I have known what it is to be free quite early in life. Both my parents were working and during most afternoons, I used be on my own — wandering about, discovering new places, making new friends — my parents never stopped me from doing what I wanted and I moved around uninhibited.

I was born in Calcutta and have been here always. I went to Narayan Das Bangur Multipurpose School. The best part about school was that we never had classes beyond the fourth period. The rules were quite lax there and wearing a uniform to school wasn’t mandatory either. I was very naughty and had quite a reputation for playing truant. From maths tuitions to classes in school, I bunked school work whenever possible. Of course, I got caught several times and was punished, but all the hard talk and impositions couldn’t reform me. A true vagabond, sometimes I used to spend whole afternoons curled up inside an unused wooden barrel that lay abandoned at a roadside. For most of my childhood, I remained absorbed in my own little world.

I also loved to read. In fact, I was so mischievous and restless that sometimes just in order to keep me sitting quietly in one place, my parents simply handed me a book. They knew that was the trick to keep me quiet.

I was also passionate about theatre from a very young age. I gave my first performance on stage when I was all of five years. The thrill that I experienced while performing on stage in front of a live audience hasn’t diminished since. Another thing that I enjoyed a lot was football. I was and still am an ardent East Bengal fan, and also used to play for my school team.

Besides all this, fishing was one of my favourite hobbies. There were a lot of big ponds around our locality and I used to often spend afternoons catching fish, or rather, waiting patiently for a fish to get hooked to the rod. It was during one of these fishing expeditions that I caught a tiny fish. A friend of mine, Boncha, was accompanying me. Boncha came from a humble family and they had a difficult time trying to make ends meet. The sight of the small fish disappointed me and I threw it back into the water. But Boncha got livid and started protesting vehemently. Initially, I couldn’t understand why he was so upset with me over one small fish, but then he told me that he hadn’t eaten fish for days. There was a sinking feeling in my heart when I heard that. I learnt not to take things for granted after that day.