How I learned to write, by Binod Bera (English translation)

“My father died before I was born. I don't remember the face of my mother, but I heard about her from other people. I was one-and-a-half years old, I was still drinking her milk, when she died. I couldn't understand that I would not get warmth and love from her any more. The catastrophe of '76 (the great Bengal famine of 1943, following disastrous floods in Mednipur) has taken everything away from my life. Nobody gave me any food. Up to 12-13 years old, I didn't know what is rice. I used to collect boiled rice water from door to door, and drinking it, I survived. Early in childhood, I was very interested to know how to read and write. I was looking at the boys and girls going to pathsala (village primary school). I was sitting outside of the window of our village pathsala, and listening to the poems and rhymes, I was repeating and remembering.

At 8 or 9 years old, some boys of my age taught me the different letters of the alphabet. They were my playmates. At home, when my cousin brothers were studying their lessons, I was listening to them, hidden in the dark, repeating silently and remembering. From that time I started to practice writing, hidden behind the wall of the house. With my nails, I used to write on the mud walls. Also, I used to collect the discarded notebooks and small bits of used pencils from my friends who were going to pathsala. On every small space that was left blank on the pages, I was practising.

When during a village festival, I was listening to Kashidas' Mahabharata, loudly read through chanting, there was the particular passage where Abhimanyu is killed, and before the story was finished, everybody went for dinner. But I wanted to know what happened to Abhimanyu. One day, after working the whole day in someone's field, harvesting turmeric from the ground, I told that I would not take money, but I requested the owner to purchase one copy of the Mahabharata for me. Reading started from that time. The village had a library. I asked for one book to read, and they gave me a novel called "Chandrasekhar"(1). Then they told me to sign the register. But when I told the teacher that I never learned to write my name, he was very surprised and told me to learn to write first! And he took one pen, and holding it in my hand, wrote my name. From the library they gave me one book first. When they saw me giving it back after only two hours they were astonished, and wondered how I could finish that book so fast. Then they asked me many kinds of questions about what was in the book, and I answered everything. From that day, teachers told me, take and read all that you want. Within one week, I finished to read all books in the library.

When I had read any book, after finishing, I used to write my own opinion about this book. I like to read very much, till now. Another quality I got is to tell stories nicely, and tell to others the stories I read. For this reason, friends came to me to listen to stories. Many people told me that one day I would become a big writer... When I had to write the first writing of my own, it was difficult and I couldn't even start writing. After a lot of efforts, I wrote one story called "Dhulir bashar". Narayan Gangopadhyay appreciated that story very much, and told, you are very talented, and all villagers were very happy and proud. One monthly magazine, every month, published my writings.

In the '60s, I wrote a book "Chinar nam ghrina" which was praised by prominent writers for its insight. From that time I started to write for all big magazines.”

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(1) by Bankim Chandra 

Today, some school and college text books have poems of Binod Bera. He never abandoned cultivating the land.

Transcript by Bithi Bera.