Amiyabala Pattnaik and her writings

Voice of dissent in creative arts is being treated as terrorism and supporting it as funding. Gone are the days when translation was a product of love for the language and keenness to bring it closer to socio cultural milieu of another language population. Last two years Sahitya Akademi translation award in Odia went to translators who don’t even know the source language. 

I am writing this article on Amiyabala Pattnaik and her contribution to Odia literature as an author and translator for a commemorative volume on her Platinum Jubilee Birthday. Those who know about her writings, have not written anything in English on her till date. This is possibly the first attempt by a young friend to highlight this great woman author and translator from Odisha.

It was the year 1976. My poem appeared in Prajatantra Sahitya Bibhag, the only literature weekly page in an Odia newspaper that time. Poems of Amiyabala Pattnaik and Janaki Ballav Mohanty ( Bharadwaj) were also published in that issue.

Soon I discovered Amiyabala Pattnaik in various literary magazines. She was, by that time, a well known author.Later, I read translations of many authors from various Indian languages done by her. She was staying at Brahmapur and was working as Principal of the Blind School.She was then an active member of Odia Yuva Lekhak Sammelan and Lekhak Sammukhya, prominent literary organisations of the state and we met there.

In 1999 I was doing the first ever Women Poets Meet of Odisha ‘Jijivisha’ at Gopalpur on Sea. There I met Amiyabala Pattnaik again. Subsequently, I did a National Book Festival at Brahmapur in 2001. There, I met Amiyabala Pattnaik almost everyday.She was our source of inspiration in that festival and was a regular visitor to the festival. Our lacal organiser Kaliprasad Panda was calling her as ‘ Apa’( Elder Sister) and we were following him in calling her with that respect. 

Amiyabala Pattnaik has knowledge of many Indian languages especially Telugu, Hindi,English, Bengali besides her mother tongue Odia. But, she has not got an award from Odisha Sahitya Akademi or any university of the state as a translator though she has been rated as an outstanding translator and has got Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi Translation Award a few years ago for translating short stories of Phanishwarnath Renu into Odia. She has by now translated over 15 books, the latest being Love Letters of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose into Odia. 

She is possibly the only Odia Woman Author-cum-Translator having over 55 books to her credit. But, Odisha has not properly honoured this great creative artist. She is one of the leading woman poets of Odisha. She has several books as I mentioned earlier. Her eight anthologies of poems have created a large range of readers of her poetry in the last six decades. A neo romantic poet, cosmic consciousness has been the principal tone of her poetry. She is free from the so called isms and literary groupism. She has also kept herself free from regionalism . Her stories remind us of the prominent Telugu fiction writer Chasso . She has more or less the deprived people especially women as principal characters of her stories.

Odia critics should read Amiyabala Pattnaik again for placing her properly in the literary map of Odisha today.