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. |
