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APPENDICES
231
what Sri Aurobindo, adapting a phrase of Meredith's, had called in The Future Poetry the expression of "our inmost in the
inmost way" "I Q.: When did you meet Dilip Kumar Roy for the first time ? A. : I couldn't gather the exact year. It was the third year after I came here.
Once Dilip Kumar had come on a visit here. At that time I met him. And .... I think, that was not so, I am sorry. First time I met him when he began to settle down here. It was Harindranath Chattopadhyaya, another poet, who had come on a visit here and Dilip Kumar had gone to him and afterwards he reported to me his experience there. Harindranath lay on the sofa there in a hotel and he began to recite lines of poetry as if they were coming to him for the first time and Dilip Kumar was writing down. Then he came to me. Dilip Kumar, after Harindranath had gone away, told me those lines. I said those lines already appeared in print several years ago and Harindranath was a very good actor, you know, he was acting as if those lines were
coming to him. He remembered the lines also. Q. : After you met him for the first time, what was your impression of him A. : Of Dilip Kumar Roy? He was a very pleasant person, extremely pleasant,
full of humour and interested in not only poetic themes but also turned to philosophic themes. He had known Bertrand Russell personally and he had
corresponded with him, too! Yea! Q. : Would you like to narrate any peculiarity or oddity of his character that you
might have noticed at that time ? A. : You know, one of his outstanding qualities was his sense of humour, Yea,
and he had a certain generosity. Wherever he saw talent, he was held. He would be very quick to go to such a person. There was a certain generosity like that. He was a very good musician, of course! Harindranath was more expert at musical technique, but when he sang, he created the atmosphere of a gawiya, you know, as if he was conscious of the audience. When Dilip
sang, he was absolutely lost, something came from his heart, yea! Q. : While I was reading his works, I noticed one thing. It is that he goes on
asking questions to Sri Aurobindo. I mean, he had a number of doubts in his mind. I recollect having read at one place that he actually wanted to test Sri Aurobindo's patience to realize whether his power was human or divine. You knew him at that time. Would you comment ? (I was still saying
further when he interposed.) A. : Yes, I know that..., yea !
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