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.)
