my poverty, I shed tears.

Suddenly, out of the blue, the Consul General asked me a question. “By the way, Ghose,” he said, “do you know Dilip-da?”

I was surprised. I said, “Sir, do you mean Dilip Kumar Roy?” Dilip Roy was a very great singer who was extremely close to Sri Aurobindo.

The Consul General said, “Yes.”

I said, “I know Dilip-da so well. How much affection he has for me! At the Ashram, he was always very kind to me. I can tell you so many stories about him.”

The Consul General said, “Tell me.”

I started. When I was only thirteen years old, I wrote two hundred poems. In this connection, how much affection he showed me. He read the poems and made suggestions. A few years later, I wrote an article about him in Bengali. It was about forty pages and he was so moved. The name of this article was “Amader Dilip-da.” Recently, I sent him an article about his father, D. L. Roy, the immortal poet and playwright, that I had written in English, and he has corrected it. He sent me a letter highly appreciating the article. He has also sent me a message: “No matter how much you suffer, never, never go back to the Ashram. People will say that you have gone to the dogs, but never go back.”

Then the Consul General said, “I am a personal friend of Dilip-da and I know why Dilip-da left and opened up a centre in Poona. If Dilip-da likes you, the matter is finished.”

Then, in front of me, he tore the letter into pieces and threw it away. He did not even show it to me. Can you imagine! The magic touch of Dilip-da saved me. My best credential was his affection for me.