Sidhanta Patnaik was a student of ours at PESIT. He was a passionate guy, and it showed in everything he did. More recently, he had been the Wisden writer who covered everything in Cricket that was happening around. He also wrote a book about that neglected dimension of cricket (yes, even in cricket, there are some)- Women's Cricket, a history of it, along with a co-author.
When I met him a few months ago, he was discussing plans for more books with his friends. A casual
observer would not have suspected that he was battling cancer, and had just come out of surgery after a relapse that may have led anywhere. He was unflappable, and though he must have been tired, sportingly chatted with all of us until I left, about an hour or more after we met.
It is not every day that we have such remarkable students. He was one, and my thoughts are with his young family, that they will bear this tragedy and come out strong. I will always remember him fondly.
(Incidentally, though we criticise social media for a lot of things, I reconnected with him and his family because of it - a classmate of his had informed me on Messenger about his surgery last year.)
When I met him a few months ago, he was discussing plans for more books with his friends. A casual
observer would not have suspected that he was battling cancer, and had just come out of surgery after a relapse that may have led anywhere. He was unflappable, and though he must have been tired, sportingly chatted with all of us until I left, about an hour or more after we met.
It is not every day that we have such remarkable students. He was one, and my thoughts are with his young family, that they will bear this tragedy and come out strong. I will always remember him fondly.
(Incidentally, though we criticise social media for a lot of things, I reconnected with him and his family because of it - a classmate of his had informed me on Messenger about his surgery last year.)
1 comment:
Yes Raja, he was a fine person. I remember Sidhantha very well, more so since he has been in touch with him from his PESIT days. Perhaps it was to do with the fact that he knew I was a cricketer who wrote a novel, but from his college days he would correspond with me about his interest in cricket and keep me posted on his career developments. I remember him corresponding when he was in England and later telling him of his plans to foray into cricket journalism. A few years ago I saw a post from him on fb which made me realise he had cancer - surprisingly the focus of the post was not about cancer but someone else - it was just that the cancer part was part of that story. When I wrote to him about it he gave me the facts but did not dwell on it for long. Knowing his fondness for cricket I made it a point to visit him at his office in Wisden India in Bangalore and gifted him a copy of 50 Not Out. I spoke to him after I read and reviewed his wonderful book 'The Fire Burns Blue' and we had a long chat. Just last month I sent him a picture of 'The Fire Burns Blue' from Kitab Khana in Mumbai and he sent me a smiley in return. My prayers for a brave and wonderful soul. Life well lived.
http://harimohanparuvu.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-fire-burns-blue-karunya-keshav-and.html
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