"Reenanubandh" is probably the word in Sanskrit which means that we all are individually subjected to come across some fixed set of people during our life-time -life after life. Sages have dilated it to mean we come across these people in different forms of life including human beings. If I am allowed to be selfish, I will always want this man whom we all knew as Nrushingha Charan Sahoo and called Bada Bhai, who had a long stint as a teacher in S K Academy, Jagatsinghpur and who loved his students and always wanted them to be happy have such "Reenanubandh" with me life after life. People call him a scholarly person. I don't know much of that. Honestly I have not gone through his published books.People also say him to be a great teacher. I've some knowledge of it. But I know him to be a loving human being who loved all his students and tried to bring out the best in them. A man who considered all his efforts as investment in students always prayed for their welfare in later life too. Never financially sound himself, Bada Bhai has helped many students of lower economic status financially and otherwise to be where they are now. The number may be simply countless.A great Vaishnavite in word and deed, he has done yeomen service by writing the life history of Lord Chaitanya in Oriya in a very simple style.
He has a host of students from various batches in SK Academy whom he always considered very close and affectionately mentioned by their first name. I have reasons to believe that he picked them up from different hues of society and was never averse to get most of them from very low economic group.I have also left Jagatsinghpur long back- nearly 40 years - but still can remember some of the names like Gadadhar,Dwija, Kanduri,Rasananda, Kalipada,Pradipta, Sheetal, Rabi, Nira, Bhabani, Krushna Moharana, Krushna Badu and probably a few more whom I forget. The list is quite long, but I can only remember some of them.
During the time I stayed with him(!965 to 1970) people who were really close to him were Gadadhar Mishra, Padit Ganesh Mishra, Sarada Mohapatra and a few more whom I have lost in memory.
Though sick for nearly 2 years his family has taken adequate care and after protracted illness due to old age he succumbed around 5 PM on 13th December 2008 in the ICU of SCB Medical College, Katak. It is a great personal loss. He loved me so much that when I decided to marry someone outside my caste some 30 years back and when many others declined to give the girl I loved to give in marriage, he obliged and that too against the will of many of his close confidants. But somehow, I have some feeling of empowerment after his demise. Though I feel the loss as very acute, I also feel strengthened. I pray him and the Almighty to kindly coninue the "Reenanubandha".
