Late Dr. Binod Bihari Verma

Binod Bihari Verma(1937 – 2003) was a maithili literateur by soul, medical doctor by profession and an army man by career. He was born on 03 Dec 1937 in the village Bour, by the river Kamla Balan, in Madhubani District (then undivided Darbhanga District) of Bihar. He was the second son in a maithil karna kayastha landlord family of three sons and two daughters. His father, Rameshwar Lal Das, was a prominent Gandhian and tireless worker for the upliftment of the poor, and he imbibed these values in his children as well. These values are also reflected in the writings of Dr. Verma. After finishing his primary school, which was at the Rasiyari village (across the mighty Kamla Balan) – there being no primary school in his village, he moved with his father and uncle to various places in South Bihar (now Jharkhand) who were trying to spread Gandhiji’s message of achieving freedom through self reliance and nonviolence in the remote tribal areas of Chaibasa, Ranchi, and Singhbhum areas of South Bihar. He developed a close bonding with the tribal children of these places which gave him a rare understanding of the lot of the poor and the underpriviledged and which is depicted so picturesquely in his writings. He finished his secondary schooling at the missionary school of St. John’s at Ranchi. Subsequently he joined the Darbhanga Medical College and graduated in 1961. Those were the heady days of Chinese invasion (Sino-Indian War) and he joined the Indian Army and was commissioned into the Army Medical Corps in 1963. The service life gave him ample opportunity to visit remote far flung border areas and gave him a rare insight into the lives of the people of Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Punjab, Assam and Goa among others. He was in effect, a life long student of the culture and language of all the various peoples he came in contact with. He tried to understand their language and read their folk tales and poetry. All these issues are vividly imbibed in his writings.� Click here to View more Info