Manoj Das

Eminent author who writes in Odia and English and recipient of several awards including the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship.

The genius too receives from some high fount
Concealed in a supernal secrecy
The work that gives him an immortal name.
The word, the form, the charm, the glory and grace
Are missioned sparks from a stupendous Fire;
A sample from the laboratory of God
Of which he holds the patent upon earth,
Comes to him wrapped in golden coverings;
He listens for Inspiration's postman knock
And takes delivery of the priceless gift
A little spoilt by the receiver mind
Or mixed with the manufacture of his brain;
When least defaced, then is it most divine


-Sri Aurobindo : Savitri (Book VII, Canto VI)

A FEW LIGHTENING FLASHES

Will you please write your autobiography? ' his fans have asked him imploringly time and again. But his answer is simple: he believes that there were far more worthy and eventful lives than his and he would not like to burden the catalogue with his!
Worthy is a relative term. But we agree that there are innumerable lives more eventful than his. The question is how many were capable of reading the significance in the events as he does? He however remains unrelenting.
But here is the man whom Providence brought up through a paradox of experiences in his childhood - sending him into an affluent family with ideal parents and in the most charming milieu imaginable - and at the same time exposing him to the unexpected in life when his house was plundered twice before his eyes; also giving him the experience of witnessing the horrors of an unprecedented famine around him.
Here is a man who in his youth was a fascinating revolutionary leader courting jail and escaping an assassination attempt in a faraway resort in Indonesia.
Here is the author who never knew that writing was an activity that was special. For him it was as natural as speaking or humming a tune.
Here is a man whose earliest quest was to find trace the cause of human suffering - a quest that led him to Marxism and finally revealed to him the profundity that was Sri Aurobindo's vision of human destiny.
Here is India's foremost bilingual writer whose use of the two languages he writes in is uniquely original.
Here is probably the best loved author in Oriya and a significant writer in English - whose writings one can never forget - for their impact becomes a natural ingredient of light and solace one seeks in life.

- Some Moments of Shri Manoj Das -

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About Manoj Das

For thousands of men, women and children of the past two or three generations, Manoj Das has been the very synonym of light and delight, whose writings in Odia and English inspire in his countless readers faith in the purpose of life and also open up concealed horizons of confidence and compassion in humanity a dire need today.