This page has been validated.

INDIRA

family. We had to walk some eight or ten miles to the Ganges, where we took boat.

In due course we reached Calcutta, whither my host was proceeding to perform his devotions at the shrine of Kalighat. He took up his residence in the suburb of Bhawanipur. One day he asked me where my relative dwelt. Was it in Calcutta or at Bhawanipur. I had not the slightest idea! Did I not know his address? I did not know that either. In my simplicity I had imagined that Calcutta was just a big village like our own where all the principal inhabitants were known! I thought it was only necessary to mention a gentleman's name to be told where he lived!

I now found that Calcutta was an endless sea of masonry houses. I could think of no means of discovering my friends. Krishnadas Babu very kindly made enquiries on my behalf, but in a place like Calcutta the investigations of a simple country gentleman were of little avail.

It was Krishnadas Babu's intention to go to Benares after he had finished his pilgrimage to

15