Bepin Choudhury's Lapse of Memory is a story about a man who has lost a particular memory of an event that took place a few years back in his life. After meeting his friend Chunilal, Bepin Choudhury starts becoming confused about his trip to Ranchi as Chunilal narrates to him a series of events that are completely new to him. Despite having a sharp memory, Bepin Choudhury starts worrying about those events and eventually gets convinced about his lapse of memory.
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The story takes an unexpected turn when Bepin Choudhury pays a visit to Ranchi for reliving the memory. On his journey to discover the truth, Bepin Choudhury finds out that it was all a practical joke from Chunilal. He made all those up for tricking Bepin Babu for not supporting him in his bad times. The story concludes on a humorous note when Bepin realises that it was all a set-up all along and he was fine the whole time.
On his way back home, Bepin Choudhury stops at the Kalicharan’s in New Market and founds a man staring at him as if he recognises him. After asking the man, he replies that his name is Parimal Ghose and he knows Bepin Choudhury from the time when they spent a trip together in Ranchi. Bepin Choudhury denies his visit to Ranchi as he was sure that he never went to Ranchi and especially in Puja ‘58, he was at Kanpur spending his time with his friend. After repeated attempts from Parimal Ghose, Mr Choudhury was convinced that he has never been to Ranchi in his life and eventually he leaves the store after paying for the books. Therefore, the man stared in utter disbelief at Bepin Choudhury, thinking how he can forget about their trip to Ranchi.
Parimal Ghose’s vivid description of the Ranchi trip started bothering Bepin Babu after he starts thinking about the intruder in the bookshop. Despite having an excellent memory, Bepin Babu was convinced that he has never been to Ranchi but the descriptions from Parimal Ghose started bothering him. Bepin Babu started becoming sceptical regarding his excellent memory and started worrying if he was losing his mind or not.
The man previously mentioned that Mr Dinesh Mukherji was in Ranchi at the same time when Bepin Babu and Parimal Ghose was there. So, he decided to ask Mr Mukherji about the incident, if he remembers something similar to Mr Ghose or not. First, he thought about paying a visit to Mr Mukherji’s house but eventually dropped the idea, thinking that Mr Mukherji will think that Bepin Babu is going crazy. So, he decided to finally phone him and ask him about his whereabouts in puja ‘58.
Chunilal was a friend of Bepin Babu who had been with him from his school days. ‘Chunilal was going through some rough patches regarding a job in his life when he asked Bepin Babu about a job posting in his company. So, Chunilal came to pay a visit to Bepin Babu although he repeatedly informed Chunilal that there is nothing to do from his side (ncert, 2022). Chunilal wanted a job badly, hence he paid repeated visits to Bepin Babu’s house despite his repeated disclaimers about the scarcity of jobs in his company.
After listening to the situation from Bepin Babu, Dr Chanda was surprised as he has never seen such a case in his medical career. He mentioned that Bepin Babu’s case was outside of his field of experience and he was unable to think of any common medications for this issue. He found that Bepin Babu’s case was very unusual as he has slipped only one event from his memory and the rest of the memory is intact for him. Therefore, he advised Bepin Babu to repay a visit to Ranchi which might help him remember the course of events that took place there in puja ‘58.
No, Bepin Babu did not lose his mind and forget anything as it was discovered that all these events were a ploy by Chunilal all along. Later, it was confirmed that Bepin Babu has never been to Ranchi in his life, therefore he has never forgotten a single thing about that incident in his life.
'Chunilal was in desperate need of a job in his rough times and therefore he approached Bepin Babu for helping him. He was expecting cooperation from Bepin Babu as they were friends since school days. After getting repeated rejections from Bepin Babu, Chunilal decided to pull off a memory lapse prank on his friend. Despite his scarcity of money, he used his imagination to create a story about Bepein Babu going to Ranchi in puja ‘58 (ncert, 2022). He mentioned that all he had was an excellent imagination which he used as a tool to prank his friend asretribution of his unfeeling behaviour.
At first, Bepin Babu might have felt cheated and angry, especially after being tricked by his friend. Eventually, he must have understood how Chunial might have felt after repeated rejections from him in his rough times. Therefore, Bepin Babu took it as a sport and moved on with his life knowing he is absolutely fine in terms of his memory.
Q1. What exactly does lapse of memory stands for?
Ans. Lapse of memory is a medical condition, where a patient can completely forget a chain of events that took place in his/her life at a specific time. This was the primary plot of the story Bepin Choudhury’s Lapse of Memory written by Satyajit Ray.
Q2. Is Bepin Choudhury’s Lapse of Memory a revenge story?
Ans. Bepin Choudhury’s Lapse of Memory is a humorous story about a friend tricking another friend for not helping him in his times of need. It may not be termed a story of revenge but it can be termed as a story of retribution.
Q3. Why did Bepin Babu call Dr Chanda at the end?
Ans. After returning from Ranchi, Bepin Babu called Dr Chanda asking for suggestions regarding painkillers for his hip pain. This time he seriously fell in Ranchi and needed prescriptions for his pain from Dr Chanda.
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