A TRANSLATED POEM OF 

KALYANI THAKUR CHARAL  

CONTEMPORARY BENGALI DALIT POETESS

BENGALI  POETESS - KALYANI  THAKUR  CHARAL

Contemporary Bangla literaure is incomplete without strong dalit voices ignored for decades!!

A poem from Chandalinir Kobita (Published in 2011) 


by Kalyani Thakur (Translated from Bangla by Jaydeep Sarangi, poem Number:37)


Heard insane musing
Of hammer and burning iron
Lying beside the furnace.

Ran from this post to that
Like a weaver shuttle.

Like a plough head
On the back of a farmer
I go to a far off land.


Toiled hard in the wide field
To see crop blooming all-round.

All to meet the hunger only.

Yet, Amlasole is a reality.


I feed my children with white eggs
Of red ants 
Inspire of boiled rice.

The siblings nourished by that only
Take up bows and arrows in their hands.

They are desperate
Even they are ready to face
The bullet
With their broad breast
Without knowing 
Underlying meaning of ‘revolution’.

MIRACLE MAN MANORANJAN BYAPARI !!

MANORANJAN BYAPARI

Miracle man Manoranjan Byapari is now an icon of WILL TO LIVE (jijibisha) - to live and manifest excellance in the midst of most horrid contexts ! Hailing from so called underclass of Bengal, Byapari dashed across the nation to ensure basic needs and was frequently sucked into most henious social exploitations. In such race he remained unlettered. Landing up in prison accused for hooliganism, Byapari lerned Bengali alphabets for the first time here at the age of 24 !!  His hunger for knowledge ignited and this seemed to be a permanent U-turn towards excellance. This and  a chance meeting with Mahasveta Devi inaugurated his carreer as a writer. From then on there was no looking back!

He received national acclaim after a translation of his essay "Is there Dalit Writing in Bangla?" by Professor Meenakshi Mukherjee was published in volume XLII of Economic and Political Weekly, 13 October 2007. Byapari is now the proud owner of nine novels and more than hundred stories , the latest being the first volume of his autobiographical novel, "Itibritte Chandal Jiban"(2012)."Itibritte Chandal Jiban" is by far the first autobiographical novel by a Bengali dalit writer. The story is a blood chilling discourse of everyday life and struggles of the Bengal underclass ! His life is now in turn inspiring novels, poems, documentaries and films !!

THRILLED WEST BENGAL STATE UNINVERSITY STUDENTS THRONG AROUND MANORANJAN BYAPARI

MANORANJAN BYAPARI (extreme left) seen with WBSU Professors, literary critics and other Bengali Dalit writers. 14th May 2012.