Early Life and Education
His childhood education started in a village named Shekpura, at an old mosque, where he went to learn Persian. He was an exceptionally talented student. Since his childhood, Dutt was recognised by his teachers and professors as being a precocious child with a gift of literary expression. He was very imaginative. Early exposure to English education and European literature at home and in Kolkata inspired him to emulate the English in taste, manners and intellect. An early influence was his teacher, Capt. D.L.Richardson at Hindu College. Dutt adopted his support of Thomas Babington Macaulay without realising it.
He dreamt of achieving great fame if he went abroad. His adolescence, coupled with the spirit of intellectual enquiry, convinced him that he was born on the wrong side of the planet, and that conservative Hindu society in early nineteenth-century Bengal (and by extension Indian society) had not yet developed the spirit of rationalistic enquiry and appreciation of greater intellectualism to appreciate him. He believed that the "free thinking" and post-Enlightenment West would be more receptive to his creative genius. He composed his early works—poetry and drama—almost entirely in English. His early works: plays including Sormistha and Ratnavali; translations such as Neel Durpan; and poems, including Captive Ladie, which was written about the mother of his close friend Sri Bhudev Mukhopadhyay, indicate a high level of intellectual sophistication.
Read more about this topic: Michael Madhusudan Dutt
Famous quotes containing the words early life, early, life and/or education:
“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“To be candid, in Middlemarch phraseology, meant, to use an early opportunity of letting your friends know that you did not take a cheerful view of their capacity, their conduct, or their position; and a robust candour never waited to be asked for its opinion.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“Every life has a love story, even though the beloved may be imaginary, or a cat.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“One of the benefits of a college education is, to show the boy its little avail.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)