“Charles Darwin nowhere mentions female monkeys. It is strange, a man who continually worked on the theory must have come across the question that, okay, the monkey becomes the man, but who becomes the woman? Female monkeys must become women, but there is no reference to them in Charles Darwin’s books. So the monkeys are our forefathers and cows are our foremothers.

“I don’t know whether such a word exists or not and I don’t care either – I have never come across such a word as foremothers; but if forefathers makes sense, then foremothers also makes sense.”

He was so angry that he said, “You will never talk sense.”

I said, “What can be more sensible? Man is a cross-breed – all the qualities of the cow, and all the qualities of the monkey. Man is so rich! No other animal is a cross-breed; that’s why man has become the supreme-most, the highest animal in the world.”

And this man – Seth Govindas was his name – was respected all over the country; but he couldn’t see simple things.

In India there are thirty languages of almost equal importance. There are a few differences; for example, Hindi is spoken by more people, but Bengali has a far richer literature, more refined language. Just to hear two Bengalis talking is such an experience in itself. Their language is so sweet, every word is so rounded.

I had one Bengali girl as my post-graduate student. In Hindi her name would be Rama. Rama means beautiful, attractive, but when I asked her her name – she was a Bengali – she said, “Roma.” I tried hard…” Roma? Has it something to do with Rome?” She said, “No, it is your Hindi ‘Rama,’ but in Bengali it becomes Roma.” Roma certainly is more romantic; Rama looks hard, harsh, clear-cut but not rounded.

Bengalis have their claim that they have the best literature, not only in India, but perhaps in the whole world – a great tradition of the best poetry.

What does it mean, just counting numbers? Hindi may be spoken by many people; the numbers are not much different. If Pakistan had not been divided from India then Bengali would have been spoken by more people than Hindi, because half of Bengal went into Pakistan. Otherwise Bengali is spoken by more people than Hindi. So it is just a political accident that the country got divided and half of Bengal became Bangladesh and half of Bengal remained in India. But if you look at world languages, Bengali will come before Hindi.

But numbers don’t count. Tamil has its own literature, far more ancient than the literature of Sanskrit, because the people of South India are the original Indians. The people of North India are invaders. The people of North India who speak Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati are all Aryans. They are blood brothers of the French, Italians, Germans, English, Swedish, Russians, but they have no relationship of blood with the South Indians. South Indians have a blood relationship with the Negroes.