Manas Ranjan Mahapatra, Puri, 24 December 2023
Finally, artist Indrajit Singh, whom Amrita Pritam called Jeet or Imroz out of love and lived together with him for almost half a century, has left for his heavenly abode at Mumbai on Friday (22nd December). His death brought back his memories with me.
When I joined the National Book Trust (NBT) way back in 1990, my office was in a rented building at Green Park. The house of Dr J.P. Das at Hauz Khas was almost in front of my office and often I used to meet him for advice. The houses of two great authors of Punjabi, Amrita Pritam and Kartar Singh Duggal were almost next door. Art Historian and author Mulkraj Anand was also living in that area.
NBT did not have its Odia Advisory Panel meeting for 13 years when I joined. My immediate predecessor was a nice person, but had no background in literature and publishing. I took Odisha Sahitya Akademi as a partner in many activities.To my great fortune, Indubhusan Kar, who was an OAS officer, was the Secretary. We together planned to hold an International Conference of Odia Literature, the first of its kind at Delhi.
Indu babu and I together roamed around Delhi to meet prominent writers of other languages who can possibly be roped in to participate in the conference to give it a national colour. It was the maiden attempt to put Odia Literature in the national perspective.
We went to the residences of writers like Indira Goswami, Sisir Kumar Das, Kedarnath Singh and many others, and finally reached the residence of Amrita Pritam. It was evening. One gentleman came out. I presumed he may be Imroz with whom Amrita Pritam was living for years. He welcomed us and took us inside. The room had dreamy lights, not very sharp. Indu babu had informed Amrita Pritam beforehand. We met her.
What a graceful beauty she had! And, a very soft tone. She was a personal friend of Nandini Satpathy, writer and former CM of Odisha. Amrita had visited Odisha a number of times. She agreed to be in the Conference and did it. With coffee and “pakoda” we returned on a happy note.
I have been to the house of Amrita Pritam on many occasions for some or the other work of NBT. Many times I met Imroz, who always tried to keep himself away from the public eye and used to do painting. Whenever young Odia writers used to ask me for help to meet renowned writers in Delhi, I used to send them to Amrita Pritam, Kartar Singh Duggal, Kamaleswar or Kedarnath Singh.
Today, I fondly recollect the memory of Amrita Pritam. She died a bit early. I translated her poems and wrote a piece on her when she got the Jnanpith award for Alok in 1981. There was a lot of hue and cry when she got the Jnanpith. Later, I understood that many such awards are given on several considerations and not literary excellence alone. But she was a very good writer.
A few years back, after the death of Amrita Pritam, Nirakar Das, PRO of East Coast Railways, wanted to hold a function to remember the great author and wanted Imroz to be there. He approached me and I called Imroz.
“Manas ji, when Amrita was alive, I used to not accompany her, for I always wanted her to remain great alone. Now, after her death, I still maintain the same conviction. I don’t want to take a share of her greatness”, Imroz politely replied.
Amrita Pritam and Imroz had a super natural relationship based on supra conscious love. Imroz composed several poems on Amrita after her death. He was in his early forties and Amrita in her early sixties when they started living together. Amrita used to lament, “Jeet, why did you come into my life in its evening? you should have come in the afternoon!” Amrita Pritam and Imroz had less physical and more emotional bonding.
What a great man! He always remained aloof from the world of publicity and showmanship, though he was a great painter and poet. Rest in eternal peace, Imroz…..
