Manas Ranjan Mahapatra, Puri, 26 May 2024
I got several invitations for the Bishuba Milan on 14 April, but I had no other option than to regret with thanks as the Foundation Day of our matriculation batch was on that auspicious day.
Sampad babu invited me to become the Chief Guest in the Bishuba Milan function at Kakatpur on 14 April. I had to regret due to my other commitment but this invitation sent me to the land of golden memories.
We used to celebrate Bishuba Sankranti in a big way. Odisha has a lot of festivals and Bishuba or Pana Sankranti is a major one. Later, when I became active in literature, I started going to Bishuba Milan at Prajatantra office, Cuttack. The other few people attending from Puri included Prof. Rajkishore Ray, Kumar Mohanty, Harihar Mishra, Phani Mohanty, Debadutta Samantsinhara, Chittaranjan Mishra. Later, Kamalakanta Lenka joined at SCS College, Puri. He used to attend Prajatantra Bishuba Milan regularly.
Inspired by Prajatantra Bishuba Milan, Chitta Ranjan Mishra, Bijoy Pattanayak and Umakanta Mohanty with their other friends started a Bishuba Milan at Puri. We, the then young authors, used to attend it. The idea of forming Sanibar Sahitya Sandhya came during the Milan in 1977. We started doing our own Bishuba Kabita Asara (poetry session) subsequently and it continued for years. Now it has stopped. It seems nobody has time now for that organisation for literature.
A few years back, I met Bhartruhari Mahtab at Bhubaneswar Airport. My friend Manas Ranjan Samal was with me. He was to catch a flight to Kolkata and we to Delhi. We had almost an hour’s time and so, we talked about many things including Prajatantra Bishuba Milana. Bhartruhari babu insisted that I should come that year to Bishuba Milan and chair the poetry session. It was the month of January 2009 if I correctly recollect.
More than two months passed since then. General Election was announced. Bhartruhari babu was busy. One day in the first week of April 2009, Saroj Ranjan Mohanty called me. “Manas, have you received our letter?”
“No, Saroj bhai”, I replied. “Is it for Bishuba Milan?”, I questioned.
“Yes, we wrote for your consent. Now our invitation card is to be printed.”
“Why do you need my consent? It was already discussed with Bhartruhari babu”, I said.
Then I asked him for the detailed programme, as planned by them and understood that they have invited me as a speaker with Dr. Bhagaban Jaisingh and somebody else to Chair the poetry session. I was happy that I will share dais with Bhagban Jaisingh who was the teacher of my friends at Ravenshaw College, but was hurt that Bhartuhari babu did not keep his word. I was in a dilemma whether to go or not.
Prajatantra’s letter did not come on time and I could not go due to this communication gap. I have not attended Bishuba Milan anywhere since then. I am retired now with no post retirement assignment. Nobody salutes a setting sun!
When Sampad babu called to invite me to the Bishuba Milan at Kakatpur, I fondly recollected how a boy of 15-16 used to travel by the Puri-Cuttack shuttle without a ticket, stayed in the house of Surendranath Nayak, the then Secretary of South Eastern Railway Men’s Congress (his wife Pramila Nayak was a writer for children and got the first award for children’s literature from Odisha Sahitya Akademi), and to travel by the city bus from Badambadi to Chandni Chowk to go to Bishuba Milan at Bihari Bagh way back in 1975. A city bus ticket was 10 paise those days.
Gone are the days. Everything is lost in transit. This is a digital world where we post everything through WhatsApp and respond in waves of time…..
