14 Parsibagan Lane. Picture by Pabitra Das

Soumya Sekhar Bose is 6 feet tall and seems straight out of the modelling-music video-film circuit and that is where he has been, despite an M.Sc in physiology from Calcutta University. Not the type, you would think, to be interested in the past. But what concerns Soumyo these days is how best to re-establish his forefathers Rajsekhar and Girindrasekhar Bose in public memory.

“Rajsekhar at least is remembered by his pen name Parashuram, the writer of humorous stories and the children’s Ramayana and Mahabharata. A few may even know Girindrasekhar as the writer of the children’s tale Laal Kalo. But even students of psychiatry and psychoanalysis are vague about his contribution to the subject,” says Soumyo.

He lives at 14 Parsibagan Lane, near Rajabazar Science College the house built by his great, great grandfather Chandrasekhar, the dewan of the raja of Darbhanga. Four brothers Sashisekhar, Rajsekhar, Krishnasekhar, Girindrasekhar and their six sisters lived in it.

In 1921 when few had heard of Sigmund Freud or read his works, Girindrasekhar (DSc, MB, FNI) was regularly exchanging ideas, papers, notes, photographs and even the Calcutta University MA/M.Sc question papers with him. When Girindrasekhar sent Freud a copy of his thesis “The Concept of Repression”, which got him a Doctor of Science from Calcutta University, the father of modern psychology not only congratulated him but wrote a recommendation to future publishers: “It was a great and pleasant surprise that the first book on a psychoanalytic subject which came to us from that part of the world (India) should display so good a knowledge of psychoanalysis, so deep an insight into its difficulties and so much deep-going original thought… Dr Bose is aiming at a philosophical evolution and elaboration of our crude, practical concepts and I can only wish, psychoanalysis should reach up to the level to which he strives to raise it.”

Freud and reputed scholar Earnest Jones welcomed Girindrasekhar’s initiative to start the Indian Psychoanalytical Society, affiliating it to the International Psychoanalytical Society. Girindrasekhar was also the associate editor of International Journal of Psychology and the German Zeitschrift fur Psychonalysis.

At a time when Calcutta had no state mental hospital or even a lunatic asylum and the British government only ran a small mental observation ward at Bhawanipore to certify “lunatics” in court, Girindrasekhar began the first ever outdoor mental patients’ clinic at Carmichael Medical College (now RG Kar). In 1940, he began the first mental hospital Lumbini Park in Tiljala. Rajsekhar gifted a house for the purpose and also supplied furniture and medicines.

Though it had many well-wishers, the association received no government aid. Girindrasekhar and his followers had a hard time meeting a crisis of food, medicine and shelter. But it grew into the largest mental asylum in the state by the time it was handed over to the state government in the 1970s.

The Lumbini Park hospital only heightened the flurry of activities around 14 Parsibagan Lane. A boundary wall was erected to create a restricted zone for a mental outpatients’ clinic (Girindrasekhar Clinic). A child-guidance centre and a training institute for senior research students were also accommodated here. The double-storeyed house with its ancient mango tree, arches and pink whitewashed walls flaunting hunting trophies, old paintings and photographs including an autographed portrait of Tagore has been visited by many celebrities. Nazrul Islam used to come here for treatment and Subhas Bose and Sisir Bose were family friends. Satyajit Ray also used to drop in.

Girindrasekhar and Rajsekhar also established the Utkendrasamity, which was more like an adda club with cultural leanings. “Uttam Kumar, Arundhati Debi, Pramathanath Bishi and Jatindranath Sen were among the visitors,” says Soumyo, leading the way to the impressive library of the Indian Psychoanalytical Society. The furniture, the books and the photographs of Freud are just as it was in Girindrasekhar’s lifetime.

But all is not well with the association. Funds are in short supply and since the clinic fees and that of the institute are subsidised it is not possible to upgrade the facilities in any way.