Light Inspired by Anuradha Bhattacharyya

Introduction to the novel, published by Dustin Pickering at World Inkers, New York and Dakar. “In this unique journey called writing, there are several stations, stopping by which one can pick up a few grains of wisdom. As the journey progresses, the experiences of those stoppages conjoin to yield special insights. The trick for success in writing is to linger on those experiences even after you have departed the station. Writing is a special vehicle for sharing one’s accumulated wisdom, bit by bit, or fictionally put together in a single story. I am sharing here a story that is inspired by the life and thoughts of a young man named Deep Narayan Nayak whom I came to know a few months ago. The core of his wisdom is to illuminate many hearts through his tireless striving. His is a story of how light can be kindled from a struggle with shadows. The shadow he had dealt with, in his childhood, empowered him to identify similar shadows in other human beings. Not only that, he also came across worse than shadows – complete darkness. I have been awestruck by the way he speaks about the villages he has worked for. He has infinite respect for all creatures. From the shadows of ignorance, when he draws them to light, he is not watching his steps. He goes headlong into what he thinks is necessary. Thankfully, he is blessed with the instinct for the right path. He calls his endeavour, the teacher of the streets. He invites his fellow men to act as he does. He has spread the message in remote districts of India, places where political interference is the least. According to me, his motto is, I go where political leaders fear to tread. Looking back at the type of government intervention designed to bring to light all the backward classes, I feel, for all these seventy-five years, they have done very little. Their minions are insincere. Even some of the local orders are directly opposite of what makes the poor enlightened. Ignoring all hurdles and taking many risks, Nayak has made great strides in educating backward classes. I told him, poverty is a favourite subject of writers. He was not amused. He has seen so much poverty that what the fictionists have written appear far less dismal. His enthusiasm for the Adivasi community, which is his focus now, prodded me to look at education from a philosophical perspective. I am not very comfortable in telling tales of squalid situations, but I decided to delve on the mystic quality of his efforts. In this narrative, fictionally told by his eldest sister, I have omitted references to places, time, the pandemic and other circumstantial facts that probably enhanced his philanthropy. The guiding principle of this litany is educationist. The guiding light is the man I am calling Deepu.”