Chapter two

He said praise after death was meaningless

ସ୍ମୃତି

So instead of praise: the rites performed for him, a book his people wrote, and five things given away — each of them something he was already doing while he was alive.

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The rites

Pinda dana performed at the Triveni Sangam, Prayagraj — **Asthi visarjan and pinda dana** at the Triveni Sangam at Prayagraj, where the Ganga, the Yamuna and the Saraswati meet. The first of the things done for him.

The printed invitation to the tenth- and eleventh-day rites

The memorial notice published in the newspaper

The invitation and the notice. The card went out for the ଦଶାହକର୍ମ on 20 October and the ଏକାଦଶାହକର୍ମ on the 21st, with the ଶୋକସଭା at ten in the morning. The notice ran in the newspaper under the heading ଅଶ୍ରୁ ଶ୍ରଦ୍ଧାଞ୍ଜଳି — homage in tears. The telephone number on the card has been obscured here.

The smruti sabha, held on the eleventh day — **ସ୍ମୃତି ସଭା** — the memorial meeting on the eleventh day, beneath a banner of photographs from the whole length of his life.

Family gathered in mourning white at the smruti sabha — Family, in mourning white, before the banner.

The street gateway decorated for the eleventh-day ceremony

The entrance to the house decorated for the eleventh-day ceremony

The lane and the door of the house, dressed for the day. Half the town came through them.

Offerings laid out before his garlanded portrait

Flowers sent in his memory from the United States

The offerings before his garlanded portrait — and flowers sent for him from the United States, several thousand miles from the lane in the photograph above.

The book

ମନ ଆଇନାରେ ମନମୋହନ

Manamohan, in the mirror of the mind

A memorial volume published on his first anniversary. Seventy-nine pieces in Odia and English — essays, poems and recollections — written by his family, his friends, the colleagues he taught beside, and the students he taught.

The book is not published online. The people who wrote for it wrote for a printed volume and for each other, and that is where their words stay.

79 pieces · Odia and English
Published by ମନମୋହନ ମିଶ୍ର ସ୍ମୃତି କମିଟି, ଭଦ୍ରକ
Write to us for a copy · See the album pages

Given in his memory

CancerCare

Toward treatment for people who cannot pay for it — the same principle he applied to tuition.

Wikimedia Foundation

ମାଗଣା ଜ୍ଞାନ

For free knowledge. He gave away teaching for thirty-eight years; this is the same gift at a different scale.

Saraswati Sishu Mandir, Bhadrak

A gift to a school, from a man who spent his whole working life inside one.

Kalpana Devi Jara Niwas, Bhadrak

A home for the aged. He looked after his own parents to the last day of their lives and thought nothing of it.

Akshara

ଅକ୍ଷର

A free Odia script converter, built in his memory and given to anyone who writes in the script. Open it →

ଅକ୍ଷର — akshara — is the Odia and Sanskrit word for a letter of the script. It also means that which does not decay. It seemed the right name for a tool whose only job is to keep Odia writing readable after the software that made it has died.

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Open the converter →