[silence] The Grand/petite narrative of Bharat , Part-I (contd.)

[Debaprasad Bandyopadhyay]

silence@list.mail.virginia.edu

Silence fiction 
The Meta/petite narrative of Bharat 
(Summarized and  translated  version of a Bangla pseudo-novel, published in Kalodhvani, 13:1, October, 2005)
Canto-I (contd.) 
Bharat’s Personal History
At the moment of intervention of a neuro-psychiatrist, bharat was just like a dead body—he was not speaking or moving. 
The neuro-psychiatrist was curious about Bharat’s personal life, childhood configuration, family history etc. though he, as a busy physician, did not have enough time to listen to Bharat’s story from his peer group and on the other hand, Bharat’s friend did not have time also as they had already rejected Bharat—not for his non-speaking, but for his reduced market-value. Bharat, though an ordinary lecturer in Linguistics in an international academic institute, was once invited to attend a prestigious non-residential fellowship to execute a book-project on Chomskian hypothesis on linguistic creativity and his salary was reduced for some unknown reasons. Dejected Bharat was merged with huge debt as he lost almost hundred thousand Indian currencies for transporting his family from one place to another.  From then on, friends were avoiding Bharat and he begun to suffering from persecutory paranoia as he imagined a big conspiracy around him. Bharat was a regular writer in a political weekly, where he raised his voice against statist, religious or economic discrimination and those papers were referred in the parliament. According to Bharat’s fantastic imagination, it were  those political writings that were responsible for his degradation. Bharat, as Pancajani reiterated it to the doctor, then questioned Pancajani, “How could it be possible jani, my salary is reduced, when I’m awarded?” 

The neuro-psychiatrist found the following facts about Bharat from his family: 
1.	Pertussis (whooping cough) at the age of  2. 
2.	Ear /Wax blockage  at the age of of 6 and Otitis media(an inflammation/infection of the middle ear) at the age of 26.  

The physician tried to relate these organic failures--throat and ear problems with Bharat’s silence. He found the fact that the Bharat was suffering from wax blockage at that time, when he was living beside a Ballpress factory that used to emit almost 100 db per pulse. All the State Apparutuses (Local Muinicipalty, Pollution Control Board, Directorate of Fractories, Department of Health Hazards etc.) did not pay any heed to Bharat’s appeal to stop that noise and Bharat had lost his faith in welfare state. Moreover, there was  a religious organization  of vaisnavas (akhra) beside the Bharat’s flat. They’re singing kirtanas (a type of dramatic singing in Bengal) through 24 hrs. In certain occassions, they’re using 11 loudspeakers to spread their musical messages. Therefore, Bharat and Pancajani used to wear ear-plugs to avoid two types of unwanted noises. And it was also found in his family history of Bharat that his grandpa had become dumb and was lost in the crowd after the great Indian partition in 1947. 

The Health Care Provider tried to relate all these incidences to  Bharat’s “disease”by all his faith in deterministic cause and effect theory. His question was: is it a organic failure or a functional failure? 

However, he also cut a sorry figure in curing Bharat. Pancajani was crying and blaming Bharat for playing a role of malingering  silent man. How could Pancajani run the family? 


                                                        (to be contd.) 
                                             DEBAPRASAD BANDYOPADHYAY http://linguistlist.org/people/personal/get-personal-page2.cfm?PersonID=2503




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