A Visit to Jeypore

 

I had visited Jeypore thrice, but all those on official business. I was put up in government guest houses. I met the office people, did the office work and returned by evening to reach Bhubaneswar by the next day, to attend the office in the morning. I did not have the opportunity to interact with the local people or to see the town outside the office, in other words, get the feel of the town. This time when Surya (Poet Surya Misra) proposed to attend Nirvan Sahitya Parisad as chief guest in their twenty-ninth annual meet on 19^th December, I readily agreed.

My son warned me of the biting cold of Koraput and Jepore, and suggested me to go with sufficient winter garments. I had to take my coat which was not in use since I retired from government service four years ago. (One does not need to wear coat in Bhubaneswar climate and I have not undertaken journey outside in winter because of Covid during these four years.) But I found cold in Jeypore not harsh, rather pleasant and enjoyable.

I travelled with Surya by Hirakhand express. Chandrakant Biswal, a writer and a resident of Jeypore came to receive us at Koraput railway station. An affable person, Chandrakant who looks younger than his age greeted us with warmth and affection and put us up in a lodge. The meeting began slightly late as it took time for the members to reach from faraway places like Damanjodi, Raygada and other places of undivided Koraut district. Besides the speakers Chandra Sekhar Hota, Surya Misra, the other dignitaries on the dais were Dr Surendra Das, Dr Pradeep Misra and social worker Prakash Nayak.

Nirvan Sahitya Parisad felicitated writers Umakant Das, Rabi Panda, Swati Chatarjee, Bijay Kumar Jena, Srikant Misra and poets Sushant Kumar Nayak, Suranjan Patra and Rabi Satpathy. The way the poets and writers were felicitated with blowing of conch cell and ululating by  women, the poets and writers felt special and really honoured. The post lunch session had poetry recitation. A day of literary festival and intellectual merry making!

                                                ( Writer Rabi Panda is being felicitated)

Surya, a great conversationalist and a mine of information, enthralled me with anecdotes and behind stories of writers and litterateurs’ acts and deeds. The next day we woke up late, went to have tea at a road side tea stall and chitchatted with Chandrakant and his friends and had our breakfast without taking bath and morning ablutions. A young officer of the organisation I had worked for thirty years had seen me while going to the office when I was taking breakfast, standing and gossiping with friends in a road side eating joint. Later, when I visited their office, she said, “Sir, I have seen you eating there in your night pyjama and T-shirt, but could not believe, and thought, perhaps I was wrong in my presumption.”

We returned by the evening train, Hirakhand Express with the dinner packets of paratha and fried cauliflower, prepared by Chandrakant’s wife.

                                                    Sambad (Jaypore edition) has reported the event)

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