Kesha Ranjan Pradhan: The Sobriquet Of Mystified Versatility

                                                           AND THEN ONE DAY

Dinner table conversation:

If I am not wrong, it was perhaps our respective viewpoints on timing that grew as a major visible bone of contention between me and Mokshada all through those formative years. I would always maintain since the inception of our acquaintance that punctuality is the ultimate value in my life and getting late is nothing less than brazen display of one’s irresponsibility. But Mokshada, quite an independent lady in her thinking and taste, would always advocate that punctuality is not so valued in a country like India and very often a timely person suffers from the risk of being taken for granted.  That’s why, anyone having at least some dignity left in him cannot afford punctuality especially in India.

I, paying sincere homage to my value of punctuality, reached the Punjabi restaurant as decided by us sharp at 9.00 PM that night. However, Mokshada, as she always did, came half an hour later and, putting a cute smile on her lips, said, “So, our indigenous Gandhi was waiting for me! That’s great to make me feel like a celebrity.”

I would prudently never pay attention to such blithe comments of her. Because I knew if I uttered even a single word on her poor understanding of timing, then the philosopher in her would get wounded and throw at once a cunning reply: ‘Our indigenous Gandhi should learn to be tolerant enough to ideologies alien to him.’

For me, it was punctuality and silence that would serve as my armour and for her, it was blunt sense of humour and airs of being late that would serve as her naked sword.

“Ananda, thank you for finally taking the trouble of inviting me to a restaurant for dinner. Well let me inform you that I am quite impressed with your first post in your blog. So now being done with that, who are you next looking for? Who is going to be the second one in the series?” she asked me, perhaps to cool my piled up indignation.

Indeed, I became flattered after getting such a compliment from her. My anger whiled away in no time at all. In a quite relaxed gesture, I replied, “Of course, I have already thought of someone to write about. You will be happy to know that a vague design of the primary architecture of my next blog is now dancing in my mind. ”

“Well, I know who he is.” Mokshada answered in a mysterious way.

“Who?”

“Mr. Kesha Ranjan Pradhan…your much admired Kesha sir…right?”

“And what made you predict so?”

“It is not rocket science to predict that. Because anyone who is close to you knows about two things, one that you have a special weakness for the discipline of English and two that you have been obsessed with Kesha sir for a decade.”

“Ooh.” I shortened my reply.

My obsession with Kesha sir:

It was around 10.30PM that night when I reached my mess after completing the dinner with Mokshada. Very tired as I was, I postponed the assignments of that day for the day following and decided to retire early to bed. While lying on bed relaxed and slumber was yet on its way to be drawn upon my eyes, that particular statement of Mokshada regarding those two things about me reverberated loudly in my ears.

It was true that I had a natural inclination for language and literature since my childhood. Hence, I wanted to switch over to Arts stream and pursue my graduation with English honours soon after I passed my intermediate in Science. However, parental and peer pressure led me to choose Bachelor of Science instead. Thus, studying English remaining an unfulfilled dream, I secretly nurtured in me a special admiration for students, teachers and writers of English language.

Her mention of the second thing about me was also not far from truth. My obsession with Kesha sir began from the day itself when I was in the final year of my graduation and heard him declaring a poem written by veteran poet Mr. Bipin Acharya as visual poetry in his charming speech in a literary meeting. For the next few weeks, the major point of discussion in all my coteries was about visual poetry. Amid tea parties with like-minded friends, I used to deliberately use the word 'visual poetry' time and again in my conversations only to draw the attention of the congregation. Those friends of mine were also nodding their heads as if they were well conversant with the form and style of visual poetry. However, the truth was that neither I nor my charlatan friends had back then even an iota of basic idea on what visual poetry is.

During my masters, I was fortunate enough to be bosom with a gang of friends, a good number of whom were direct or indirect students of Kesha sir. In common discussions, they were off and on bringing forth their memories associated with Kesha sir. I remember once Prakash, a serious admirer of Kesha sir's style of teaching English grammar and a good friend of mine till the last year, committed a mistake related to usage of ‘If clause’ in a piece of his writing. Not missing the golden chance, I threw him a taunt by saying, “Perhaps you were looking the side-bench girls on the day when your Kesha sir was teaching ' if clause' to your class."

During my M.Phil., I started writing poetry and posted them on social media at regular intervals to gather appreciation from others. I can still recall the moment of my excitement while telling Mokshada about the kind comment of Kesha sir in one of my poems in Facebook.

I can't forget how Mokshada still mocks at my insistence on her to watch Kesha sir's plays "Istafa", "Dhanful" and "Asur" from YouTube in past, though I know she too secretly admires those plays.

And the best part of my obsession with Kesha sir, which is yet to be spoken, goes back not much earlier. A couple of months ago while surfing on YouTube, I accidentally landed up in Kesha sir’s narration of the short story ‘Chalis Bachchar’ written by veteran litterateur Mr. Sanjaya Kumar Mishra. I myself couldn't mark when and how tears started rolling down my eyes after listening to the emotive narration of the story by Kesha sir. Triggered by sentiments, I sent the link of the audio to Mokshada with a request to listen the same as soon as possible.

It was a great shock for me to find sagacious Mokshada also bursting into sudden deluge of tears after listening the story in Kesha sir’s voice. That moment I told her, “So, could you realize the power of a good story in the voice of a great narrator?"

Just the next day of the incidence, I can hardly forget that in my life, I received a call from Kesha sir himself asking me for my approval to his recitation of one of my written poems. On being informed of that, Mokshada congratulated me and said, “...even the whole universe conspires in helping you to achieve it. Quite correct Paulo Coelho was ! Umm, right?"

                                             KESHA RANJAN PRADHAN: HIS FACTS

Seven missed calls :-

I was quite infamous in my mess as a ‘Suryavanshi’, not in the sense of successor in the lineage of great kings Raghu and Rama, but in the meaning of someone rising from bed only when the sun is right up his head at noon. So, it was habitual for me to miss any call or message of urgency to my mobile in the forenoon.

Fortunately or unfortunately, so happened with me that day too. After rising from bed sharp at 12 O'clock, on checking my mobile, I found seven missed calls from Mokshada intermittently. Anticipating any imminent problem, I, all of a sudden, made her a call back.

She picked up the phone and said," Nothing serious. Be calm. I only called you to ask about what data you have gathered on Kesha sir till now to put on a blog?”

I became a bit relaxed and replied,"Happily the research part is over and now I have enough data on him."

“So, please share.”

Then I presented Mokshada a brief account of Mr. Kesha Ranjan Pradhan, the 1955-born third of the total five sons of Mr. Muralidhar Pradhan and Mrs. Udian Pradhan of Satibhata village near Padampur in Bargarh. I told her the incident of how young Kesha sir; a bright political Science graduate from Anchal College, Padampur; lacking just a single mark for the first class honours, took it as an signal from the almighty to switch over to pursue his masters in English language and literature from Sambalpur University. I further elaborated her how Kesha sir's professional life was shaped as a lecturer in English in Nayagarh College,Salipur college and finally an H.O.D. and later principal till retirement in Anchal College, Padampur. The story of establishment of "The Loo", a pioneering GLOCAL (Global and Local) theatre group in 1993 and Kesha sir's serious experiment with theatre in sonorous Kosli/Sambalpuri language through his group was also in my description of Kesha sir to her.

“You know Mokshada, Kesha sir’s plays Amba and Gadhar Katha, considered trendsetters, have won national acclaim and been translated into Bhojpuri and Hindi respectively. His hilarious comedies Nagnadi and Raematir Baer have been performed in hundreds of villages and towns. Asur, Kalmaspad, Bhagnas and Sunar chere have won critical appreciation. Lengda Raja, Mahapuru and Advut Parbat have been featured in International Children Theatre Festivals in New Delhi and Kolkata. Kuili Kuili Kie Raja has already become a sensation with its global theme and indigenous folk style. Guru Dakshina, Authare Bhagabati, Ratnalavar Katha and Garabandha are avant-garde plays in their stories and presentations,” I tried to inform her.

“I am aware of all those works of Kesha sir. I love the way he amalgamates the native culture with the mainstream global culture through his plays. His adaptations of stories of Tolstoy, Gorky, Premchand, Manoj Das, Rabi Pattnaik and Hrushikesh Panda bear the signature of his creative brilliance. Challenge, a historical play in tribute to Madanlal Dingra, the first Indian martyr in foreign soil and Ghati, the documentation of sagacious fight of a family of martyrs in Western Odisha against the British Raj before 1857 are precious treasures for any researcher in present and future. His brain child ‘The Loo’ can boast of sixty performances and three hundred days of rehearsal a year,” Mokshada added further.

“He has also associated himself with a good number of street plays and theatre workshops. He received Yuba Udayan Samman-2006,Setu Award-2007, Pahil Parash Samman-2012 and Shree Natya Samman-2017 in Sambalpur, Bhumika Samman-2006 in Bolangir, Prafulla Rath Samman-2006 in Bhawanipatna, Rajiv Gandhi State Level Sadhbhavana Award-2011, Abani Baral Smruti Samman-2012 in Bhubaneswar, Dao Ramchandra Smruti Samman-2016 in Cairo, Brajamohan Samman-2017 in Larambha, Adi Natyakar Samman-2017 in Mahanga, Jugar Samman-2019 from the Sambad and prestigious Odisha Sangeet Natak Academy Award-2017 by Government of Odisha for his immense contribution to folk theatre.” I mentioned.

"And then...?” asked Mokshada patiently.

"Then what? Is this much of information not sufficient to write a blog?" I retorted blatantly.

"Sufficient for a blog, but not sufficient for Kesha sir. Do you know being a FIDE rated player, he represented Odisha in National B chess in 1992(Pune), 1994(Nagpur), 1996(Chennai) and 1998(Surat)? Are you cognizant of the fact that it is Kesha sir, a national chess arbiter himself, who diligently tutored the visually challenged chess champions Prachurya and Soundarya? Are you updated with the news of him receiving Senior Research Fellowship from CCRT, India for his meticulous research on Dhanujatra in Bargarh?” enquired Mokshada.

To be quite frank, I was unaware of those sides of Kesha sir's personality till then. Hence, I remained flummoxed on being asked those questions by Mokshada.

Mokshada perhaps understood my predicament. She explained, “These chronological account of one's life, long list of awards and accolades are just dead facts. But life itself and the person himself is beyond those facts."

My eyes dilapidated listening to the novel perspective of Mokshada on approaching the life of any person. Mokshada went on speaking,"A person is missed after death, not for what he achieved, but for how he made others feel in his companion. So, why don't you take care of this point also while writing on Kesha sir?"

Being unable to completely internalize or discard the suggestion of Mokshada, I ended the conversion just there by replying a short ‘OK’.

In fact, Mokshada turned upside down the whole framework of my conception of the blog on Kesha sir in my personal notebook. Her words made me rethink my techniques of research and presentation of facts before writing the blog.

                                       KESHA RANJAN PRADHAN: IN THEIR EYES

The love bytes:-

For the purpose of adding some angles to my research and gravitas to the blog, I had requested a good number of stalwarts in their respective fields to share their views on Kesha sir. Some of them didn’t respond to me, while a few of them were kind enough to give their bytes on Kesha sir to me. I knew it was their love and admiration for Kesha sir that made them respond to this incompetent blogger.

After reaching home, when I checked my mobile, the screen was blessed with the enlightening messages of the veterans. I started reading each message minutely.

Award winning writer,noted lexicographer and eminent linguist Dr. Prafulla Kumar Tripathy wrote: ‘Kesha Ranjan and my young brother late Pramod, both belong to the fraternity of drama. I have been staying far away from my native since 1969. I never got the opportunity to meet many writers and poets of our language. I have heard some of the stories narrated by Kesha Ranjan in these days. This is indeed an innovative initiative. It seems to embroil all those who lack interest of reading towards our literature. I have this much only to say. Yes, I am aware of the dedicated research work of Kesha Ranjan on Dhanujatra.’

Distinguished academician, writer, researcher and thinker Dr. Santosh Kumar Rath appreciated Kesha sir by stating:’Kesha Ranjan lives in the present. He is an artist who takes each performance as the only thing on the earth,adds meaning and values to every moment of ‘here and now’, even seems to disregard any ‘before or after.’ It is because of such an obsession with the contemporary performances, this prolific playwright has only three published plays so far. I wish it were at least thirty three!’

Veteran litterateur and cultural researcher Dr. Sanjaya Kumar Mishra texted in appreciation of Kesha sir:’Mr. Kesha Ranjan Pradhan, a prolific teacher of English literature,is a popular name in the socio-cultural circle of Odisha. A thorough gentleman he is, Mr. Pradhan has earned a special place in the field of writing and directing plays in Koshli. He is considered as the trend-setter in this otherwise less explored area.He has been relentlessly working in his pet areas to establish Koshli language in Odisha. He has discovered many local talents in theatrical and literary field. He has an innovative mind and his quest for newness surpasses time and space. He has been a great admirer of many short-stories and has made an audio-version of one of my stories; Chalisbachhar in his own inimitable way. I wish him all the very best for all his future endeavour.’

Eminent dramatist, actor and cultural enthusiastic Mr. Ashis Sonar opined very high of Kesha sir and says:’Eminent drama personality of Odisha Mr. Kesha Ranjan Pradhan automatically comes into mind whenever we talk about strong organizational capacity and dramatic presentation.He bears the tremendous promise to amalgamate the plot of any story from an alien culture and language with the indigenous life and tradition. It appears as if he is a master architect of confining the whole world within a fixed stage. His eyes always glare at the experiments in the drama than its success or failure. He dreams of every play as draping the garments of post-modernism around a native soul. It will not be an exaggeration to say that Mr. Pradhan; a playwright, director, translator, organizer and critic;all in one; has already given a special identity to Odisha in the global scenario.’

Noted playwright, poet and actor Mr. Pradyumna Sahu accoladed Kesha sir with his words:’Before ‘Raematir Baer’, I had just heard about one Kesha Ranjan Pradhan from Padampur. The play ‘Raematir Baer’ introduced me with him for the first time at Bhima Bhoi Kalamandap, Sonepur. Gradually, he became keen to me with many of his subsequent plays and took over the place of my favourite theatre personality. Due to his in-depth study and involvement in the robust folk culture of Western Odisha, we usually feel the powerful essence of the same in almost all of his plays. He is a power-house of creativity,who took the theatre of western Odisha to a new height and contributed to Indian theatre at his best. With his theatre organisation ‘The Loo’, he has not only defined theatre in a new manner, but also tried to popularize and give a special recognition to the language of western Odisha through episodes in You Tube like ‘Kabi aar Kabita’, ‘Katha aar Kathani’, ‘Nat aar Natua’ etc. He is not only a personality to be influenced by, but also an institution in himself. He is the pride of western Odisha.’

My last conversation with Mokshada and the viewpoints of veterans as read by me put a serious question to me: Can a factual writing on Kesha sir do justice to his immensely rich life?

A clearly audible voice from an unknown territory within me,may be my conscience, prompted me the answer: Never.

                                      KESHA RANJAN PRADHAN: HIS DIMENSIONS

Dissection of the multifarious personality:-

My whole afternoon that day was spent in brooding over the dilemma in me regarding the stupendous work of sketching the versatile self of Kesha sir on the canvas of my blog. Painting the persona of Kesha sir through his close ones’ perspectives and documenting the various shades of his creative manifestations remained two guiding criteria in my introspection that afternoon. After much toil, I coast to a reasonable solution of that dilemma. I decided to dissect Kesha sir into four sections such as an academician, a dramatist, a sportsperson, a Narrator; and look into each section through the glasses of ones who had seen him from close quarters.

Conversation-1: In search of the academician:-

I had many of my friends since graduation days who were direct or indirect students of Kesha sir. Prakash, Purandar, Avimanyu, Sambit, Bikash and Ankit, with whom my formative years of later adolescence was shaped during my graduation in G.M. Autonomous college, were still there in my contact list. Hence, I thought of asking them for sharing their views on Kesha sir’s teaching along with any unforgettable memory if they had with him. Once the conversation with them got its peak, I will ask them further to connect me with their friends for a similar kind of talk.

I had made it a rule not to collect data from anybody through direct talk with him over phone. Because later I would have  to arrange the content of those talks in a sequential manner and write them all again on a paper, which will be an additional burden for me. Moreover, I had observed that people are more serious and systematic in writings than speaking. So, my technique of collecting data was sending messages to the individual respondents and waiting for their answers to be cross-examined.

‘Dear, you will be happy to know that I am going to write a blog based on the life and works of your Kesha sir. If you take the trouble of sharing me your views on the teaching style of Kesha sir and any fond memory associated with him, my blog will see the day light. Your help will be valued. Thanks.’- I typed the message in what’s app and sent the same to all of them.

Soon after sending the message, I took the trouble of getting down to the ground floor of my mess and entered directly into the room of my junior Subrat kumar Panigrahi. To my good luck, another junior Rakesh Kumar Behera and my classmate Bhadrasen Saha were already present there in his room. I found all of them to be direct students of Kesha sir in Anchal College, Padampur. I asked them to tell something about Kesha sir.

Paying heed to my request, Subrat became all of a sudden nostalgic and went on saying,”It will be a hard nut to crack even for the most accomplished juries to decide whether Kesha sir is better a teacher or a person. As a person, I like his friendliness even with them who will be one-third of his age. As a teacher, I will remember him as one with full of out of box ideas.”

No sooner had Subrat ended than Rakesh started recollecting, “I still remember his final words in our farewell ceremony where he quoted: when you are appearing your examination, whether you know the answer or not is not so important as whether you can write what you know or not is . In life, remember always what you speak is not important, rather how you speak is important.”

This particular quote as narrated by Rakesh reminded me of someone who made a same statement in our hostel farewell ceremony back in graduation days. I am still struggling with my memory to be confirmed whether he was Kesha sir or someone else.

Breaking my chain of thoughts, Bhadrasen said,” I can’t forget how Kesha sir used to encourage us to take active participation in co-curricular activities to groom our personalities.”

While listening to Bhadrasen, my what’s app started flooding with messages from my graduation friends. Almost all of them had admitted that none had they seen in life who could pour life into classroom as dexterously as Kesha sir. A good number of them mentioned about some unforgettable old classes of Kesha sir where he was teaching English grammar through PowerPoint presentation. Even quite a few stood on their claim that they didn’t find anyone  till then speaking as good English as Kesha sir.

Rohit dada was both a senior and friend to me. He was also a student of Kesha sir in his college days. On phone, he narrated me that evening that every student of Kesha sir would be found to be enthralled by his style of teaching. Especially the techniques of dramatization and stimulus variation that he employed in teaching were something imitable for any wanna-be English teacher. What I loved the most in him was his thirst for knowledge and irresistible zeal of teaching. He could have been nothing else, but an academician. Even if a student caused disturbance in the classroom, he would relate his behaviour to that of a character of the story he would be teaching and take the lesson ahead.

“While teaching us a story in classroom, Kesha sir would present the dialogue between the characters in dramatic style. For a male character, his voice would be masculine and for a female character, it would be feminine. In his narration, he would be the king, the queen, the peasant and what not, all in the same classroom,” said the exultant Rohit dada.

“Ooh I see, incredible it is. Well, I am in a dilemma whether it is Kamal Hassan who copied Kesha sir in Dashavataram or it is Kesha sir who copied Kamal Hassan in those classrooms,” quite jokingly I asked.

“I think the first one is true,” he replied practically bursting into laughter.

I still remember the good laugh we had that day.

So, another John Keating:-

“I interacted with 35 students of Kesha sir including my friends. All of them loves to portray him as a progressive and innovative teacher who encourages students in discovering their own skies to fly with their own wings,” I reported to Mokshada in the coffee house.

“Have you watched the movie ‘Dead Poets Society’?” she asked me.

“Five times,” I replied.

“Then don’t forget to relate Kesha sir with the character John Keating of that movie in your blog.”

Conversation-2: In search of the theatre genius:-

Dayasagar was my Facebook friend and Uddhaba was a friend of my junior Subrat. I knew it pretty well that both Daya and Uddhaba were actors in the Loo, the theatre group founded by Kesha sir. Hence, to get an idea about the dramatist in Kesha sir, I collected what’s app number of both and started the interaction on Kesha sir.

Quite sober by nature and soft-spoken Dayasagar narrated: ‘He is a fatherly figure for all of us who work in the Loo. He has shaped us in the manner as a potter does to the clay. Whenever we get confused in life and don’t get any way out, our last resort is always our Kesha sir. No matter on whatever topic it is, but still he holds the capacity to provide us the right guidance. Indeed, he is a walking-talking library for all of us.’

It is from Dayasagar I came to know that how getting no other modes of entertainment like television or internet in his youth, Kesha sir immersed deep into reading books and emerged as a voracious reader. Also Dayasagar made a special mention of how young Kesha sir was much in demand among the locals in his village for his unique voice and dramatization skills. Quite often the locals would invite him to narrate a story and pay him some money for his labour.

A serious admirer of Kesha sir, Uddaba texted: ‘Our Loo as a theatre group was established in 1993 by Kesha sir and since then it has never looked back. Now Mr. Chittaranjan Das and our Kesha sir are working as its president and general secretary respectively. The Loo represents the forgotten Odia alphabet or symbolically, those whom the mainstream loved to forget. Also the Loo stands as an antidote to the reduced time in our busy life for art and theatre.’

‘That’s brilliant.’- I texted back.

Uddhaba further added: ‘Besides serious experiments in drama, our Loo has produced many artists like BNA Lucknow passed out Kalpesh Modi, Nishith Panigrahi and Kamanta Sahu; NSD passed out Jagannath Seth; recipient of Rajiv Gandhi Fellowship Chandrakant Mahanand; recipient of CCRT scholarship Bikash Dandsena and Madhusudan Saraf along with many theatre birds like me, Dayasagar, Jeevan etc.Further, the Loo is working towards improving the educational standard of the local deprived children.’

‘Kudos to the Loo team dear’: I typed and ended the conversation there.

The Ebrahim Alkazi of Padampur:-

“Uddhaba and Dayasagar were narrating about the strict disciplinarian and visionary in Kesha sir. For them, he is an institution in himself,” I informed Mokshada during the evening walk.

“Yeah much like the stalwart Mr. Ebrahim Alkazi, former director of NSD,  right?” she replied.

“Yes, Kesha sir- our local Ebrahim Alkazi of the Loo, Padampur,” I drew a conclusion.

Conversation-3: In search of the sportsman:

On a different purpose, I was having a conversation that morning with Subrat and Rohit dada through conference call. Since they already knew about my project on Kesha sir, they drew my attention towards the accomplishments of Kesha sir as a chess player.

“Do you know Ananda, our Kesha sir has represented the state four times in national level” asked Rohit dada.

I was aware of those facts in advance from Mokshada. Hence, I replied,”Yes, in 1992, 1994, 1996 and 1998. He is a FIDE rated player and coach of those two visually challenged chess sensations Prachurya and Soundarya.”

“Ah dada, you are a good researcher. Please note that he is also presently the secretary of Bargarh District Chess Association, Bargarh. I will share one more thing related to this. Every year one student becomes the chess champion by defeating others in annual competition of Anchal College, Padampur. Interestingly, after the declaration of the championship, Kesha sir invites all participants including the champion for a simultaneous chess- match with him. As I have seen in my eyes, not many have been able to defeat Kesha sir in those matches,” a proud Subrat replied.

Listening to Subrat, Rohit dada too decided to share something and said,” A good many times, I have seen him as a cricket commentator in Borasambar Cricket Tournament. Believe me quite a number of people gather exclusively to listen to his commentary only.”

“I really got some points of use from both of you. I shall mention the names of both of you in my blog,” I assured them.

Fight Koni, Fight:-

“Soundarya and Prachurya are bringing medals to India. Both are visually challenged and tutored by Kesha sir, as you know.” I communicated to Mokshada.

“Just like the coach Khidda inspired the promising Koni to overcome all obstacles and social stigmas to win the national swimming championship in the award winning Bengali movie Koni, right?” she replied.

“Khidda! That dialogue: Fight Koni, fight.” I appreciated her analogy.

Conversation-4: In search of the narrator:-

One month back in a morning, I got a message from Kesha sir requesting me to call him. Being surprised by his request, I made him the call.

He picked up the phone and said, “Hello Ananda, actually I want your approval to recite the poem ‘Gute Ghar, Lekin Jude Bakhra’ in the series ‘Kabi aar Kabita’(The Poet and The Poetry) of YouTube channel ‘The Loo Presents’. We have decided to make the audio record of stories,poems and drama of our language in ‘Katha aar Kathani’, ‘Kabi aar Kabita’ and ‘Naat aar Natua’ series respectively. Some records in the first category is already available in ‘The Loo Presents’ YouTube channel. You can listen those stories there. However, we have selected your poem to be recorded as the first one in the second series. So, do you agree to the proposal?”

I readily agreed to his proposal. Of course, for a while, I couldn’t believe that he was the same Kesha Ranjan Pradhan whom I had grown up secretly admiring since my college days.

I searched for ‘The Loo Presents’ channel in YouTube and listened all the available stories like ‘Tincha’, ‘Mahalaxmi Basichhan’, ‘Chalis Bachhar’, ‘Gudni’ etc in Kesha sir’s own voice and fell in love with the impeccable modulation of voice that he had mastered.

‘Ananda, your poem in my voice is released in our YouTube channel. Please check’: I got such a message from Kesha sir after a few days. Being excited enough, I checked the channel, found the audio release of my poem there, listened to it and became very emotional.

I sent the link of the poem to some of my friends. After listening to those poems, I remembered three of my friends, Mohan, Aniket and Swayamsiddha, who were themselves very good poets, rang me in appreciation of Kesha sir’s recitation.

To know their views on Kesha sir, I sent the three of them the links of all recitation of Kesha sir in the afternoon and left,for each one of them,a message:’ What did you like so much in Kesha sir’s voice?’

Roughly after one hour, I received replies from them. Mohan texted: ‘It is the timing of crests and troughs of his baritone voice that I liked the most.’

Aniket sent the message: ‘It is the tremendous emotive power of his voice that I loved. It appeared as if the character itself was speaking.’

Swayamsiddha replied: ‘I don’t know what I like the most, but the voice is very soothing and it reconnects me with myself.’

I tried to cover a few more of my friends to get the answer of what they like the most in Kesha sir’s voice. The replies that I got from them can be simply reduced into one sentence and that would be ‘We got the smell of soil from his voice.’

The Loo Presents a Neelesh Mishra :-

“He is blessed with a magic voice. He adds life in whatever he gives voice to.” I told Mokshada.

“Yeah, I have not yet forgotten the hang over of ‘Chalis Bachhar’ on me,” she replied.

“So what will you say on the reciter in him?” I asked.

“Well, the Loo presents us a Neelesh Mishra in each of  its audio of Kesha sir,” she chuckled.

“Well, Neelesh sir tells the story and Kesha sir lives the story. Both are inimitable in their respective ways.” I made a fair deal.

The clown behind the serious face:-

After evening tea with Mokshada, I returned early to my mess. I just sat on my study table and felt relaxed. Finally, my dream of writing a blog on Kesha sir was going to be true. I remembered those days when I was asking others for information on Kesha sir. But destiny planned otherwise and I started writing a blog on Kesha sir, which might provide some necessary information on Kesha sir to those who are interested.

I made the final check of all data available with me to verify whether I left anything to write about Kesha sir. After re-reading all the collected data on him, surprisingly I stumbled upon one more interesting dimension of Kesha sir, which I had been missing till then.

During our conversation, Uddaba shared in one place,”Kesha sir appears to be very strict just before the beginning of any drama. But once the drama is over, the disciplinarian himself forgets all his discipline and enjoys the moments.” He went on narrating about the incident in one drama rehearsal where he got late and made Kesha sir furious. But when he burst into tears, it was the same Kesha sir who melted all of a sudden and tried hard to crack jokes to bring smile back to his lips.

Yet in another place, Uddaba funnily stated,”If you talk with Kesha sir outside the class, he will speak our native language so beautifully that you can’t believe he is a lecturer of English.But if you listen to him in his classes, you will be deluded with the supposition that this man must have been migrated from a foreign land.”

Poet Brajamohan Meher once shared me how in a meeting he mistook Kesha sir to be a very grave person from his thick moustache and became frightened even to talk with him,  but all pre-conceived notion changed when he listened his speech only to find out that the person was quite funny. Braja dada never forgot to mention what a brilliant orator and accomplished literary critic Kesha sir was!

In an another conversion, Uddhaba went on laughing by sharing that sometimes Kesha sir would call him and ask- ‘Uddhaba babu kahuchhanti ta? Bhala achhanti?’( Is it Mr. Uddhaba, your majesty? Are you keeping well my lord?)

Uddhaba further added in the same conversation: if some one calls him during rehearsal and asks him what he was doing, Kesha sir would instantly reply: ‘Dhenki is doing his duty’. If some one asks him about his life plan, then he would seriously reply: ‘No more greed for life, only 150 years more’. If you don’t complete an assignment given by him, his typical reply would be- ‘Babu, why didn’t you come with a bottle of Endosalfan ( a pesticide)?’

After reading all those funny incidents once again, I could discover the clown in Kesha sir trying to camouflage himself as a serious person behind his thick moustache and strict eyes.

I immediately called Mokshada and said,”He is also a serious-comedian!”

Mokshada replied,”I knew it before.”

I asked,”How ?”

She replied,”He loves to embrace contradictions. An artist and a sportsperson together reside in him. Literature and Politics cohabit in his academic qualification. So it is obvious that a clown must be residing underneath his serious persona.”

I got a bit shocked. I asked,”Then there must be some tragedy hiding behind his comedy too.”

She replied,”You ask him that by yourself.”

I am still young:-

Around 10 o’clock in the morning, I messaged him: ‘Why did you choose drama among many forms of literature ?’

After 15 minutes, he saw my message and replied: ‘Because drama is my religion.’

-Tell me more about your initial encounters with drama.

-I wrote my first mini-play ‘Mana Bihanga’ during my undergraduate days and got a stage for it in the college itself. Later Mr Panchanan Mishra took it to a big platform like Sambalpur University. My radio play ‘Rangaheena Jagannatha’ was staged at Kala Vikash Kendra by senior artists like Jharana Das during my posting in Salipur college. But it was after interaction with my friend Dwarikanath Nayak during a university evaluation work that I decided to focus on writing drama in Kosli/Sambalpuri language.

-And then?

- In the meanwhile, eminent theatre person and my colleague in Salipur college Prof. Kartik Rath was organising the first All India Drama Competition at Kala Vikash Kendra, Cuttack. He insisted me to present a drama there. As a consequence of this, The Loo was formed and the play ‘Asur’ was presented in Cuttack and Allahbad in 1994.

- So, theatre is a calling for you,right?

- Now it is also a responsibility for me. Because my students want to pursue theatre as a profession now. Regular participation in competitions, regular campus production assignments and also my experiment to emerge new theatre styles gave me the impetus to consider theatre to be a serious affair.

- Any regrets in life?

- We are childless. But that’s not a regret,neither of mine, nor of my wife. rather it gave us new eyes to look children of others also as ours. So, it is a satisfied life. Regrets- not many.

-Any advice for the youngsters?

-Ha ha. I am still young.

The root of the tree:

I was still stuck with the answer of Kesha sir in response to the question on his regrets in life. I thought it might not be so easy to say so for a woman than a man. Hence, I finally arrived at the conclusion that my blog would remain incomplete unless I added Mrs. Kesha Ranjan Pradhan and her views in my writing.

But how to connect with her? What to ask her?- these questions troubled me. To my good luck, again Uddhaba came to my rescue.

Her name is Mrs. Bishnupriya Pradhan, fondly Priya as Kesha sir calls her. The marriage between the Pradhan couple was conjugated on 15^th October,1984.

“Many qualities are there to say good of him. So, It will take time. Let me tell about the quality in him which I want he should at least change,” said madam in her mellow tone.

“Let it be so.” I replied.

“He is quite reckless in keeping accounts of money. He doesn’t love and is also not good at calculation.”

“A typical symptom of an artist. Don’t you regret marrying a dramatist?”

“Ha ha. I myself belong to a drama family. You might have heard of my uncle Mr. Buddhadev Pradhan. I have  grown up dancing and acting in his drama group.”

“That’s  great.”

“Ha ha. Another point is that we both are chess players. He has been to national level and I to state level in chess.”

“Any regret in marriage?”

“No, rather a fulfilled conjugal life I will say. We, two, being of same temperament and taste,complement each other. We grow our plays like our children. He dictates the lines and I note down. Sometimes I disagree and sometimes he does. Many late nights spent in discussing drama are the treasured moments of bliss in our long marital life. To be frank,my whole satisfaction lies in taking his dictation.”

“Hm..hm...you forgot to mention his good qualities. Tell one quality you love the most in him.”

“He knows the knack of balancing life.His life is a perfect harmony of polar opposite extremes.”

After a brief interaction with her, I would like to make here a point that if Kesha sir is the aerial part of a thick banyan tree, then madam Pradhan is definitely its root.

                                                                     TIT FOR TAT 

Again seven missed calls:

Yesterday Mokshada asked me when I was going to post the blog on Kesha sir for every one to read. I gave her the time of 8 o’clock today.

However, I deliberately didn’t post the blog  at the said time today. I knew Mokshada is quite eager to read my blog on Kesha sir. In fact, I have read her secret admiration for Kesha sir from her eyes.

It is already 9 o’clock. Let me check whether she has made me any call or not.

Wow wonderful! This time also seven missed calls!

Let me call her back.

“Hello, anything important? Seven missed calls?”

“You idiot, why didn’t you post the blog at 8 o'clock? You said the work was over.”

“I was about to. But…”

“But what?”

“I remembered your saying- anyone having at least some dignity left in him can’t afford punctuality especially in India. So I just decided to follow you.”

"Duffer."

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