Says books shaped his life all through
The Sahitya Akademi organised a programme “People and Books” here in the city on Saturday. Joining as chief speaker, Assam Governor and eminent writer JB Patnaik said books are important to him as they played a vital role in shaping his life.
Giving welcome speech, eminent Sanskrit scholar and Thirupati Sanskrit University VC Pandit Harekrushna Satpathy said JB Patnaik is a walking library. In his personal library, he has more than 40,000 books. Books and politics are like two sides of a coin for him, he asserted.
Sharing about his favourite books, Patanaik said, “I was born in an educated village Rameswar where a reading atmosphere always prevailed and my father was a school teacher and a scholar. So, from the very childhood, I was inspired to read.”
Explaining further, Patnaik said, “I started my studies from Madhu Rao’s “Barnabodha” which has a lasting impact on me. I too developed an interest to read Purana and had finished reading all the Puranas before I passed matriculation. Then, I was called a bookworm. ‘Gopibhasa,’ ‘Bhagabat’ and Nehru’s autobiography ‘Discovery of India’ motivated me a lot, which also everyone should read.”
The former Chief Minister of Odisha said Shakespeare’s plays increased his interest in English literature and therefore he read as many plays, novels and poems as possible. Neheru’s book “letters of father to a daughter” also inspired him a lot, he said.
Among the Odia writers, his favourites were Sachi Routray and Mayadhar Mansingh, in Bengli literature, Rabindranath Tagore and Sunil Gangopadhaya and in Sanskrit, Kalidas and Bhatruhari, he maintained.
“Besides Odia, I always try to read Sanskrit, Bengali and English literature. I read classics as well as modern writers like Sitakant Mahapatra and Ramakant Rath and others. For me language and literature are like an ever flowing river, where both old and new writings are available all the time,” Patnaik said.