Activist-author Manoranjan Byapari gets dream library job

Award winning activist-writer and pioneer of Dalit literature Manoranjan Byapari, can heave a sigh of relief. After years of toiling as a cook at Helen Keller Badhir Vidyalaya, a school for the specially abled children in Kolkata, he has finally been posted to a less rigorous job at a library in the outskirts of the city. While the author is yet to get the letter of confirmation, he received a phone call from the department concerned.
“Alapanbabu (Bandyopadhyay, Home Secretary, Bengal) called me and gave me the news. I am elated,” said the author, who works in the mass education department.
The story goes back to 2014, when Manoranjan Byapari had appealed to the government to shift him to a position that entailed less physically taxing work. “I work as a cook in a school. It requires a lot of heavy lifting. I have aged, my blood pressure is high and recently had to go through a knee replacement surgery. I also met with an accident - I lost my balance and fell in a tub of hot water in the kitchen. I was hospitalised and could not go to work. Even now, I am housebound and not getting my salary. I really needed to shift to a lighter job. I am happy that I am shifted to a library,” said the 55-year-old writer.
Even though the new job would mean he will have to commute a long distance, Manoranjan is upbeat about it. “If required I can even rent a small house there,” he said.
The new job, rising from the ranks of a cook to that of an assistant in a library, will make its way to his upcoming autobiography, Interrogating My Chandal Life: An Autobiography of a Dalit, revealed the author. “I am so happy that I have decided to end my autobiography on this note. I have been placed at a much more comfortable place by the Chief Minister. I am relieved,” he said, with palpable gratitude.