Remembering Visionary Leader, Ace Pilot & Maker Of Modern Odisha Biju Patnaik On His 26th Death Anniv

* Biju Patnaik loved sports and was an avid bridge player. While studying in Ravenshaw Collegiate School, he was known for his love for games, sports and adventure. He was the key player in his college football team that won the inter-school championship for three years.

* His love for aviation saw him to drop out of Ravenshaw College and train as a pilot. He had joined as a trainee pilot in the Royal Air Force of British Empire and was the head of air transport command.

* In 1938, he married Gyan, a Punjabi from Lahore. He flew the groom’s party to Lahore for the wedding. The couple named the Indonesian President Sukarna’s daughter ‘Megawati’, which means goddess of clouds.

* On the direction of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Biju Babu and his wife Gyan flew to Java and rescued Sultan Sjahrir, the former Prime Minister of Indonesia, from the Dutch. He brought Sultan Sjahrir out on a Dakota and reached India via Singapore on July 24, 1947. For his act of bravery, Biju Patnaik was honoured with ‘Bhoomi Putra,’ the highest Indonesian award rarely given to foreigners. In 1996, when Indonesia celebrated its 50th Independence Day, Biju Patnaik was awarded the highest national award, ‘Bintang Jasa Utama’.

* Biju Patnaik was elected Chief Minister twice and remained in office only for seven years in total. He was one of the first among the opposition leaders to be arrested during the Emergency declared in 1975. He was released in 1977.

* Biju Patnaik wished to die in a plane crash rather than prolonged illness. He once said: I would like to die instantly, just fall down and die. However, he breathed his last not in Naveen Niwas in Bhubaneswar, but at the Delhi home of the then Union Minister Dilip Ray.