A TRIBUTE

Subhrajit Das
Hydro-Engg.
[Acknowledgement: Writing this story has been an experience like no others. I have been humbled by the good will
and encouragement shown by my friends and editorial board of Utkalika. In November 2004 this story was just a
thought in my mind. Utkalika gave me an oppurtunaty to pen it down.

I especially want to thank my wife Lipika Devi, for her unstinting support and understanding. I would like to thank
Sudhansu & Tushar Padhy; who despite being physically in Bhubaneswar & Madras respectively, not only helped in
structuring the content but also reviewed the drafts. I would also like to thank Sh. Shyamal Kumar Dey, who took time
to review the draft of story. His candid feedback has been priceless in shaping this story to its final state.]

[Disclaimer: Chinese whisper tends to get personalised with each telling. The story got decorated or stripped and
definitely skewed to make it a better reading. Care has been taken not to disfigure or malign any chacter. However,
all the characters, names of characters, places, events, procedures of law etc, depicted in the story are purely
fictitious. Any resemblance to any person living or dead and/or event; location is purely coincidental. ]

It was just another evening in our Hostel. We gathered in room F-16. Ajit(98),
Deepak(99) and Sudhansu(00) were residing in Karakoram. Myself (98),
Rajat(98), Gouri(00), Dillip Bhai(97), were in Aravali, Satya(00) in Vindyachal,
Jasobanta(99) in Jwalamukhi (Figures in brackets indicates year of
graduation). Two things were common in all of us, one- We all were
Unicollengians. Two-We all were pursuing post graduation from the same
institute. Apart from these two things nothing was common. The
characteristics, interest, behaviour, hobby etc were poles apart. Sudhansu
and Deepak were one year junior to us here. It was no special day to
remember. It was Gouri and Jasobanta who went to Katwaria sarai to bring
CDs. Gouri, was fond of movie, songs and all kind of page3 activities. He had
indepth knowledge in his interest. You sing a mukhda he will tell you who is its
lyrist, music director (including some of the musicians-who is in Drum, who is
in flute etc.), director, producer etc everything about the movie and some chit
chat news related to it. He has cognizance in all kinds of movies starting from
Raja Harischandra to Gapa Helebi Sata (First Oriya colour film) to Titanic.
You can understand his interest from the following- He by hearted all the
dialogues of Trinity and Oracle. He landed with Predator, Face Off and
Raihena Hai Tere Dil Main (RHTDM). By this time all were present except
Deepak and Sudhansu as they had their Second Minor (Mid term Exam) the
very next day. First show started. Sudhansu was in his room and Deepak

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went to study room (Which is near administrative building) to prepare.
Needless to mention here, F-16 was Deepak’s room. Nobody was feeling
sorry in disturbing Deepak. He was a soft spoken, well mannered, and a
measured person. We used to take advantage of it. We made his room a club
house (Khati Room). Every body used to visit his room to surf net, read news
paper / magazine and play cards. Then start gyration on complex issues as
usual that happens in a hostel. The reason of making his room a Club house
which I could explore is its proximity to hostel entrance corridor. Initially it
started with Satya’s naive ness to tease Deepak about his polygamist
behavior and Ajit’s audacious claim and verboseness about him and his
village mates did in various occasions. In due course all of us increased
frequency to visit them, pass time and upgraded F-16 to its current status.

First show was over. It was about 9:00PM. Mess boys used to be punctual. If
you are late by a minute there is chance of missing the dinner. Though
hostels were in the same campus it was quite a distance. We had to rush to
our respective hostels to take dinner.

I returned to F-16, before rest of us as our hostel was nearer to Karakoram.

There, Ajit and Madan were waiting for our arrival. They were discussing
about politics of Orissa and about the place of Naveen babu in it. I joined
them. But I met Madan for the fist time. Ajit introduced him to me. He was
Deepak’s Guest. I felt very sorry by not feeling his presence though he was in
the same room for the last 2-3 hours. We were waiting for others to come.
While interacting with him, he revealed about his purpose of visit to Delhi. He
was little bit verbose. My first impression about him was not good. From the
very first interaction one can infer that he is an egotist, banal, garrulous, a
person who loves to blow his own trumpet. He is here to complete some
formalities in Saudi Arabia’s embassy to get the visa. He had been to Dubai 3-
4 years back. But due to some emergency he had to leave Dubai without
informing his employer. Hence he was facing some problem to get the Visa.
He will be with us for another 3-4 Days till he gets the clearance. Meanwhile
every body joined and 2nd show started. It was of John Travolta and Nicolas
Cage. John, a hero every body loves to hate. Every body was trying to watch
movie. Since it was a Hollywood movie every body was watching attentively

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and seriously to understand. But Madan was incredible and unstoppable. It
was only Ajit who was nodding his head sporadically to make Madan feel
attended. But one can easily read the face of Ajit.

In our group except Deepak, Gouri and Sudhansu knew him. Sudhansu and
Deepak shared the quarters in Burla before coming here. They both were part
time lecturers (PTL) in UCE. Deepak used to visit Madan’s House regularly at
Burla. Gouri knew because of his proximity or I will rather say rivalry towards
Deepak made Gouri to know about him. Gouri used to keep all the news
related to Deepak, keep an eye on Deepak. Gouri was one year junior to
Deepak. But Deepak was important to Gouri.

Both were in love with a lady named Namrata(1). She was the sister of sister-
in law of Gouri but from the same village as that of Deepak. Love triangle!! Ek
phool do mali kind of situation. It was Deepak who was in full swing since
childhood. When Deepak was in his village during the 2-3rd year summer
vacation, he proposed before leaving to Burla. He was waiting for the replay.
He was expecting a letter. The acceptance letter came but was intercepted by
Gouri and his brigade. Complete care was taken to destroy it. It never
reached Deepak. They say, it is difficult to hide the truth. After a year the
news came out. Deepak was feeling sorry deeply by not getting a positive
response of his proposal and this news added salt to his wound.

Deepak is convivial, innocuous and ingenious in nature. This incident led him
to visit girl’s hostel frequently to forget the past. There he made friendship with
Aradhana(2). For the next year Deepak continued with her. Every body right
from mess boy to lab assistant knew about them. In the next summer vacation
(3rd to final year) Deepak went to Calcutta for training and Aradhana to
Jamsedpur. Deepak while returning from Calcutta brought bangles, bindi and
a salwar suit for her. But again he got a setback. The lady proved Deepak’s
love as one sided. The lady Aradhana came across with my senior Sampark
Paikray in Telco during training and enamoured him. The broken hearted
Deepak increased his frequency of visiting girl’s hostel. There he again
developed relationship with Aradhana’s best friend Srabani(3). Srabani was a
day scholar. Her father was working in UCE in administrative department.
Deepak’ relationship with Srabani made him to visit her house in Burla.

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Madan was brother of Srabani. There he came across Madan and became
good friends. After graduation Deepak joined as a PTL at UCE. After a year
Sudhansu joined UCE as PTL.

Next day, by evening 5.00PM their minor was over. Three papers a day, total
six subjects. Tension was over in two days. In the evening, Deepak went with
Madan to visit a job consultant. We again gathered in his room, as usual. The
topic slowly shifted to Madan. How big bore he is. Sudhansu did not know
about his arrival at Delhi. After quarrying about him he started with a word of
caution not to lend money to him, whatever the case may be. He was a big
sink, a black hole. He can spend any amount of money in a single go without
giving second thought. He mastered the art of borrowing money. He had the
ability of getting money from misers. Not only from friends, kith and kin but
from strangers he can extract money. He never spent this money on him. He
is a Robin Hood kind of person. He involved himself in philanthropic activities.
To do this, one needs fund which he did not have. Though, he was not a
fraud, he did not have capacity to pay back the borrowed money. Because of
such behaviour his parents were embarrassed very often by the lenders. He
was a well know infamous personality in Burla.

He did his diploma in Electrical Engineering. After spending a jobless career

of 2 years he got a call from a consultant from Bombay for a job in Dubai. He
went to appear in the interview. There, while on train he met Sushri Noor
Begam. They were in the same compartment. She was a news reader in a
leading Oriya news channel named after Orissa. She was on an official tour.
Konark Express takes 37 long Hours to reach Bombay. 37 Hours was
sufficient for a competent person to develop intimacy. Madan did not allow
this chance to go waste. Before reaching CST he successfully exchanged his
number and address.

Noor was a lady believing in modern values, beautiful and unmarried. She
was the only earning member in her family. She had her parents and an elder
brother who were orthodox unlike Noor.

After returning back to Burla, Madan started writing letters to Noor and they
started exchanging their feelings. This pen friend relationship then rose to the

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next level. Madan started visiting Bhubaneswar frequently in the name of
appearing interview to meet her. They were serious and dedicated to each
other in their relationship. Since they belong to different sects the relation was
not acceptable to Noor’s family members especially to her brother. Her
brother apart from being an orthodox, was a goon of the area. Madan was
threatened of his life twice or thrice by her brother to subdue the relationship.
Madan paid little attention to it. Madan was not financially sound. She used to
support him morally as well as financially. She used to bear his entire
expenses. Whenever Madan used to visit out of city to appear any interview
she used to support him.

After a year or so he received a call from the consultant in Bombay for a job in
Dubai based Company. It was such a good offer Madan would never like to let
go from his hand. Madan’s parent denied of doing anything. They wanted him
to work in Orissa which was difficult to get at that time. It is not that he was not
trying but the job market at that time was not that open. It was a difficult period
for all youngsters. Noor came to his help and made the requisite
arrangements for him. It was a quite handsome money she spent on him. This
made her brother and parents angry. For her family members Madan was a
stranger. And to spend such a huge amount of money on a stranger makes
no sense. It is complete waste. Rs.65000.00 for a person, whom they hardly
knew. Was it not foolish, inane? For next two years they continued the
relationship with help of letters. Internet - chat, sms, mobile phone etc was not
that popular as that of today. And they say, one can express himself in a
better way while writing a letter and letter has its own charm. Though, now it
has been replaced by modern media of communication.

The contract with the company was for three years. So they were planning
accordingly. As time passed their bond became stronger. They started to think
of marrying. Two and a half year passed. Madan started preparing to
comeback. They were thinking not to flee, it is childish. They thought of taking
their parents into confidence and will marry only after convincing them. They
wanted their family members to attend their marriage and bless them, wanted
to make it memorable. Thought of marrying as per Muslim as well as Hindu
rituals.

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One day Madan received a letter from Noor. It kept him dumb as if the ground
beneath him moved away or the sky dropped over him. Noor was diagnosed
with Cancer. Though it was detected at its early stage, it was Cancer, a non
curable disease. This news made Madan feel uneasy. He became rest less.
He started thinking how he can help her. It was she who helped him in many
ways. Now it is time to help her. He thought of bestowal his earning to her. He
was thinking to do best possible things for her that can be done. But money
can not cure such diseases. Had he been in Orissa he could have visited her,
could have spent time with her, could have consulted to best possible doctor
etc. But he is far away from her. He decided to go back. Thought of
terminating the contract and face the consequence. In Dubai it is illegal and
such matters are taken seriously, these are punishable offences. Then he
decided to flee without informing his employer and managed to do so anyhow.

In the meantime all of us dispersed from the institute after completing our post
graduation. Due to 9/11, market slowed down around the globe. There was an
all round scarcity in jobs. I went to Bhutan as a lecturer. I was there till I joined
NTPC. Rajat joined Vedas Soft the only guy to be recruited through Campus.
Gouri, Deepak and Sudhansu joined as lecturer in KIIT, Bhubaneswar,
staying in Kanan Vihar and sharing the quarters. Satya, Jasobanta and Ajit
preferred to stay back and prepare for UPSC; Satya now is in MES,
Jasobanta in NTPC and Ajit in IRCON.

During my DOJ in BARH, I went to Bhubaneswar in Dipavali vacation. I was

coming in East coast Exp. Generally from Barh the direct train to Howrah was
Danapur Exp whose arrival time at Howrah is 7:00AM and the Departure time
of Falaknama Exp. was 7:05 AM but hardly any train in our country reaches
its destination in right time. Even if it reaches it becomes difficult to catch a
train within a period of 5 minutes from a different platform. It is a big risk one
has to take to board Falaknama Exp. So the next train to Bhubaneswar is
East Coast Exp. This departs at 10:45AM and reaches Bhubaneswar at 7:20
PM. On that very particular day the train was late by an hour while reaching at
Bhubaneswar. South bound trains usually station on platform no-4. It took me
around 10-15 minutes to reach at exit of the station. While passing by platform
no-1 to exit I observed some disturbances. It was not common and quite

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unusual to see such type of scene in a railway station. I heard that someone
fell from the running train while trying to get in. Such kind of accidents is not
uncommon. It must be due to sheer carelessness of the fellow passenger. I
ignored the news. I was in a mood to rush to my house and trying to negotiate
with rickshaw walah to go to Ganganagar, my residence.

Many things had changed in Kanan Vihar. They had developed some
differences among themselves. Sudhansu left for Hinjilikatu his hometown,
the same day I came here. Deepak resigned from KIIT and Gouri was
selected in Infosys, Bangalore. Deepak had developed a hated relationship
with Gouri. It was no Gouri’s fault. Gouri used to go out at around 11.00PM for
two hours without revealing of his mission. Deepak’s complain was as a friend
he should know all about Gouri. Deepak’s suspicion was he is out to call
Namrata and expecting Gouri to share the developments between them.
Gouri’s khufia mission saw daylight the day he was selected in Infosys. He
used to go to his friend’s house to prepare for the interview. Deeak was busy
with his lab assistant(4). Everybody knew about this relationship. When the
college management raised question about them he had to sacrifice his job.
He could have chosen either of two but he preferred to follow the path of king
Lewis-XVI’s and resigned. It was Sudhansu who wanted to go to Delhi to
prepare for administrative services.

Next Monday, it was around 8:15PM I received a call from Sudhansu asking
me to come to station. He was going to Delhi in Kalinga Utkal exp. I reached
station in no time. I saw Puri Howrah Exp. leaving the platform. He was there
with one of his friends. We started talking about our nostalgic moments at
Delhi. Formation and reformation of clusters. It is niyati, no body has control
over it. After a year or two Sudhansu will again be staying with Satya and I will
be going back to Delhi after completion of my DOJ in a month time. He
enjoyed the stay at Bhubaneswar with Deepak and Gouri and now will get our
company. While discussing we talked almost about all common friends. It was
announced that Tapaswini is in right time and is about to come. Next turn was
of Kalinga Utkal Exp. From the announcement of Tapaswini Exp. Sudhansu
recalled about Madan. Sudhansu told Madan was with him for the past

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30days. In Gouri’s absence he was staying in Gouri’s room. On last Saturday
died in a train mishap. It was a shocking news for me.

We recalled the days we spent with Madan in Delhi. A complete bore. He was
there to get his visa cleared and so on. While leaving Saudi Arabia he might
never have thought of returning back to Dubai. But by then time had passed,
things were different, priority in life had changed. Man wants to do something
but lands with something else. Nothing is under the control of human being. It
is the inchoate who feels of doing everything.

Madan ran out of money and Noor’s treatment was expensive. So he thought
of going back to Dubai. Madan was facing some problem in getting his visa
cleared for visiting to Saudi Arabia. It was because some formalities were
incomplete while returning back to India. So he went to Delhi to sort it out and
stayed with Deepak. However, all the problems get sorted out. He was
allowed. Within 4-5 Months he went to Dubai. Three years period is quite a
long period and the treatment is also costly. Her family members went
bankrupt. To add she also resigned from her job because of her unremitting
illness. They failed to take proper care.

Madan used to send money to Noor for her treatment regularly. They were in
touch. They used to communicate with letters. Days were passing by
smoothly. One day Madan came to know from Noor’s letter that she has
developed serious tumours and doctors are sceptic about her survival. They
wanted to operate. This time they needed some big money. After getting such
news he came to Orissa. After operation Doctor declared at most 3-4 months.

Sudhansu was coming to Delhi. He had to vacate the room. Madan bided a
farewell party to Sudhansu at Hotel Hilton. It was a night that Sudhansu will
never forget. They enjoyed like anything in those circumstances. Next day,
Saturday, Sudhansu went to Hinjilikatu. Since Sudhansu left Madan thought
of going to Burla for a day or two. He stopped visiting his house. Last year as
far as Sudhansu remembers he came to Orissa for a few days. He returned
back without visiting his parents. He was busy in attending Noor hence hardly
getting any time to spend with his family members. Almost all his savings he
spent on Noor. Only once he sent money to his father in his second visit to

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Dubai that to a small amount. In a way he was getting away from his parents.
Madan’s parents never wanted his money. They only wanted their son to
reside with them, work in Burla, with how ever small the salary may be. They
are there to support him. What else parents need? What for one prays for a
son? What for one fasts? But this is life.

Kana Vihar is quite a distance from Station. It was Ramesh, Lecturer in KIIT, a
friend of Sudhansu came to see off Madan. His ticket was in Tapaswini. It was
8:30PM, in the evening. Puri Howrah was on the platform no-1. The next turn
was of Tapaswini. Suddenly there was some noise heard from the entrance.
When Madan turned, saw some one with a big muscular, stout figure having
sharpened instruments in his hand, pointing towards him and shouting to beat
him, kill him etc. He could not understand. He thought it is for some body else
standing beside him. So he turned back and glanced for whom it might be.
But everybody was looking at each other saying it was not for them. In the
mean time train started leaving the platform slowly. The next time he turned
towards the entrance he could see Noor’s brother. It was a proper example of
reflex action. Madan ran. The reason of Noor’s brother being after him was
evident. Before leaving for Burla he met Noor and proposed to marry her. He
wanted to spend time with her. Live the life as far as he can with her. The
proposal was not acceptable to her family members especially to her goon
brother. However, he gave her time to think and reply. But things were taken
in a different way.

Before giving any thought he ran towards the train to catch it. But the train
was slow at that time. He thought of boarding the train towards last boggie so
that the ruffians before him will not be able to board it. Otherwise every body
will be in the train and it will be difficult for him to get rid of them. So he
thought of running for a while and continued to run in the direction of engine.
The station was crowded. He was colliding with kiths and kin of fellow
passengers, hawkers standing on the platform etc. He was getting hardly any
space to run. He was running for his life. He was running with all cylinders on
fire. After a few seconds he got exhausted. He thought of boarding the train.
By this time the train picked up some speed. It was accelerating quickly. He
gave a try. He had his hand bag in his hand. He missed the opportunity. He

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dropped the bag and thought of getting in the next door of the same bogie.
Both were running in the same direction. So it was taking a little bit of time. He
slowed down himself so as to get in at the earliest. As seconds were passing
train was getting faster so as relative velocity. He jumped with trying to catch
the railing of the train. The synchronisation between his thought and action
was important but he was no good student of science. He failed; his hands
missed the railing and legs got slipped. He fell down and rest formalities were
completed by the iron monster. People on the platform watching the incident
was able to see the LV of the train. Those who were chasing him stopped.
They were happy seeing their work done. After a day or two his parents were
informed by the police.

We heard of horn of a train. We thought it is of Tapaswini Exp. but it was of

Kalinga Utkal Exp. Tapaswini Exp. came and went unnoticed. We prepared
ourselves to make Sudhansu board train. He had around 12 small and big
cartoons with him. Sudhansu left for Delhi.

While returning back to my house I was thinking only of Madan. I do not know
when I reached Ganganagar. Time was passing very fast for me. I was joining
the dots. Yes, it was Saturday when I reached here and I had also seen those
disturbances in platform. Oh no! everything happened in my front and it went
unnoticed. I was thinking how wrong I was on that day. It was not just another
causality or train accident. I was feeling guilty but I dot know why? Maybe, of
thinking odd about Madan and keeping a wrong impression about Madan. I
was trying fruitlessly to get an answer.

Now Gouri is happily married with Namrata. Deepak continued with his saga
of love. After having affairs with (5) & (6) settled with(7). The link between
Noor and us was Madan. So it is difficult for me to say what happened to Noor
thereafter. I only can hope and pray to Lord Jagananth for the best of them,
where ever they are. May lord Jagananth bless everybody and the readers of
Utkalika.

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