He is humbler than humility itself .He does not belong to any coterie or any group believing in the concept of Procrustean bed. Every inch, he is a writer and has a dignity of his own unparalleled in the firmament of the Odia literary sky. He loves to remain alone in the lap of nature, far away from the madding crowd and scribbling all the while shunning publicity. An artful weaver of heartwarming tales, he makes his readers feel like leafing through a few pages torn from their own life sagas; then he brings them to confront their own selves lying hidden in the protagonists who ever wage war against hostile forces to survive and sustain. No matter his protagonists win or lose, the commonplace and here and now events that he colours with candid human emotions, make his readers cringe in fear or shed tear thereby leaving an indelible imprint in their minds to let them relive again and over later. He has turned into an icon in the world of fiction over the prolific period of his career spanning almost a half century since his first creation published in Nabarabi in 1970. It is all about a fine, affable, low-key man adored as Dr Ramachandra Behera who ever helplessly keeps his publishers queuing up for a fresh story and makes his fans long for the next after they finish reading one. To keep up with the expectations of his readers, he goes on adding ever to his creative treasure trove with fifteen novels, fifteen compilations of short stories, ten stage plays and twenty radio plays so far. Crowned with Kendra Sahitya Akademi award recently, Dr Behera has bagged many more laurels before like State Sahitya Akademi award, Sarala Samman, Visub Samman, Katha Samman and Bharatiya Bhasa Parishad award. His creations that now crowd the syllabuses from matriculation to post-graduation have six PhD dissertations and three books of criticism on them. Once President of the Odisha Sahitya Akademi, the Dr Behera spoke to Sugyan Choudhury of The Pioneer about the secret sources of his stories and the status of Odia fiction against the Pan-Indian phenomena.
What is the source of inspiration for your creationsIJ
Certainly, I myself am the source of inspiration for my writing. The creative impulse is an inborn quality. I am sure nobody could have let me a tennis player or singer; this is because I am not blessed with the quality for it. My creative impulse enables to explore uniqueness in commonplace things. I discover internal truth in them. So, an ordinary event acquires the magnitude of uncommon quality. It is as if a cocoon which gets metamorphosed into a butterfly.
Where does Odia short stories stand in relation to stories of other languages of our countryIJ
Frankly speaking, my reading of stories of other regional languages is limited. I read them in English or Odia translations, but I do not believe that these translated stories are among the best in their own languages. So when I read them, I feel convinced that Odia short stories are by no means inferior to them. So sometimes, those translated stories feel like yet at stage of cocoon, caterpillars that never got metamorphosed.
What is the present scenario of Odia short storiesIJ
My observation is that young short story writers at present perfectly assimilate the impulse of the present time in their writings. They are more worried and concerned about problems we face at present. There is an element of protest against the hostile social forces in their work of arts. At the same time, they are extremely sympathetic with the victims with those forces. We come across new challenges that science and technology pose to human relations and existence in their stories.
Besides being a fiction writer, you also write plays for radio and stage. Please, comment on it.
I remember that my radio plays, numbering about 20, were very popular during the 1970s. Frankly speaking, the themes of these plays were taken from my short stories. I have also written ten stage plays which are enacted in different places of Odisha; and to my great delight, the audience very much appreciated these plays. They reflect the contemporary social problems and other human issues.
Your stories leave an indelible imprint on the minds of the readers. What is the secret behind this spell your stories castIJ
I am in fact not very sure if my creative writing leaves an indelible mark in the reader’s mind. But surely, I depict human struggle against all odds to reach his destination. The positive point is that most characters succeed in their attempts whereas others fail. The depiction of this struggle, I think, might be moving the readers and the characters that I truthfully and cautiously model on them. These aspects of my stories and my faith in life endear me to my readers.