Jasure Kai (i. e. the Kai fish of Jessore)[1], at which Isvar Chandra used to be greatly annoyed. The boys were much amused at his futile rage. Sometimes, by a wilful misplacement of the sounds J and K, they called him Kasure Jai, instead of Jasure Kai, and then he was provoked to the extreme. But he could not give utterance to a single syllable, as he was a great stammerer, at that time. Had the boys been able to foresee that this little large-headed dwarf, whom they thus nicknamed jocosely, would become such a great man in after years, they would never have ventured to tease and annoy him in this fashion.
Thakurdas was a man of rigour and irritable temperament. It has been mentioned before, that what Isvar Chandra read in his class in the day, he had to repeat, every night, to his father. If he ever missed a single word or syllable, he had to receive a good thrashing from the hands of Thakurdas. Even at this young age he had to sit up a great part of the night. His father returned home from his place of business at nine o'clock in the
- ↑ A great number of live Kai fish are imported to Calcutta from the Jessore District, in boats. Since they are fished up, these fishes get nothing to eat, and consequently they decay in flesh, but their heads remain much the same; and when they are produced for sale in the Calcutta bazars, their big heads appear prominently. Hence the nickname Jasure Kai is given to one, whose head is much bigger in porportion to the other parts.
