To
His Grandfather1Sri Aurobindo
Letters of Sri Aurobindo
Letters
Fragment ID: 6350
(this fragment is largest or earliest found passage)
Sri Aurobindo — Bose, Raj Narain (Sri Aurobindo’s grandfather)
January 11, 1894
To
His Grandfather1
Gujaria
Vijapur Taluka
N. Gujerat.
Jan 11. 1894.
My dear Grandfather
I received your telegram and postcard together this afternoon. I am at present in an exceedingly out of the way place, without any post-office within fifteen miles of it; so it would not be easy to telegraph. I shall probably be able to get to Bengal by the end of next week. I had intended to be there by this time, but there is some difficulty about my last month’s salary without which I cannot very easily move. However I have written for a month’s privileged leave and as soon as it is sanctioned shall make ready to start. I shall pass by Ajmere and stop for a day with Beno. My articles are with him; I will bring them on with me. As I do not know Urdu, or indeed any other language of the country, I may find it convenient to bring my clerk with me. I suppose there will be no difficulty about accommodating him.
I got my uncle’s letter inclosing Soro’s, the latter might have presented some difficulties, for there is no one who knows Bengali in Baroda – no one at least whom I could get at. Fortunately the smattering I acquired in England stood me in good stead, and I was able to make out the sense of the letter, barring a word here and a word there.
Do you happen to know a certain Akshaya Kumara Ghosha, resident in Bombay who claims to be a friend of the family? He has opened a correspondence with me – I have also seen him once at Bombay – and wants me to join him in some very laudable enterprises which he has on hand. I have given him that sort of double-edged encouragement which civility demanded, but as his letters seemed to evince some defect either of perfect sanity or perfect honesty, I did not think it prudent to go farther than that, without some better credentials than a self-introduction.
If all goes well, I shall leave Baroda on the 18th;
at any rate 
it will not be more than a day or two later.
Believe me
Your affectionate grandson
Aravind A. Ghose
1 11 January 1894. Sri Aurobindo wrote this letter to his grandfather Raj Narain Bose (1826–1899), a well-known writer and leader of the Adi Brahmo Samaj, while posted in Gujaria, a town in northern Gujarat, which then was part of the princely state of Baroda.