ARUNACHAL

 

(Sela Pass, bordering China)

Our flight to Kolkata was at 7.05, morning. We arrived Kolkata at 8, morning. Our next flight to Itanagar was at 12.45 PM. If the flight to Itanagar departed on time, we would reach around 2 PM. We did not have breakfast at home before we left for airport as we had to reach airport at least one hour before the scheduled departure. We decided to have something to eat in Kolkata airport, and have our lunch in Itanagar. Food in the airport was costly. We had plates of three idlis that cost us Rs. 350 per plate. We reached Itanagar at 2 PM.

The vehicles hired for us did not enter into the airport. The drivers of the vehicles of the airport had a union; they did not allow outside vehicles. The vehicles hired for us were from Assam. We had to walk one and half miles to come outside the airport area. We left Itanagar at around 2.30 PM. We were all hungry. The tour operator told the driver to stop the vehicle near a hotel.

A standard hotel was not to be seen. The road side hotels were mud walled thatched houses. The driver stopped the vehicle near such a hotel. But the hotel did not have food. The manager told there was no electricity since the night before, and they did not have water to cook food. We approached another hotel; the manager there said that they could not serve food for twenty-seven people at a time. We were a group of twenty-seven including the tour operator.

At last, we reached a hotel that agreed us to serve food; a simple meal of roti, dal and cabbage curry. The food was tasty, perhaps, for we were hungry and it served us hot. It was already 4 PM. We reached Tejpur at 6, evening, and checked in the hotel.

2

                                             (Sela Pass, the lake behind is frozen)

We started our journey at 9, morning from Tejpur to Bomdila. Mountainous road; the roads have been made cutting the mountains and forest. On the way we saw a small waterfall. Bus journey, because of the road conditions, took time. We reached Bomdila at 4, afternoon. Temperature in Bomdila was 9 degree, Celsius. The temperature reduced in the night; in the morning, it was 2 degree.

                                               (Paresh and I with Mrutyunjay Mohanty)

The bus we traveled had eight passengers.  We four, Paresh and I with our wives; P.K.Das and his wife, Dr S. P. Panda and Mrutyunjay Mohanty. Mrutyunjay Mohanty is a lover of literature and he had read both Paresh and me. He was pleased to meet us and we discussed literature and current affairs while travelling.

                                              (Bumla Pass, Paresh and me, enjoying snow fall)

We had our lunch in a road side hotel. Arunachal does not have many tourists. The hotels find it difficult to serve to food thirty people at a time. The hotel cooked food and served us. The manager and, perhaps, the owner also, was a lady. I noticed, the shops and hotels in Arunachal are mainly managed by ladies.

We went to Sela pass, bordering China. The temperature there was 1 degree Celsius. The mountains on the way to Sela Pass were covered with snow. The lake near the Sela pass was frozen. Biting cold, we did not have sufficient winter dress to beat . We shivered.  On our way to Tawang where we were to stay the night, we visited Jaswant Gadwar memorial. In 1962 was with China, Jaswant alone had killed many Chinese soldiers. He is awarded Mahavir Chakra. It is believed; his soul is present there, and still giving protection.

                                                (At Jaswant Gadwar memorial)
3

We went to Bumla Pass, border with China. The distance from Tawang was 37 Kms. We calculated we would return within four hours and have lunch in the hotel. But weather changed. There was snow fall. The temperature was minus (-) 3 degree. The driver tied chains with the back wheels for the vehicle to move on snow. First time I witnessed snow fall. We went to the army base near the border. Had hot noodles and bought woolen caps and hand gloves. It was difficult to drive on snow. We had left the hotel for Bumla Pass at 8.30, morning, and returned at 4.30, afternoon. The to and fro journey took eight hours.

                   (Praresh, Me, Mrutyunjay Mohanty, Dr S.P Panda and Dr P.K. Das)

It was drizzling in Tawang. The temperature was 6 degree Celsius. We were hungry. We gobbled up roti, cabbage curry and egg omelets the hotel managed to prepare and serve us in haste. We did not go anywhere in the evening.

4

                                                                (Near a monastery)

We left Tawang at 8.45, morning and reached Tezpur at 8.30, night. Twelve hours bus journey, I undertook first time after many years. I was afraid of such a long journey, but for Paresh and other co-travelers; time passed gossiping and merrymaking inside the bus.

The main religion practiced by the people is Buddhism. We have seen large Buddha statues and monasteries in Bomdila and other places. The pattern of the building of all monasteries is almost the same. On our way back to Tejpur we also visited one Buddha statue and a water fall. The water fall originates from Sela Pass and the river that flows nearby originates from China. Hydroelectricity is generated from the water fall. A beautiful sight.

                                                               (With Paresh)

We witnessed snow covered mountains and snow fall on the way; snowflakes hung from the branches and leaves of the pine trees. Back home, I had posted a short video of the scene in my Facebook timeline; some people mistook the place Switzerland.  

******

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                

 

Sadanand, You Should Not Have Left Us So Early

 

 

I met Sadanand for the first time in 1996 in Rourkela. We knew each other much before the said meeting. He had written me letters on my stories, on two or three occasions. I had read him. He learnt from someone about my posting in Rourkela. He was working in the state bank of India in a Rourkela branch. He came with poet Ashok Chandra Mohapatra. Then, we met at least once in every week. He introduced me to his other friends; poet Radhu Misra. Kshirod Behera, Rajeev Pani, and others. We sat in some place, discussed stories, language and literature, future of Odia novels and language, et al.

( Paresh Patnaik, Rabi Panda, Sahadev Sahoo and Sadanand Tripathy, in Cuttack in 2019 at Odisha Maritime Museum)

Our relation continued through letters after I was transferred from Rourkela. When mobile phones and WhatsApp came to be in use, we talked over phone. But he always preferred to give his views on stories in writing. When he wanted to speak on my stories, he sent messages in WhatsApp. He did not praise only; he also conveyed, if he noticed any incongruity, or if he did not like something in the story.  On some occasions, I have also accepted his views, and revised the story before the stories are compiled in a book.

(Odisha Art and Literature Festival, Puri in 2025. Mousumi Das, Paresh Patnaik, Sahadev Sahoo and Sadanand Tripthy)

He had dedicated his life for literature. After his working hours in the bank, he read, thought, wrote or discussed literature with his friends. He was very happy when he met a writer, irrespective of age; his happiness was visible on his face and manner. He was senior to me in age and writing, but he treated me equal, and a friend. He insisted on not addressing him Sadanand Babu, but by the first name Sadanand or Sadanand Bhai. He was handsome and his handwriting was beautiful.

(Letter dated 17th July 1999 after I was transferred from Rourkela to Cuttack)

Last time he sent me a massage in WhatsApp, just one year ago, on 20 April, 2025 on my story published in Nabalipi. We dd not think even in our imagination, he would leave us so early. I have lost a friend, and a well-wisher and Odisha lost a brilliant litterateur.

(His last message to me on a story published in Nabalipi, April, 2025. He has sent the msg on 20 April, 2025)

( Inauguration of the Souvenir in his memory)

 

( News in Sambad)

Six Women in the Life of Krishna

 

The story of Krishna and the Mahabharat, originally in Sanskrit, have been written and rewritten in different languages. The different versions are not direct translations of the original Sanskrit script, but adaptations that incorporate regional folklore, culture and also additional plots. The story of Krishna or the Mahabharat in different languages and adaptations enthralls the people across the generations since time immemorial. Paresh Kumar Patanaik has picked up six women in the life of Krishna, and has told an interesting aspect of the great story.

Krishna goes to Mathura, kills Kansa, and becomes the crown prince. Devaki forbids him to return to Gokul. In the story, Yasoda, a fierce silent competition between Devaki and Yasoda begins to claim Krishna, who becomes a battle field between two mothers; one who has given him birth and the other who has raised him. Devaki makes Krishna promise to discard the flute, forget his childhood, the dust, cows and forest of Gokul. In the process, Krishna is crushed. He leaves Mathura for Dwaraka, but pines for Gokul, his foster mother, the flute and the Gopis.

Bhadra is an innocent maiden of Gokul. She believes Krishna in Gokul loves only the married women. Therefore, she, being unmarried, never gets his attention. She marries to an unworthy person, only to get Krishna’s love. But she finds Krishna, a changed person in Mathura. She is no longer the cowherd, the lover of Gopis, but the crown prince. Krishna spurns her offer. Bhadra returns disheartened, but does not go back to Gokul. Her dead body was seen floating in the waters of Yamuna.

Devaki is possessive of Krishna. She takes all care for Krishna to forget his past. She never allows him to go back to Gokul lest she may loss Krishna to Yasoda. But there is a chance meeting of Yasoda in Kuruksetra Varuni bath. There, in presence of all; Devaki, Kunti, Droupadi,  Pandav and Kuru queens, a question arises who Krishna loves most; Devaki who has given him birth or Yasoda who has brought up him. Krishna does not answer, but says he is hungry. Yasoda offers her breast and Krishna presses his lips; milk flows into his mouth. The matter is resolved for all there to see.

Chandrasen leaves the job of an archer in Kansa’s army to keep vigil on Radha. Still, he hears Radha roaming in the Kadamba grove with Krishna in moonlit nights. He lives the life of a helpless and a tortured husband. After twenty-five years of Krishna leaving Gokul, Chandrasen, without job, has become poor and Radha sick. But Radha refuses medicine, and dies. Chandrasen sets out towards Dwaraka to confront Krishna to give the sad news, and ask how Krishna does not find even an hour to meet Radha during the twenty-five years after he left Gokul for Mathura.

The Yadav clan is decimated, Dwaraka is sinking in the sea, Krishna is struck by an arrow of the hunter and the dying Krishna sends Daruka to Arjun to take his sixteen thousand one hundred and eight queens to the safety of Hastinapur. On the way, a village headman challenges Arjun to leave the queens with the villagers. Queens are given option to go to Hastinapur to leave the life of a widow or remain in the villagers in dust and forest. All the queens preferred not to be one among the sixteen thousand to live in a caged palace, but to stay with the villagers as their wives, except Sukanya. Once her skin is touched by Krishna, Sukanya does not want to share it to be touched by anyone. She chooses to live the rest of her life in the memories of Krishna, her loved one.

The Pandavs coronate Parikshit on the throne and embark upon an unprecedented and almost impossible journey to heaven in mortal forms. Droupadi follows the five brothers. She falls ill and cannot move forward in the steep path of boulders and snow. The Pandavs, for whom she has sacrificed her dignity in the Kuru court, shared pain and suffering in the jungles and served as a maid servant in the Virat palace with them in disguise, have deserted her. She dies in isolation and remains buried in the snow, without any funeral rites performed for her. 

Paresh Patnaik’s Sriradha and Other Stories, translated by Rumi Malik, describes the above six women-Yasoda, Devaki, Bhadra, Radha, Sukanya and Droupadi- in human light. They do not have divinity, but are human beings with human weakness, emotions and failings. Written in lucid style, the stories are readable, and also captivating.

 

Sriradha and Other Stories

By Paresh Patnaik

Tr. Rumi Malik

Publisher: Shalandi Books

Pages-148

Price: Rs. 250

 

 *****

 (The book is available on Amazon and shalandi.in)

Friends & Foes

 

 

(Swayamprava Sahu, a short story writer is buying the book from Pakshighar Prakasani stall in the book fair)

Anichhuk Prashasak (A Reluctant Bureaucrat) was published in 2021. The book earned me both praise and blame. Less blame, more praise. The persons in administration, particularly a few members of Odisha Finance Service, blamed me, but the general readers appreciated and praised the book. In that book, I had written my experience in the government, during my thirty plus years in service in an organization, perceived to be corrupt and its officers and staff sly and wily.  I had not written about my personal life; I was mere a character, though its main character in the book.

Some friends and colleagues, after they read the book, said, “You have not written all you know and have experienced. You have vast experience and have been witness to many events, both sweet and sour. You have spoken less, left unsaid more.” I replied, “I could have written more, but the book would have been voluminous. ‘A Reluctant Bureaucrat’ is of three hundred pages. Had I narrated everything, the book would have been more than six hundred pages. The book would have tired the readers. Besides, I have, perhaps, told in the book what I wanted to say, and I think, that’s loud and clear. Had I written more, there would have repetitions only.”

Some friends say, “You have said nothing about your life in ‘A Reluctant Bureaucrat’. How can we know you? Understand you?” I also replied to them the same, “Had I written about my personal life in the book, it would have been voluminous and lost its readability. I may, for that matter, write a separate book.”

I was born in a lower middle-class family, rather in a family just above the poverty line, in a poverty-stricken backward village. I could study, go to the college and university, and enter a government service. Most of my friends and contemporaries have also come from similar background. We have lived a common life. But the experience of one’s life is different from the other, our life journeys are different. Life journey of everyone will be a novel. I believe, everyone, in whatever strata of the society he or she may be in, should write his or her memoirs or autobiography. Their life stories would enrich literature and collective wisdom of the society.

Atmiya Anatmiya (Friends and Foes) is my memoirs, rather, an autobiographical novel. I have told in this book what remains unsaid in ‘A Reluctant Bureaucrat’. I hope, the readers will appreciate this book as they do ‘A Reluctant Bureaucrat’.

 (A Reader has received his copy by speed post and displayed on the status of his WhatsApp)

Ravi Verma of Andaman

 

(With Ravi Varma at Port Blair Airport

 

It was nine in the morning when we reached Port Blair. The rain had washed the city. Trees and bushes were on both sides of the road. We were heading towards our hotel from the airport. The city looked fresh and lovely. I asked the driver his name.

“Ravi Verma,” he said

“Ravi Verma is a famous name. There was a great painter by the name Ravi Verma; the hero of the film, ‘Karz’ is also Ravi Verma.”.

“I am also no less,” he said, quoting a popular dialogue of a Hindi film, and smiled at us.

Ravi Verma is a mechanical engineer. He has a manufacturing unit that produces ceramic, porcelain and steel teeth. He has employed three technicians. Besides, he works as a coordinator in a travel agency. He has his own car; if required, he drives the tourists from the airport to the hotel, or from the hotel to any destination.  

Ravi Varma’s grandfather had come to Andaman. The friend of his grandfather was a prisoner in the Cellular jail.  His friend, a freedom fighter, had participated in the non-cooperation movement. In 1922, the freedom fighters set ablaze to the police station in Chouruchoura, that killed twenty-two police. In that case, his friend was awarded life imprisonment, and sent to the Cellular jail of Andaman. India got independence in 1947. The prisoners of Cellular jail were set free. No one of his friend’s family members were alive; his parents, brothers and sisters were all dead by the time he came out of the jail. The government had given him a piece of land in Andaman. He was farming and doing business. In 1970, he brought his friend, Ravi Verma’s grandfather to Andaman.

                                          (At Cellular Jail)

The criminals or the mutineers were imprisoned in Andaman after sepoy mutiny in 1857. There no scope to escape from there. The sea surrounded the Andaman Islands, if someone escaped from the jail, he could not cross the sea water to reach the mainland. The Britishers built the Cellular Jail between 1896-1906. The Cellular jail had 697 cells. The criminals and the political prisoners were put up there. The cells were small, there was one skylight high above on the back wall. There was no window. The door was locked with an iron gate. The jail authorities tortured the political prisoners. They gave water only twice in a day. The prisoners were forced to stay in their cells after six in the evening. They were provided with earthen pots to store urine or excreta, if they had to attend call of nature in the night. The prisoners had to put up with the stinks of their own human waste stored in the room. They were given adulterated food. They had to press the coconuts or mustard to produce oil. They were given targets for the day, to produce oil as much as one bullock could do. Besides, they were given other physical work. 

The criminals who completed ten or twelve years in the jail were given the charge of administering political prisoners. The political prisoners were tortured more than the murder convicts. The Britishers tormented them like the Nazis did to the Jews in concentration camps. The cellular jails were constructed in such a way; the front of one row of cells confronted the back of another row of cells. There was little chance of the prisoners knowing each other, if they were in the cells of different rows. Vir Savarkar and his elder brother, Ganesh Savarkar were suffering jail terms at the same time, but they did not know for two years. They were so cruel and the torture was so severe, the prisoners could not endure. Indubhusan Roy, a freedom fighter committed suicide, Ullashkar Dutta turned mad. Many political prisoners died of torture.

                                           (Moving to another island by a cruise )

The political prisoners were set free after India got independence. The near and dear ones of many prisoners were dead by the time they were free, like that of Ravi Verma’s grandfather’s friend. The government gave them land in Andaman. They settled there. The people of other states had gone there for business.

The original inhabitants of Andaman and Nicobar Islands are Jarwas, Onges, Sentinelese, Shompens, etc. but they are far way from modernity and civilization; they still reside in the jungles, and cannot be brought to the mainstream. 

                           (Reclining on a beach)

The government of India changed the name of Port Blair to Srvijaypuram. In past, during the NDA rule of prime minister, Narendra Modi, the government had also changed the names of Havelock islands and Neil islands to Swaraj Deep and Saheed Deep, respectively. 

 I asked Manjit, the coordinator of the Travel Agency in Swaraj Deep, “The government have recently changed the name of Port Blair to Srvijaypuram. What’s your opinion?” He said, “What will we get in the change of name? We need good roads, other facilities, development so that we can live happily and more tourists would come.” Asked him, “What freebies do you get from the government?” He said, “Rice and wheat. But there is much corruption, the freebies do not reach the needy. But who has time to keep account of that?”

Andaman and Nicobar Islands are union territories, administered by the central government. They get benefit of the central government schemes. They do not have the schemes like mamata yojana a woman gets when she is conceived to the schemes like Harischandra yojana the family gets when a person dies, like in Odisha.

(Published in an Odia Daily, The Prameya on 15.12. 24)

I hired an uber taxi after I landed in Bhubaneswar airport to come home. I was chitchatting with the driver, The driver told he was doing job outside the state. He had to return to the state as his father fell ill. He was getting around thirty thousand after meeting all the incidental expenses. He had already got a job in the state. He would no longer drive an uber vehicle.

“What will be your salary in the new job?” I asked.

“Twenty-thousand,” he said.

“You are now earing thirty thousand per month. There is scope in a business to rise up; in future, you can expand your business. What’s your future, if you do a job in the private sector?”

He said, “Driving a vehicle is a tough business. My waist aches.”

The per capita income of Andaman & Nicobar Islands is two lakh and fifty-eight thousand rupees, more than the national per capita income of rupees two lakh twelve thousand. The per capita income of Odisha stands at rupees one lakh and sixty-one thousand, much less than national per capita income.

Manjit does not have time for free rice and wheat. Ravi Verma says his profit from the dental manufacturing unit is around three to four lakhs per month. His net income per month, after payment of salary to his three employees and other incidental charges would be not less than rupees one lakh. Besides, he works for a travel agency.

Ravi had come to drop us in the airport. He said, “Sir, keep my phone number. You can ring me up anytime, in the day or in the night. Give me prior information, if you again visit Andaman.”

******

 

Reemployment after Retirement

 

(Downloaded from internet)

 After the elections were over and before BJP formed the government, the General Administration (GA) department in Odisha asked all the departments for furnishing details regarding the employees reemployed after retirement; though the policy regarding reemployment of the BJP government was not then known.  The GA department took the step with all sincerity, for the new government might ask to know about the issue

The employees, from fourth class to the top bureaucrats, desire, and strive to get reemployment after retirement. This is more so for the last few years. Most of them become successful. It’s not true that those officers or employees are more efficient, and indispensable. There are no cogent reasons for an employee to increase his efficiency in the last five years before his retirement than what efficiency he has after twenty-five years in government service.

One officer was looking after legal affairs in a department. Since no substitute was found to manage law as efficiently as he did, the government did not transfer him and he stayed there for more than twenty years. He was expecting reemployment after his retirement, but he was not considered. It’s a fact the criteria for reemployment are not only good work or efficiency, but something other. One has to satisfy the higher boss or the authority; and the authority is not satisfied only with your work, but for some other traits and services. The aforesaid officer did not have the other qualities.

Another example: One officer does not stand straight before the secretary or the minister; always stands bending, making at least his torso forty-five-degree angle to his lower part of the body below his waist. He never says no to what the higher officers or the ministers say. On the other hand, he directs his subordinate to do the job saying the secretary or minister desires. If it is not within the purview of law, he does not have scruples to bend the law. He is reemployed after his retirement, has already worked for four years post-retirement, and still working. Examples are galore of such officers getting reemployment.

                                                     (Published in the Prameya)

The officer with propensity to please the boss cannot remain impartial, cannot do justice to the public. One gets promotion in government service after one senior retires on superannuation or if one dies in service, making a post vacant, on the basis of entries by the higher authorities in his confidential conduct record (CCR). It’s natural the flatterer, the officer with an instinct to please the higher ups gets outstanding entries in CCR, irrespective of whether or not he is a worker or a shirker. In the prevailing system, reemployment has adverse impact on the administration. If someone discharging his duty is not rewarded, how can he have the motivation to work?  He will resort to what the officer who stands bending his body before the authority, does.

The Chief Minister, after he was sworn in, told the press sixty-two thousand post of teachers and above two lakh posts in government were lying vacant. An additional secretary’s salary per month, on an average, is one lakh and fifty thousand rupees. If he is reemployed after retirement, he gets pension minus salary which comes to around seventy-five thousand rupees. Besides, he enjoys the facilities of a chauffeur driven car, services of peons, personal assistants, etc. In place of reemployment, a fresh officer can be recruited; an unemployed youth can get employment.

The identity of an officer is the post he holds in government, and the power that goes with the post. The identity, he feels, is lost on his retirement. He does not get the benefits of free use of car, peon or a personal assistant. He cannot afford all those with his pension. He also loses the power of the post. Hence, he needs the job after he is retires. The authority also needs the kind of officers who does not object, but works to satisfy him and to his requirement. The unhealthy honeymoon of the authority and subservient goes on well. The need of the time when there is large unemployment, is to break this tradition.

*****

My Favourite Reader

 

A reader can easily say his favourite writer and also his favourite books, but it is difficult on the part of a writer to select one of his favourite readers. Those who read and appreciate his stories, those who come across a story of the writer in a magazine and buy the magazine to read, those who purchase his books; all are dear to a writer. Before internet or mobile phones came to be used, the readers used to write letters if they liked a story. Now they make phone calls or send messages in the WhatsApp. But all the readers do not make a call or send message.  It has also happened, while travelling in a train or bus, in course of chitchatting, the co-passenger, after introduction, say I have read you. Sometimes, he also cites the story he has read. Once a reader posted in my Facebook time line that after she had read a particular story of mine in a magazine, she buys the magazines where my stories are published. A writer does not know the number of the readers those who read his stories. All the known and unknown readers are dear to his heart. How can I, and for that matter, any writer can choose his one favourite reader?

Recently the editor of the Sunday literary magazine of a newspaper has asked me this question.

                                        (Published in Dhwani Pratidhwani)

I shall tell you about a reader I consider him the most favourite:

The Sunday literary page of Sambad had published in 1994 my story, ‘Chenai Hasara Sansar’ (A Smile Makes Life Lovely). Many readers appreciated the story and wrote letters in praise of it. But a reader had written me a different letter that I still remember. I keep his letter, his advice and remarks in my mind when I write anything, even now.

He liked the Sambad story, but he had reservations on one sentence used in the story. His observations: that the sentence neutralizes the emotions the writer intends to create in the story. The writer should not have written that sentence, he said. The story is complete and a success without the sentence. He suggests a writer should consider the effect and implications of a sentence before he uses it in a story or a drama and even in a novel. He wishes me all the best and cautions me saying it’s not enough to write a good story, but it would be great if I continue to write good stories.

I reread the story ‘Chenai Hasara Sansar’ after I had received his letter and found his views correct. I rewrote the story and published it under the caption ‘Poka’ (Worm).

He had not mentioned his name or address in the letter. He addressed me, ‘Dear Writer’ and ended the letter with ‘Yours, A Reader’. I remember the unknown reader when I sit at the table with the pen and paper to write. Sometimes, a reader or a critic says, your stories do not have a single sentence in excess of what is required to tell the story and at that moment, I remember this unknown reader with love and respect.

Thank You

*****