Himanshu Shekhar Guru
36th Sarala Award winner, short story writer Manoj Panda is a self-confessed non-believer who chronicles human life from the perspective of a sympathetic observer who believes in the great healing power of stories
Noted Oriya writer Manoj Kumar Panda from Bolangir will receive the prestigious 36th Sarala Award for his latest short story collection Maya Bagicha and overall literary achievements, the Sarala Award Committee announced recently. He will receive a cash award of `5,00,000 along with a citation at a function to be held October 26. Recognised as the foremost literary award of the state, Sarala Award was instituted in 1979 by Indian Metals Public Charitable Trust, the charitable wing of IMFA Group.
Panda is mainly a short story writer but his translation work has also been appreciated. Born October 4, 1954 to Radamani and Nilamani Panda of Bolangir, Panda attended primary and high school in Titilagarh, PR High School in Bolangir and BM High School in Bhawanipatna. He joined Sonepur College and then Rajendra College and afterwards Training College in Bolangir. He was a teacher by profession and retired from PR High School Bolangir in 2012.
LITERARY WORKS
Panda has three story books to his credit titled Hada Bagicha (1992), Barna Bagicha (2003) and Maya Bagicha (2015). He has translated The Second Sex by Simone De Beauvour, All My Sons, a play by Arthur Miller, and Caligula by Albert Camus, besides a few poems and stories and The Bone Garden and other stories. His translation work titled One Thousand Days In A Refrigerator published by Speaking Tiger Publishing House in New Delhi is scheduled to be released this winter. A review book titled Sabda Sanketa O Sunyasthana, edited by Santosh Ku Rath on stories of the writer, has also been published. Twenty-four writers have put their views on his works in the book. Excerpts from an interview with Sunday POST:
Your literary brilliance has got recognition through the 36th Sarala Samman. How would you like to express your feelings?
I am happy that readers have found my stories worth it and people have found in my work the kind of pleasure they seek from literature. Readers will keep me engaged till my last breath.
In the names of three of your short story collections the word ‘Bagicha’ appears. Is there any specific reason for that?
Not anything specific. I love the lyrical flow of the word.
How would you like to spend your award amount which is Rs 5 lakh?
On literary pursuits naturally, in whatever way, writing, on purchasing books, travelling and in the coffee table with birds of the same feather.
Your stories are marked for their satire of God and religion. Are you an atheist?
Yes, I am a non-believer. But I refrain from discussing God. If you say ‘God is there/everywhere’, I will say, ‘so what is that to me?’ But I like to talk against obscurantist ideas, like astrology, bastu, sorcery, witchcraft, rituals and, most of all, against babas and matas and blind belief generally. It is a tragedy that people, including children, die, killed, are butchered for this. I do not believe in belief, said EM Foster and I believe the same.
Readers have traced absurdity in some of your works. How does absurdity convey the message of your works?
No please. I have not heard the word absurdity being uttered about my books from any reader so far. Had it been so there wouldn’t have been a book called Sabda Sanketa O Sunyasthana. I believe, just as writing is an art, so is reading. Moreover, there is no message in my stories. You just enjoy what is there.
Which arena of literature is your comfort zone and why?
Stories, naturally, because it’s a unit in itself. A final. A collage of the atoms of day to day human life, endeavour and dreams. So a reader goes through it in one breath and discovers himself. Hemingway has put it in a beautiful way “A story is like an iceberg, a small part is seen and a large part is hidden.” It is the reader’s duty to see the beauty in it. I love to struggle to write a story.
How does your family support your work?
Probably by supplying as much tea as I want day and night, by not talking to me for days, by not sending me to the market daily, by not dragging me to family rituals for decades and such other. And giving me a satisfied smile when my stories are
published.
What message would you like to convey to the budding writers?
Cultivate the art of reading.
What are your upcoming works?
A novel in Oriya is on. An English rendering of my stories One Thousand Days in a Refrigerator by Snehaprava Das will be released.
