Sayomdeb Mukherjee, popularly known as RJ Den, with the help of Rakshak Foundation launched his book ‘Memoirs of Time’ on April 5 at the Oxford Bookstore, Kolkata. The book is a fictionalized biography of the exemplary life of a doctor, the father of RJ Den, Dr. Pabitra Deb Mukherjee.
Through his father’s life, Den also traces his own struggle against immense physical challenges how he emerged victorious. This is a book that defies the harshness of fate and exemplifies the magnificence of the indomitable.
“Decision of writing this book was not taken from my mind, it was from my heart. Being a student of literature, I have read many biographies, out of which very few of them appealed to me said,” said Den.
The book will be internationally released on Apple i-Tune in over 50 countries as part of OLF (One Little Finger Foundation), which is a platform that promotes artistic and entrepreneurial ideas for the people with disabilities.
People are more familiar with Den for his distinct voice that they remember from his early morning radio chat show, ‘Haal chero na bondhu’, which translates to ‘Never give up, friend’. This phrase exactly sums up wheelchair bound Den’s life, who has grown up with a rare genetic disorder called Dopamine-Responsive Dystonia that restricts his movement significantly and forces him to move around in a wheelchair.
The loss of speech, since he was one and a half years old, was however very little an issue for his huge thirst of knowledge. He studied History, Geography and Politics keeping himself aloof from the society.
Even before he began speaking, he had traveled to conferences on AAC and other disability issues in Washington, Denmark and Brazil, where he presented papers and met advocates. He even founded Ankur, a disability advocacy group in Kolkata.
Life changed for Den, when on a November morning of 2005 a dopamine-boosting medicine given by his father enabled him to utter words for the first time, after 23 years of his life. ‘Dad, the medicine has clicked!’, were his first words. Since then, he began to speak more and more and can now speak fluently in Bengali, Hindi and English.
Speaking at the book launch, he said, “My father, a doctor in West Bengal Government Service had some outstanding experiences in his life. Every story of this book has certain elements of his experience but this is not a biography. Thus, I dedicate this book to that doctor, who never thought lack of infrastructure can stop him to work, who believed in innovation, whose life was filled with adventurism. As a doctor, he never believed that money is the ultimate thing to achieve.”
Den is associated with city-based theatre group, namely ‘Kothakolom’, which works with differently abled children. Their latest play, ‘Black hole is not black’ was staged last month, which highlighted the Nirbhaya rape incident.
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