Manas Ranjan Mahapatra, Puri, 9th October 2022
The other day, I was thinking of Professor Nirmal Kanti Bhattacharjee, the most successful Manager of Art and Culture in the country. He was Regional Secretary, Sahitya Akademi; Director, NBT; Director, KK Birla Foundation; and Chairman of various initiatives. He was Editor, Indian Literature and publishing consultant of many publishing houses. I don’t know why this government is not appointing him as the Chairman of NBT.
Professor Bhattacharjee was the editor of a series of books on Rashtrapati Bhawan during the tenure of President Pranab Mukherjee. He also headed the publication department of Viswa Bharti, Santiniketan. My first meeting with him was in 1987 when I was with NCERT and he was assisting Professor Amaresh Dutta for the Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature.
Later, I met him when he was Regional Secretary of Sahitya Akademi for Eastern Region and had visited the National Workshop on Literary Translation organised by Kendriya Sahitya Akademi in 1989 at New Delhi. But, our bond became strong when I visited Kolkata in 1992 as Odia Language Editor of NBT for typesetting of Odia translation of the book “Mind of Mahatma” done so carefully by Professor Chittaranjan Das. In due course, he offered me a travel grant to visit Karnataka as a young author and to translate the poetry book “Log Bhul Gaye Hain” by Raghubir Sahay from Hindi to Odia.
Nirmal Da didn’t marry. We have never asked him the reason, nor he has divulged. People say that he loved someone whom he could not marry.
In 1997, when Arvind Kumar vacated the post of Director, NBT, our Chairman, Dr. Sumatheendra Nadig gave me the good news that Professor Nirmal Kanti Bhattacharjee is going to join as the next Director, NBT. I was thrilled. But this happiness didn’t last long. My family was at Puri those days and children were in school. I used to come to Odisha for various works of NBT as our books were typeset and marketed in Odisha. Some colleagues in NBT were envious. They were usually polluting the mind of Nirmal Da against me. In 1999, I was in Odisha for organising a workshop and suddenly the Super Cyclone took place. I was worried. Though all activities were stopped in Odisha, I stayed back to be with my family at Puri. This perhaps upset him. When I returned, I found a different man in Nirmal da. We argued on official matters and the rough weather continued for some time. Nirmal Da left NBT as he didn’t pull well with the Chairman, Dr. Sitakant Mahapatra. However, my relationship continued with Nirmal da.
I went on deputation to North Eastern Council in 2016 as Director. Suddenly a phone call came from Nirmal Da that he is visiting Shillong and needs my assistance. I decided to receive him at Guwahati airport. Normally, I used to go to Guwahati for official works and at times to receive the Minister. When he found me at the airport, he was amazed.
We came back by my car to Shillong. He stayed in our Guest House. During his stay, I invited him for breakfast one day. My daughter prepared idli and sambar for him.
“Manas, I am now understanding why you were always keen to go to Puri. One should have a family. I should not have stopped you then”, he said.
“Dada, that is now history. Let us concentrate on today and idli”, I said in a lighter tone.
