Influences
His childhood experiences in a Dalit-Shia Muslim ghetto gave Roy Choudhury several positive dimensions to his identity. At the age of three he was admitted to the local Catholic School by Father Hillman, who was a photographer and knew Malay's father. He had to attend Bible classes in the school and that is how Malay entered the world of Old and New Testaments, and eventually, western literature. After completion of primary schooling at the Catholic School, Malay was sent to the Oriental Seminary administered by the Brahmo Samaj (Brama Samaj was a monotheistic religious movement, founded in 1830 in Kolkata by Ram Mohun Roy who attempted to recover the simple worship of the Vedas and purify Hinduism), a completely Bengali cultural world where he came across student-cum-librarian Namita Chakraborty, who introduced Roy Choudhury to Sanskrit and Bengali classics. All religious activities were banned in this school. Roy Choudhury claims that his childhood experience has made him instinctively secular.
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