Girish Chandra Ghosh - An appreciation Part 1

Very few people in India outside Bengal know of Girish Chandra Ghosh, the prolific play writer, the father of theatre in Bengal and in India who was once widely regarded as Shakespeare of Bengal and Garrick of Bengali stage. Girish Ghosh was a playwright, a director, an actor, a poet, all moulded into one. He was a versatile genius. He was a lion among men and like a lion he dominated everything that he did. He never cared for conventions. He did not tolerate hypocrisy. He ensured decent living for many women who were otherwise considered "fallen" by the society. He led an intemperate life in a rebellious spirit for sometime, till he met the ultimate man whom he was searching for throughout his life. Girish was appreciated by many eminent personalities, actor and intellectual Utpal Datta being one one of them. In his book Girish Mahima (Greatness of Girish), Utpal Datta was full of praise for him. Recently veteran actor Soumitra Chatterjee enacted as a solo actor in one of the plays of Girish - Bilwamangal Thakur. Girish's Prafulla, the drama on the social life and its decay in the nineteenth century Bengal was a masterpiece that is popular even these days. His characters were vivid and alive and represented true humanity. He was united with each of his characters in creating them.

To begin from the beginning - Girish Chandra Ghosh, the eighth son of Neelkamal Ghosh, an astute accountant and founder of double entry system of accounting in Bengal, was twenty years older than Swami Vivekananda. Yet, as we shall see, both of them shared a very intimate friendship. Girish lost his mother in his childhood and also some of his favourite brothers and sisters. In fact his whole life was a tragedy. He saw death snatching away his loved ones one after the other, in quick succession - his mother, his father, his elder sister, his elder brother, his immediate elder brother and so on. No wonder that he became rebellious and coming under the influence of modern education, shunned all orthodox beliefs. Hypocrisy of the conventional religion put him off and he gave vent to his anger by becoming an iconoclast. However deep down he had a good nature. That was why he organized social work esp. for helping those who needed help, often selflessly. His prolific talent was manifested by his opting to buy English classics from the money that he received during his marriage. He mastered English literature and the language. He got a job in an accounting firm courtesy his father in law and did his work diligently. He soon earned the respect of his boss for his skills, knowledge and integrity. He had started producing and acting in theaters by the year 1868. By 1880 a new era had started on Bengali and Indian stage - the era of Girish. He quit his day job to concentrate on his passion. Despite all the name and fame Girish was deeply unhappy. He had lost his faith with conventional religion long time back. But he did not have peace. He tried to get back to the fold of religion once again. Whatever he did, he did so without any pretence. He hated hiding anything for the sake of social life and for getting approval from the people. He had taken to drinking early in his career and he never cared about social opinions. This was when he also lost his first wife, Pramadasundari. He was heartbroken. The question came to him that is there really a God. If so, what was the meaning of all the suffering and sorrow? He got back to conventional religion for finding an answer but one question that haunted him regularly was if a guru was needed for following a spiritual life. He was loathe to the idea of taking help from a human guru. Moreover he had seen the so called Kul Gurus who were no better than professional traders. Only these fellows traded with religion. So it was no wonder that he was in despair and hungry for true spirituality. Because of his earnestness he received a response to his prayer soon.