I grew up in North Calcutta and went to Bethune Collegiate School. I lived in a nuclear family. My brother was one of my best friends and we had loads of fun together.

As a child, I wasn’t very naughty or disobedient. On the other hand, I was very determined and studious. In fact, I was so studious that my mother used to joke that I wouldn’t notice even if Suchitra Sen passed me by. At school, I was an above-average student. But I was not merely into studies. I participated in a lot of extra-curricular activities. I was good at elocution and participated in various school-level competitions, winning a number of times. One of my greatest memories is of the time when my school’s headmistress declared a half-day’s holiday because I had won the first prize for my school.

I was very fond of music and theatre, so once during Durga Puja, my father bought me a record player. I asked him to get me some of my favourite records, such as Shyama, Chitrangada and Hingshute Daitya. My brother and I, however, were apprehensive about whether he would actually buy them. So, we thought of a plan. At that time, there was a popular belief that if someone sneezes after saying something, it comes true. So, we thought that all we had to do was sneeze after saying each record’s name. I thought that I would recite the names one by one, and ask my brother to sneeze.

The problem was that he couldn’t sneeze on cue. At that time, we had a domestic help who used snuff, so I asked my brother to pinch some of it for sneezing. Our problem was solved, but there was a new problem: he continued to sneeze long after I had finished reciting the list of records. Our parents soon found out and I got a severe scolding.

I was an avid reader right from my childhood, never restricting myself to my school syllabus. My father used to explain poems to me and I used to learn them by heart and recite them. I was used to performing on stage since I was five or six and my parents found it difficult to bring me down from stage until I finished reciting all the poems I knew.

I wouldn’t have made it this far had it not been for the support of my family, especially my father, who had been by my side all through. My advice to all you kids is to read, as there is no substitute for it, and to be dedicated in whatever you do.