My Brother

My brother, Durgadas Mohanty, was born at Angul in Odisha on 5th of January 1941. He was the fourth living child of my parents. When born he was very fair and pretty. He continued to be adorable throughout his childhood and adolescence. He was very docile and all in the family doted on him. He was a healthy child and, throughout my parents life, he never troubled them with any major sickness. But God's ways are so complex! Later in his life, when both the parents left us for their heavenly abode, he suffered a lot. Albeit his sufferings, he had no complaints and conducted himself gracefully till his end on 25th August 2011.

He had his entire schooling at Ravenshaw Collegiate School, Cuttack from where he passed his Matriculation. During schooling, he had to stay in the hostel of his school for considerable time due to father's transfer. During these days, he made few intimate friends who were either his room mates in the hostel or his classmates. Two to three of these friends rose high in their career and remained loyal to him even after their new elevated status. One of them even travelled  during early seventies all the way from New Delhi to attend his marriage at Nimapara (a rural area in Puri district). All our family members, including my two sisters with their husbands, attended this  marriage. Unfortunately, I could not be present in  the wedding as my wife was  bedridden at Chandigarh due to a miscarriage. My both brothers- in-law have some funny incidents to tell that happened during this marriage. I hope Kumud Anand, one of my brothers-in-law (who, incidentally, was also my classmate at school & college) do narrate this interesting incident  on his blog kapatnaik.blogspot.com for public consumption!

Durgadas or 'Budha', which was his nickname, went for the science stream for his college. For his Inter Science he studied at Stewart Science College, Cuttack failing to get his admission at the Ravenshaw College. For his graduation and post-graduate degrees, he studied at Christ College, Cuttack. He took his M.Sc. in Statistics and took his first job in Christ College.. Subsequently he changed over to join Eastern India Motion Picture Association as its Branch Secretary at Cuttack. His office was at Barabati Stadium in Cuttack and this office was around a kilometer and half from our house at Tulsipur. He had a very long innings at this organisation as it suited both - him and the organisation. Here he became very popular with the film fraternity of Odisha -the Oriya film producers, the film distributors and the cinema hall owners all over the state. The trait of honesty, handed down to his children by our father, had the requisite stamp and effect on him too! This uprightness made him popular in the film fraternity of Odisha. The organisation that he was serving was not a good pay master. This led to his shifting to another organisation  whose Head Office too was at Cuttack.

With his vast experience in the film industry of Odisha, he had no trouble in joining the state undertaking - Orissa Film Development Corporation as its Deputy General Manager. This was a position of number two in the organisation which was established by the  Government to primarily help state's film industry by way of financial assistance etc. He retired from this organisation in the year 1999.

After retirement, around year 2001, due to wrong medication & treatment at Cuttack, both his kidneys totally failed. I got him examined at AIIMS New Delhi and they confirmed that he has to have transplantation of a kidney. After few months of dialysis at Kalinga Hospital of Bhubaneswar, he finally had a kidney transplant at Chennai in the year 2002. This transplant prolonged his life for nearly nine years although his day to day functioning was very restrictive. He had once confessed to me that he does not like this life of a 'Robot' !

Throughout his career he was stationed at Cuttack. As such he always stayed with my parents at our Tulsipur house. This was a big advantage for him and my parents. He was fortunate to take  enough care of our parents being near them. This fortune was not available to me as I was all along posted out (mostly outside the sate) in my service career, 

Budha's family, besides our parents, consisted of his wife 'Swadheena' and son Bedangdas. His son was brilliant in his studies; he was 'Best Graduate' of Utkal University as well as topper & gold medalist in his M.Sc.(Physics) from this University. After doing his M.Phil and PhD from Institute of Physics, Bhubaneswar he is continuing  at Kolkata as a Scientific Officer of an affiliate institute of Bhaba Atomic Energy Commission.

Budha had all along been a dear little loving & admiring brother to me. I shall always miss him. Let his soul rest in Peace!