Self-Reflection and Realization

Every year, before the onset of Durga Puja, readers of Bengali literature receive some precious gifts in the form of the Sharadiya Pujabarshiki (Yearly Literary Magazine). For the past 70 years or so, we have seen some outstanding works from the Creme' of Bengali literature like Samaresh Basu, Sunil Ganguly, Shirshendu Mukherjee, Ashapurna Devi and many others being published in these magazines for the first time. This trend continues; this year, too, my husband gifted me a few such magazines before Durga Puja. Kishore Bharati is one of the magazines I got and today I picked a story called "Vaijayantimala" from that. for November's #TBRChallenge.

About the Author:

The author Bhaswar Chatterjee is a popular Film and Television actor who works predominantly in the Bengali Film Industry. He started his career as an actor in 1998 from television serials and later worked in Rajkumar Santoshi's The Legend of Bhagat Singh. In his elaborate career, spanning almost 30 years, he has given noteworthy performances on big and small screens. He has a few books to his credit, the most popular being Onno Upottoka. 

Story Synopsis:

The story begins with details of a reputed school where a new student gets admission. The boy who has moved from a different state is shy and has difficulty adapting to the new school's ways, including struggling with Maths, due to the transfer of Boards. Above all, he has a very unique and offbeat name—Vaijayant. Due to so many odd things about him, he becomes the subject of severe bullying and harassment, both by his classmates and teachers, led by the Maths teacher, Vijay Sir. He is mocked for his name by them too.  Vaijayant tries his best to adapt to the school's ways and norms. He does everything to be accepted by his classmates and teachers. But nothing seems to work in his favour. To cope with Maths, he tries to get into Vijay Sir's private tuition but gets meanly harassed by him, instead, in front of everyone. When nothing works he tries to make a place for himself by singing in the Annual Day function of the school, with guitar. While singing 500 miles, in between he starts to sing in the song's Hindi version, "Jab Koi Baat Bigad Jaye". And that is it, the whole group of teachers starts objecting to singing a film song, especially Vijay Sir, who stops him in between, humiliating him brutally on stage. 

After many years, the now-retired Vijay Sir is relaxing while his grandson comes in from school, crying. When asked, he says, everyone including the teachers, makes fun of him because of his name, Hemil and mocks him by calling Hema Malini. Vijay Sir gets shocked and travels back on memory lane to an incident many years back when the last note found in the school bag lying on the railway tracks read - "Those who have made me cry will also end up crying one day."The school bag belonged to a boy who was mocked as Vaijayantimala.

The Self-Reflecting Factor

Often, we don't realize what damage we can do to another person while making fun of him. Especially growing up years are very sensitive, and if not handled properly, can lead to devastating results. Unless the same thing happens to us or our dear ones, this realization is not possible. Bullying is a social evil and can damage many lives, especially tender ones. In this story, until Vijay Sir's most precious person - his grandson was treated the same way, that he had once treated his student, Vaijayant, he was not able to realize his fault. 

"I'm participating in the #TBRChallenge by Blogchatter"

This blog post is part of ‘Blogaberry Dazzle’
hosted by Cindy D’Silva and Noor Anand Chawla 
in collaboration with Dr. Preeti Chauhan.