Kanheilal Das

 

In Odisha, the birth or death anniversary of great persons is not celebrated unless he or she has capable sons, daughters or wives. The people easily forget, the government does not bother. Kanheilal Das has no living descendants; no one of his lineage survives. But the writers and literature lovers of Baleswar celebrate his birth day with love, respect and enthusiasm.

I went to the college on 1^st August, 1975. Kanheilal had died on 27^th July, 1975. I had read two or three of his stories before I went to the college. The school where I was a boarder subscribed the Odia monthly ‘Jhankar’ and one of my teachers bought ‘Asantakali’ and ‘Nabarabi’. I had read his stories from these magazines. The two or three stories I had read in those days had left an imprint in my mind.

In the college hostel where I stayed, my seniors were discussing about him, his stories and a bright future he had in the field of literature. Unfortunately, he died young, only at 28, his birth day being 27^th June, 1947. I realized, the seniors were genuinely sad, and mourned for his death.

(Ranjan Pradhan receiving Kanhei Katha Purskar)

Kanheilal had creative period of eight years only. His first story was published in 1968 and the last one in 1975. He has written, as compiled in ‘Kanhei Kathaghar’, 58 stories, two novella, four poems and two mini stories, that is, on an average eight stories in a year. But the stories are so powerful that those have left lasting impact on the readers. His stories are love stories which appealed to the young people except the last one; ‘Dhrutarastrara Akshi’. ‘Dhrutarastrara Akshi’ was on social issue.

Kanhei, in his diary has mentioned that he was teased by his contemporary writers for his writing only love stories. He was rather goaded to write stories on serious social issues. He died just after writing only one such story, that was published after his death. Paresh Patnaik, the chief guest for the occasion, said that Kanhei, a dreamer, ever young, was an eternal lover, and he expressed his love in his writings. When he was compelled to write on serious issues, love within him being unable to get expressed and come out, choked, suffocated and killed him. He spoke, of course, in a lighter vein. Kanhei died of illness.

( A group photo Poets and writers"

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We were put up in the government circuit house. I used to stay there when I was in government service. Then,  local officers were there to look after my comforts. I always preferred to stay in circuit houses or government guest houses wherever I went on office tour. First time, I stayed in the circuit house after my retirement from government service. I witnessed the callous and careless service of the circuit house staff. They had given water in bottles, but those were, perhaps, aqua guard water. Knowing the attitude of the government employees I doubt it. The water they might have filled in the bottles from the wash room taps. There were no toilet shops. We were two sharing a room, but there was one towel. In the night, I asked for mosquito repellant. The manager denied to have in stock to give us.

I spent a sleepless night.

(Audience)

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Utpal Mohanty hosted a dinner for us. Srideb, Anjan Chand, Purnendu joined with us; Paresh and me. The dosa of the South Indian restaurant tasted well; the tea tasted better. The poets and writers of Baleswar have great fraternal feeling and strong emotional bonding with writers of both present and past. One can see happiness and feel warmth meeting them. This land has given birth to Fakir Mohan, Manoj Das and also Kanheilal. Nibaran Jena, Laxmikant Tripathy and Krushna Kumar Mohanty visited us at the circuit house for chitchat. A nice memory to cherish.

We left Baleswar after breakfast.

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