readersdigest.co.in 89could not find the meaning anywhere.
One day, I had a passenger—looking at
her I figured she could be a professor,
as she had taken the rickshaw from
Jyotish Roy College, and so might know
what the word meant,” recalls Byapari.
It was late afternoon in June and the
sun was breathing fire. The passenger
unleashed a barrage of questions:
Where did you come across this term?How far have you studied? What books
have you read? He named quite a few
books, among them were Mahasweta
Devi’s Hajar Churashir Maa and
Aranyer Adhikar. “I edit a literary
magazine—will you write for me?” the
woman asked. Byapari had already read
some 400 books, but he had never
written a single line until then. He told
her this, asking her for her address.In a strange, and joyful, coincidence,
Byapari met his literary mentor
Mahasweta (inset), as a rickshaw
puller in Kolkata.Extraordinary LivesSU
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