Sambeet Dash
Sambeet Dash, an NRO technocrat, in the US, makes an attempt to recapitulate the life and time of Pandit Nilakantha Das, a freedom fighter, social worker and reformer of early 20th century Odisha.
Nilakantha Das was born in 1884 in a village named Sri Ramachandrapur, not far from the temple town of Puri. Parent’s desire for a male child led to his birth following seven girls.
His grandfather was a Tahsildar who died young at the age of 28, leaving his father in penury. (It was the practice those days to pay the tax to government from borrowed money in order to meet the deadline and collect it later. Unfortunately his grandpa died before the collection, so his property was auctioned away).
His father wanted him to succeed in academics. The young boy did not belie his dad’s hope, being an outstanding student from childhood. Nilakantha Das’s father at the age of 72 had a bad bout of cold and cough, during which he believed he had lived long enough in an age seeing 50th birthday was considered a luxury.
He thought he won’t survive the attack. Certain of dying, he took opium to relieve his pain and make his death less painful. But miraculously he survived and lived till 89, a rare landmark those days.
It was pretty common for children to die early, nearly half of them born were unable to make to double digits in age. Most of them died as kids due intestinal worms, whooping Cough, chicken pox, cholera and innumerable other diseases whose cure was unavailable then.
Once, Nilakantha had severe stomach ache which was a matter of concern for the parents. After all he was their only son, born after 7 girls. The village medicine man prescribed a tablet to be taken with cockroach’s boiled water. His mother killed a dozen of them lurking around the kitchen and boiled them in water, forcing the tablet down on the throat of the reluctant kid to be washed down with cockroach water. He started recovering from the next day.
After completing kindergarten from his village, the boy Nilakantha Das went to middle school in Puri and housed himself in a students’ accommodation. He was happy to get a scholarship of Rs.4 per month – which in 1899 was a stupendous amount, considering a set of 10-15 tiger shrimps freshly caught from Bay of Bengal used to cost only 1 paisa, as they need to be disposed off by the fishermen lest they get spoiled due to the tropical heat and humidity, in those days sans cold storage facilities.
Rice was not an issue in his MESS (local lingo for shared accommodation) as his father would make sure of its perennial supply is sustained along with CHUDA (Parched rice) and GUDA (jaggery, the popular sweetener of the time) for breakfast. Rice was the staple food along with Brinjal boiled in Dal (lentil soup).
Fish was a luxury, though the scholarship enhanced its affordability. The extra money in pocket came as a relief, as it lessened the burden on his NANA (dad). The mess bill, struggling below 1 rupee, due to the BRUTI (scholarship) now shot up to Rs 1.90, a dream amount to spend as student, which became a matter of jealousy for their fellow villagers.
(To be continued)
