Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday spoke to the relatives of late Manoj Das today evening and condoled the sad demise of the eminent writer who passed away yesterday.
It is noteworthy to mention that following demise of the late writer Odisha government had requested Puducherry government for cremation of his body with State honours. Accordingly, on the request of Odisha government the body of late Manoj Das was cremated today with state honours by Puducherry government.
Born in 1934 in a small village in Balasore district in Odisha, the first collection of poems by Manoj Das was published when he was just 14. Even as he wrote in Odia, he started writing in English in 1968 and some of his well-known works are ‘A Tiger at Twilight’, ‘The Submerged Valley’, ‘The Bridge in the Moonlit Night’, ‘Cyclones’, ‘Mystery of the Missing Cap’, ‘Myths, Legends, Concepts and Literary Antiquities of India’.
Some of his Odia works include ‘Tandralokara Prahari’, ‘Aakashra Isara’ and ‘Amruta Phala’.
A Marxist turned into a mystic, Das made Puducherry his home for several decades as he moved to Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Puducherry in 1963 in search of his inner quest. Most of his writings were penned in Puducherry. His writings in Odia and English are noted for magnificent style and coinage of words and choice of subjects. He was also a recipient of Sri Aurobindo Puraskar, Sahitya Akademi Award (1972), Orissa Sahitya Akademi Award, Sarala Award, the Sahitya Bharati Award and BAPASI (Book-sellers And Publishers Association of South India) and Saraswati Samman in 2000.
Ms Kalinga