Memories are Not to Throw Away

 

                                                      (Memories are Not to Throw Away)

Harihara and his friend were returning by foot to Puri after visiting Chandrabhaga. They came across two/three British sahibs on the way. They stopped them and one of them asked, “Do you swim?” Harihara replied, “Yes, we do, but can’t swim sea or an ocean.” Those were the times of the second world war; the war continued between UK and Germany. Those British soldiers were, perhaps, coast guards, and they mistook Harihar and his friend as German terrorists. Harihar’s friend said, “We are students of Cuttack C.T. School; we had come for a visit to Chandrabhaga.”

India attained independence on the 15^th August, 1947, but the kings of garjat (princely states) felt freedom from the British rule, and behaved like independent countries. They hoisted their own states’ flags, not the tricolour national flag of India. Rajendra Narayan Singhdeo unfurled two flags; one Indian tricolour and the other, the state flag of the Patna kingdom. He announced, “We, the garjat kings of India are now free; we have not yet integrated with India. Lat’s us see what happens next.” 

Harihara was then a teacher in Patnagarh’s Ramai School.

Historiographers are of the view that incidents described in an autobiography can be taken as historical facts if those are buttressed by other historical evidence. Public persons, persons established in the society, such as politicians, ministers, governors or president would not write anything of their lives that the society or the people in general will not approve of. They would not reveal their weakness and wrong deeds. They also tend to write good deeds, sometimes, they write false, to glorify themselves and also try to rationalize anything wrong they had done, and been criticized.

Harihara Misra is a common man, an honest, sincere and an affectionate teacher. In his autobiography, ‘Smruti Ta Nuhen Kebe Phingibaar’ (memories are not to throw away), he has written the life of the common man, his life and time. He has not written anything to show off himself big or a man of high moral standard. He has portrayed the events and personalities he has come across in his life’s journey honestly from the prospective of a common man.

Born in 1922, he was twenty-five when India attained independence. Orphaned in childhood, he was brought up by his maternal grandparents. A man from the garjat area, he studied in Cutack C.T. School with scholarship from the king of the Patna state. He did his intermediate and graduation and D.Ed. as a private candidate. He struggled to set foot and establish him in the society, but has never described his pain, never expressed distress in his memoirs. He was at 89 when he started writing his memoirs, but has written only forty-five years of his life until 1969. He did not want to burden the readers, as he says, making the book voluminous by writing his success story, his happy life.

                                                                  (As I have Experienced)

‘Dihakar Katha’ (As I have experienced), is the memoirs of Raseswari Misra, wife of Harihara. She has studied up to standard four only. She has been brought up in a cultural and educational milieu. They have always guests, for Harihara is a sociable person, and he loves to treat his guests. Besides, they have eight children. On some says, Raseswari has to cook for thirty people. Despite all her busy life, she has never neglected her pursuits of learning. She starts writing poetry at 88, recited poems in literary gatherings; the AIR has also broadcast her poems.

A reader of the books will find the life of the common man in the garjat area, the customs, traditions, culture and beliefs of the garjat people before independence. Written in a simple and lucid style, the books are readable, and are useful for the scholars engaged in research of garjat states.

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