My mother’s aunt was a devotee of Gauranga Mahaprabhu. In my childhood she read out to me episodes from his life. I remember the book had pictures in colours. When I was in middle school ,my uncle joined the Ramakrushna order and interest shifted to Ramakrushna.
I went to Banaras for engineering studies. My Bengali friend there taught me Bengali .He said a person is not cultured unless he learnt Bengali and studied Bengali literature. I had an English version of Tagore’s Geethaanjali. I could now read it in original Bengali. And then I met a girl from my native place down south. She had come to Bengal as a child. All her education was in Bengali, her tastes were Bengali. She sang Bengali. I married her after I finished my studies five years later. Luckily I was posted in Calcutta. She taught me Bengali bhajans. Finally she put me deep in Chaitanya and Ramakrushna lore. She would read passages from lives of these two Avatara Purushas of Bengal. We shared our interest for 52 years. It is a blessing to read in original words of great saints in their original dialect.
