conversation. Very few have this gift of conversation, and fewer
still the art of translating it into writing.

This was the time when Pandit Sashadhar rose into prominence. Of him I
first heard from Bankim Babu. If I remember right Bankim Babu was also
responsible for introducing him to the public. The curious attempt made
by Hindu orthodoxy to revive its prestige with the help of western
science soon spread all over the country. Theosophy for some time
previously had been preparing the ground for such a movement. Not that
Bankim Babu even thoroughly identified himself with this cult. No shadow
of Sashadhar was cast on his exposition of Hinduism as it found
expression in the _Prachar_--that was impossible.

I was then coming out of the seclusion of my corner as my contributions
to these controversies will show. Some of these were satirical verses,
some farcical plays, others letters to newspapers. I thus came down into
the arena from the regions of sentiment and began to spar in right
earnest.

In the heat of the fight I happened to fall foul of Bankim Babu. The
history of this remains recorded in the _Prachar_ and _Bharati_ of those
days and need not be repeated here. At the close of this period of
antagonism Bankim Babu wrote me a letter which I have unfortunately
lost. Had it been here the reader could have seen with what consummate
generosity Bankim Babu had taken the sting out of that unfortunate
episode.

PART VIII

(41) _The Steamer Hulk_

Lured by an advertisement in some paper my brother Jyotirindra went off
one afternoon to an auction sale, and on his return informed us that he
had bought a steel hulk for seven thousand rupees; all that now remained
being to put in an engine and some cabins for it to become a
full-fledged steamer.

My brother must have thought it a great shame that our countrymen should
have their tongues and pens going, but not a single line of steamers. As
I have narrated before, he had tried to light matches for his country,
but no amount of rubbing availed to make them strike. He had also wanted
power-looms to work, but after all his travail only one little country
towel was born, and then the loom stopped. And now that he wanted Indian
steamers to ply, he bought an empty old hulk, which in due course, was
filled, not only with engines and cabins, but with loss and ruin as
well. And yet we should remember that all the loss and hardship due to
his endeavours fell on