Close friends and relatives of a British citizen, Derrick Moore, have established a school at Nanpur in Jajpur district in his memory as Derrick was cremated in this village after his death two years ago as per his last wish.
The art and culture school was inaugurated recently in the picturesque riverside Nanpur by his closest friend and associate noted writer and artist Prafulla Mohanti on the occasion of his first death anniversary.
Every time Mohanti, the author of books like My Village, My life, Indian Village Tales, Changing life, and Through Brown Eyes used to visit his native Nanpur, he was accompanied by Moore, an ex-Army man who was stationed in India during the Second World War and worked as a lawyer in london.
Mohanti moved to England in 1960 with an architecture degree from Bombay. In 1964, he earned a diploma in town planning at leeds and also held his first solo exhibition of paintings in london. He came in contact with Moore in 1964, and since then both he and Moore had been coming to Nanpur at regular intervals.
Mohanti said Moore was ill in England when he had decided to visit Nanpur alone. “But Derrick told me that he had a last wish to die in Odisha for which he came to Nanpur with me on December 18, 2011. But he fell ill and died on February 15 in a private nursing home in Bhubaneswar at the age of 84.
His body was cremated near our house at Nanpur where he used to spend his times. I was completely devastated after his death. We built a school in the memory of the man who loved rural Odisha and dedicated his life for the uplift of the villagers of Nanpur. My village was his second home."
Mohanti came from london recently to open the school. "Children will learn arts, paintings and dances in this school. I also provided four computers to the school as many children are interested to learn computers. We spent about Rs 10 lakh to build the school," said Mohanti.
"Derrick Moore was interested to promote arts and culture of our State for which it is a great tribute to him by opening an arts and culture school in his memory," said a villager, Santosh Mohanty.
For nearly half a century, Prafulla Mohanti has made two homes, one in his Nanpur and the other in london. In the process, his work and persona have achieved a remarkable blend of two apparently dissimilar human civilisations.