NAMESAKE

It was the day of Kumarpurnima and an office holiday also. I was doing what I enjoy most: lying on the bed I was reading a book, Salman Rushdie’s autobiography, Joseph Anton. I heard a bike stopped at my gate. I went out of my room and saw a person sitting on the bike was looking at my nameplate. I asked, “Who are you looking for?”

He replied, “Sahadev Sahoo, the writer”

“Yes, I am.” I said.

He said, “No, I am looking for writer Sahadev Sahoo, I A S, ex- Chief Secretary and former Vice Chencellor, OUAT. My friend, Umasankar Pal has published a book of poems. He said Sahadev Sahoo is staying at this address, and has given me a book to present him.”

I could make out the confusion. I had been staying at Cuttack since last fourteen years and giving my Cuttack address. Recently I have shifted to Bubaneswar and given my present address to the magazines which have recently published my stories. Mr Pal has, perhaps, come across in one of the magazines which have published my story and collected my present address and mistaken it to be the address of the I.A.S. Sahadev Sahoo.

I replied him, “I am Sahadev Sahoo, but not the person you and your poet friend are looking for.”

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One introduced himself as Damodar Behera telephoned me at around 2 PM when I was in my office room on 10.12.12. He said he was speaking to me on behalf of a cultural association of Jajpur district. I asked, “What for?”

He said, “We want to felicitate you on December 23 along with some other eminent persons of the district. We want your postal address for officially intimating you. The Chief Minister has agreed to do felicitation.”

I said, “The postman does not come to the place where I presently stay in Bubaneswar. It’s a newly developed area. Better you intimate me to my office address,” and I gave him my office address.

He perhaps noted down my address and said, “You are the pride of our district, we are really honoured to felicitate you. Recently I was reading your interview published in the literary magazine Bartika.

I said, “Bartika has published my story, but not my interview. I have not given any interview to Bartika. The interview is perhaps of the other Sahadev Sahoo, the ex-Chief Secretary, and the former Vice Chancellor.”

He suddenly switched off the phone. After a few minutes he again rang me up and asked, “Don’t you belong to the village Kabirpur?”

I replied, “No.”

He said, “Sorry. You are not the person we are supposed to felicitate; someone has wrongly given your phone number.”

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Do they have any knowledge on Odia literature?

Do they really felicitate the persons for their contribution to literature?

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