EXTRAORDINARY LIVES
By Sanghamitra Chakraborty
Photograph by Vikram Sharma Illustrationby Keshav KapilOnce a child left for dead, now an
award-winning author, Manoranjan Byapari’s
life is an astonishing survival sagaJanuary 2018, Chennai. The stage is set for The Hindu Prize 2018
for non-fiction. Five outstanding books from over 500 entries have
been shortlisted. Each of the authors is widely celebrated, barring
one. So when the outlier’s work, Interrogating My Chandal Life—
An Autobiography of a Dalit, is announced as the winner, it is a
moment in Indian literary history. Receiving the award, author
Manoranjan Byapari, now 69, normally tenaciously unsentimental,
breaks down into his gamchha, which he wears around his neck as a
symbol of his identity. Many in the audience, his wife Manju among
them, struggle to fight back tears. “The joy is not mine alone, but
that of all those who are hated and discriminated against. The
respect I received here made me cry,” Byapari said later.
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