Ghaziabad writer Sheoraj Singh ‘Bechain’ on a life shaped by books

At eight, Sheoraj Singh ‘Bechain’ caught an early bus to Azadpur Mandi, bought lemons and sold them around Rajouri Garden using a rhyme he had made up. “It was my first poem,” says the Hindi author, who lives in Vasundhara, Ghaziabad.

His memoir, *Mera Bachpan Mere Kandhon Par*, recounts a childhood marked by poverty, family loss and repeated interruptions to his education. Bechain says his father, a cobbler, died when he was five after being treated through exorcism rather than medical care. He recalls that a schoolteacher praised his ability, but that his stepfather destroyed his slate and books.

A route back to school

After relatives took him back to Nadroli village in Badaun district, Bechain says his mother left him with a maternal uncle who made shoes at home in Rajouri Garden. He sold lemons, then worked at a farmhouse in Nainital district and polished shoes near a railway crossing in Bulandshahr.

He continued reading through those years, starting with folktales. A cousin studying at Maulana Azad Medical College later gave him a copy of Harivansh Rai Bachchan’s *Madhushala*. Bechain describes it as his first serious work of literature and says he read it as a protest against hypocrisy, class, caste and religion.

A school principal offered him a route back into formal education: win an August 15 debate to gain admission to Class 11. Bechain prepared a seven-minute speech and won. The principal later urged him to move beyond poems modelled on *Madhushala* and develop his own voice.

From Chandausi to Delhi University

Bechain graduated from SM College, Chandausi, where he adopted his pen name from poet Kunwar Bechain, an alumnus of the college. He completed a PhD at Rohilkhand University on Ambedkar’s influence as a journalist on Hindi Dalit journalism.

His short story *Asthiyon ke Akshar* appeared in *Hans* in February 1996. In August 2004, he served as guest editor for the magazine’s first Dalit special issue. His memoir was published in 2009, and he later became head of Delhi University’s Hindi department.

Bechain says filmmakers have expressed interest in adapting *Mera Bachpan Mere Kandhon Par*. “Talks are on,” he says.