The year was 1997. I was posted as the District Magistrate of Ganjam, a southern district of Odisha. The legendary Biju Patnaik had passed away on April 17, 1997, and byelection had been declared from his erst-while constituency of Aska.
Naveen Patnaik, the present Chief Minister of Odisha, was a candidate for the byelection from the parliamentary seat. The poll date was May 29, 1997.
Vice Chancellor of Berhampur University Prof M D Khan, informed me that Gita Mehta, the celebrated author, had come to Gopalpur and was staying at Hotel Palm Beach (a beautiful Oberoi property turned into Mayfair Resort now). By this time, I had heard a number of stories about Gita Mehta, about her courage as a war correspondent, a documentary filmmaker and a famous writer. With a great deal of trepidation, I made an appointment through the hotel and met her around 5 pm. She made me comfortable in no time and generally asked about the beautiful places in Ganjam and some of the classical writers and poets of the district. In the meantime, Naveen Patnaik won the election and became a Union Minister. In March 2000, he came back to Odisha as the Chief Minister.
As destiny would have it, I was posted to the Chief Minister’s office in Odisha in the year 2000 as a special secretary to Naveen Babu and kept meeting Gita Mehta whenever she visited Bhubaneswar. She took a liking to me and some of my ideas on women SHGS, poverty alleviation programs and livelihood generation for the poor. She would ask me to invite NGOs, which were doing exemplary work at ground zero and we would have soulful discussions for long hours. If I remember correctly, she had a couple of meetings with Gramvikas, Berhampur, and Action Aid, Bhubaneswar Chapter. She was fascinated by a small Island in Chilika Lake known as the Breakfast Island and a heritage structure on this small landmass. She contributed some money to restore the structure and funded a sacred groove project in the name of Biju Patnaik on the bank of Chilika Lake adjacent to Khallikote.
Later on, I would prod her to tell me stories about her exploits as a war correspondent and the dangers she was exposed to. She would just smile when I asked if Biju Babu panicked about her situation in war zones. I read most of her books – Snakes and Ladders, Karma Cola, Raj and River Sutra. Eternal Ganesha is one of her books that is next on my reading list.
All her works are impressive but River Sutra remains embedded in my memory. The book is about all the folklore associated with River Narmada.
The intimate details of the river, its mountainous path and the myriad of folk tales on love and loss is simply exquisite. Naveen Babu had once told me that Gita had never seen the river or its banks! How could she possibly imagine the whole course of the river in such minute details?
Gita Madam was really distressed about the poverty in Odisha. Whenever she was in Bhubaneswar, she would spend all her time imagining and inventing ideas for poverty alleviation. When a few of us were debating on a women empowerment programme called Mission Shakti in Odisha, she would enthusiastically take part in our brainstorming sessions and a lot of her ideas were included in the final blueprint. It is now a hugely successful programme and Gita Mehta was one of its unknown architects.
The one thing I had keenly observed in her was her minimalism. She was a minimalist to the core. There would be no unnecessary items anywhere near her. She rarely wore jewellery and I had never seen her in expensive clothes. Perhaps, she had picked these habits from her war reporting days. Her life was spartan and simple. The same traits define Naveen Patnaik, who is a man of very few needs.
Odisha and its people always resided in the heart of Gita Mehta. She would have been ecstatic to see Odisha prosper.
Rest in peace madam, wherever you are. You will always be missed and remembered with love.
