With Jayanta Mahapatra At Tinkonia Bagicha In Cuttack Poem by Laxminarayana Sabbani

Cuttack the place where the river Mahanadhi flows
And where the great poet Jayanta Mahapatra lives
I was in a plan to meet both
I came to Orissa- Bhubhaneswar to participate in a poetry festival
I've spent there five days
I've visited the great Konark Sun Temple, and the Puri Jagannath Temple,
Orissa's Dawalagiri, Udayagiri, Kandagiri
Bhuddhist, jainist sites and the finest Nandankanan forest
Only the last day remained for me
I've to catch the Konark train by 3.20 P.M. to reach my home
My ambition was to meet Jayanta at Cuttack
I caught the bus to Cuttack by 8 A.M. with my friend Nagendra
That was the Kartheeka pournima full moon festival day
We reached Cuttack with in an hour
and have the holy bath in the river Mahanadhi
And have had the tea and tiffin
Time was eleven around, only one thing remained meeting with Jayanta
But we didn't have the address or phone number of Jayanta
We asked one of our Telugu friends about Jayanta
He said by asking some one, Jayanta lives at Bagathpura in Cuttack
We caught a riksha and searched for Jayanta's house
We didn't find, time was twelve thirty P.M.
At last in Bagathpura we asked a proffessor about Jayanta
He said, Jayanta Mahapatra lives at Tinkonia Bagicha
Tinkonia Bagicha I recalled the words from books
With great hope we reached Tinkonia Bagicha
Riksha stoped before a house gate
The name plate 'Chandrabhaga' is welcoming us
Inside the gate a big personality sat in a chair
We said ‘Namasthe' to Jayanta, and said, 'we are from Hyderabad
He welcomed us warmly
And rememberd the names of our Telugu poets,
Sheshendra, Ajanta, Sivareddy, Nikileswar, Jayaprabha
and the memories of Hyderabad.
We have taken photos with him
He gave his recent books
Really how simple he is!
We said, ‘you are great sir! '
He smiled and said, ‘I don't know any thing, I am annadi..'
That is his greatness, the man with good creative writing
He spoke little Telugu words
His house work woman Saroja, a Telugu woman
Brought for us lemon juice
Jayanta is now 84, he is active like a child
Time is very short
We have spent hardly an half an hour with Jayanta
We've to catch the train Konark at 3.20.P.M at Bhubaneswar
So, forcebly we've parted with Jayanta
by saying ‘Namasthe ‘ and by saying ‘we meet again ‘
Orissa- Cuttack-Mahanadhi-Jayanta Mahapatra....
We could not forget
(In memories of meeting with Jayanata Mahapatra on 28-11-2012)