Gour Kishore Ghosh was born on 20 June 1923, in Jessore district (in pre-Partition East Bengal), in present-day Bangladesh. Ghosh was a Magsaysay Award winning writer, journalist, activist, and above all a humanist. He was a prolific writer, and often wrote satirical pieces against the corrupt establishment that often got him in trouble.
In addition to writing under his own name, Ghosh also adopted two pen names for his columns: Rupadarshi (meaning ‘one who sees beauty’) for the popular literary weekly Desh (Country) and Goudananda Kavi (meaning ‘Poet Laureate of Bengal’ for Darpan (The Mirror) an independent news weekly, later in AnandabazaarPatrika, highest circulated bengali news daily.
Ghosh worked for publications like Nababani, Arani, Satyayug (a publication by The Times of India group), Anandabazar Patrika, Darpan, and Aajkaal (which he co-founded) among others. He served two stints at Anandabazar Patrika, once from 1952 to 1980 and then again from 1982 to 2000, until his death.
Known for his outspoken and uncompromising ways, Ghosh was not only an unabashed seeker of truth but also deeply critical of society and its many flaws. He did not think that serving the news was his only job. Despite this he believed in the inherent goodness of humans and dedicated his life to fight for communal harmony.
His lifelong philosophy could be summed up in these words:
"I have tried to reach all three Hindu gods Vishnu the administrator, Brahma the creator and Siva the destroyer and renewer, and even the Muslim and the Christian god, but I have found, in my experience, that all of them failed to deliver justice to mankind. We have seen riots and killings in the name of all these religions. So I have come to the conclusion that men must build their history by themselves. My religion is man."
Gour Kishore Ghosh was of medium height and slight build, he walked with a relaxed rolling gait. He wore the usual Bengali garb of open sandals, a white dhoti pulled between his legs and tied up under a kurta or short-sleeved Panjabi, a worn woven shoulder bag, and on rainy days a large, black umbrella hooked over his arm. He had a mop of curly black hair, a moustache, his expressive eyes lay behind his thick spectacles. Beneath his sly wit was an earnest, humane person with an inextinguishable fire.
Gour Kishore Ghosh was born in his uncle's house in Jessore district, Jhenaidah subdivision, Hatgopalpur village (now in Bangladesh).
He was the eldest child of Sadhana (NareshNandini), the eldest daughter of Kiranbala and Bidhubhushan Majumdar, and Dr Girijabhushan, the son of Rashiklal Ghosh. Mathurapur village in Jhenaidah, Jessore is the ancestral home of Gour Kishore.
The nature of Dr Girijabhushan Ghosh’s work made the family travel to various places in Ghosh’s childhood. His father, who hailed from a neighbouring village, studied medicine in Calcutta before beginning his medical practice in the area. He was a university gold medalist homoeopath. The wandering began when Gour Kishore was five and his father accepted a job in Sylhet as the doctor on a tea plantation. After Mathurapur, Sylhet, Sengram, Chakla and Hatgopalpur, he finally settled in Nabadwip.
Ghosh fondly remembered his childhood days:
"We were almost like a family of nomads. At that time for a Hindu family to go to an unknown place was almost like a sin. Sylhet then was very remote. You had to travel by bullock cart, then rail carriage, then steamboat. After that nobody knew; it was beyond comprehension. And in the rail carriage you would not know who would travel with you, maybe some Muslims, maybe some Christians. So the attitude was, don't go. Your village was the world."
However, the village was not Ghosh’s oyster as he forged a career and life far beyond the hinterland of rural Bengal.
Gourkishore's staunch helpmate had been his wife, Shila Ghosh who got married to him in 12 May 1956. They are succeeded by three children Sahana, Sohini and Bhaskar. In December 1993, at the age of 70, he fell ill and had to undergone a heart surgery. On December 15, 2000, he breathed his last in a city nursing home in Kolkata. His mortal remains were donated to the Calcutta Medical College hospital for anatomical studies according to his wishes.
Gour Kishore Ghosh began his education in Sylhet in a one-man school. He was enrolled in Sylhet Madhabchhara Tea Garden. His first formal school was Dakshinbhaag Vidyalaya near the tea garden they lived in.
Ghosh credits his strict schoolmaster, Nabin Pal, for teaching him to write Bengali properly. For the next two and a half years Ghosh recalled living in several places and changing schools four or five times before finally moving to Nabadwip, about 40 miles north of Calcutta.
From then until Ghosh’s graduation from high school there was no further change of residence. But the family was now faced with a different hardship. His father earned enough to pay tuition for Ghosh to attend Nabadwip Bakultala High English School where he began to study English. One of the turning points in his life occurred here.
While in the seventh Standard Ghosh vaguely remembered winning first prize for either "writing an essay, or for my recitation or elocution” and was given an English book, Treasure Island, which he could not understand. As his English teacher Gouri Prasad Basu had promised, this book opened up new vistas to the village-bred youth. Ghosh remembered Basu fondly as one of his mentors and when he received news of his Ramon Magsaysay Award, he promptly wrote to Basu in gratitude.
Ghosh passed matriculation with a first class (he was among the very few boys who qualified for Division I) in 1941 from Nabadwip Bakultala High English School. He was offered tuition scholarships by two Calcutta colleges. He went to the city intending to study and work part-time, but when neither college could guarantee him a place in their hostels, he had to forgo both offers. After that, he took a temporary break from his education as he had to shoulder the responsibility of taking care of his family and the household.
Finally, in 1945 he passed the ISC (Intermediate Science Class) in the third division from Vidyasagar College (Nabadwip branch). This was the end of his academic pursuits.
