Memoir of Silent Scars

Through luminous simplicity and emotional precision, Adhir Biswas lays bare the architecture of caste and the quiet heroism of survival, reminding us that compassion is resistance

- RAJESH OP SINGH

The Last Bench is a profoundly moving and hauntingly evocative autobiographical memoir that lays bare the interwoven realities of caste-based discrimination and poverty through a child’s untainted consciousness and innocent eyes.

The book begins with a spinetingling statement that “Your father touches you. Just as your ancestors did, they touch you with their caste.” This striking statement immediately transports the reader into a social landscape where identity itself becomes an inherited stigma.

In the book, the author recounts his experiences in the classroom, describing how the stigma of untouchability defined his earliest encounters with education. Despite his diligence, he carefully inscribed every word on his cracked slate, but he was always made to sit on the last bench and denied even the simple right to ask a question. From the very first day, his teacher chose to address him not by his surname Biswas, but as Parmanik, solely because he belonged to a barber's (nai) family.

Born into a family of barbers, young Adhir assisted his father in calling customers to their shop. Yet, his father believed education to be the only viable escape from the shackles of poverty and therefore enrolled him in the local school at the tender age of six or seven. However, a bright and studious boy who loved going to school, he was relegated to the last bench and made invisible. Despite securing second place in the annual exam, he repeatedly contemplates dropping out, just as his three older brothers had already dropped out.