Buying spiritual books
The taxi driver took me to quite a few stores on College Street, and he was telling me that Mother Teresa’s place was not far; I could easily go there.I said, “No, I have changed my mind. I am not going there. This place will give me more joy.”
I went to a few more spiritual bookstores. There are so many spiritual bookstores on that street. As usual, we Bengalis do not know how to speak, we only know how to scream. Perhaps it is our national trait. The vendors were all screaming, encouraging people to buy their books. Everything is reduced, reduced to absolutely nothing, they say. But when you go to buy something, at that time you see that it has a high price.
I bought spiritual books from different stores. At one particular store, I saw a few books on Mother Kali and some that contained devotional songs. To my great joy, I found my favourite song that I sing, “Tumi nirmala karo” by Rajani Kanta Sen. I was so happy that one particular book had this as the first song.
The book stalls were all out on the street. I was standing there, reading the words to the song. The owner noticed what I was reading and said to me, “Babu, I am so happy you are reading that book. I myself am a good singer. Do you want to hear me?”
I said, “Certainly.”
He said, “I can sing this song.”
O my God, how sweetly he was singing the first song! I was so pleased with him. Then I said to him, “Do you now want to join me? I will sing the same song.” Then both of us sang together standing there in the street.
Before that I had told him that I do not live in India; I live in America. The price of the book came to 80 or 85 rupees, which is under three American dollars because there are 30 rupees to a dollar. After we had sung the song, he said, “I would like to charge 5 rupees less.”
“Why?” I asked.
He said, “You live in America and there you study music, so 5 rupees less give me.”
I said to him, “This is one of my most favourite songs, so I really want to give you 5 rupees more.”
It was 85 rupees, so I gave him 5 rupees more, saying, “I am so happy to find that you can sing the song so well. Every day you are working so hard to support yourself.”
That was my very first good experience. Then I bought quite a few more books, and I was very pleased. When I mentioned the titles of some books that I wanted, this fellow went running to other stores. He said, “I have three stores. Just wait here.” Only he knew which ones had those particular books and so he went there and brought them back. As long as I got the books, I did not mind waiting.
