Madhusudan_Das

His Life and Achievements: 31
at Cuttack. Mr. Das was then already a very old man and looked
much older than he really was, due no doubt to the deep-seated disease
which ultimately brought about his death.
Accompanied by a friend who knew Mr. Das fairly well (Mr.
N. Senapati, I.C.S.) I called on the Grand Old Man of Orissa. What
impressed me most on that occasion was the amazing vitality of the
man and his mental alertness in spite of old age and very bad health.
Outwardly he was insignificant enough, a small dark man with white
hair, short of stature and extremely emaciated. His face was deeply
lined and bore traces of both physical and mental suffering. But as
he talked I noticed that his eyes glowed like live charcoal, and that
a certain grimness about the mouth betokened the real man beneath
the surface. As he himself said on that occasion, " I am dead from
shoulders downwards ; only my head is alive". If by "head" he meant
his brains, will power and mental energy, all these certainly remained
very much alive right up to the time of his death.
We talked rather at random, though most of the talking was
done by Mr. Das. He was in a reminiscent mood and related his
experiences as a boy in an out-of-the-way village, as a student in
Calcutta, as a lawyer and public man, as a Minister, and as the founder
and organiser of the Utkal Tannery. His burning patriotism and his
lifelong desire to uplift the Oriya masses and to see his country
recognised as a separate political unit, with a distinctive cultural
background of its own, seemed to be the keynote of all that he said
and thought.
It was by no means the talk of a placid old gentleman relating with
a benignant smile memories of the past. Up to the last Mr. Das had none
of that inward glow of satisfaction that we commonly associate with a
successful man taking his well earned rest in the evening of life after a
well spent life. Although he had one foot in the grave and was very much
aware of the fact, Mr. Das seemed to be still grappling with the problems
of life, personal as well as national, as vigorously as ever. He talked very
much like a man still in the thick of the fight and could and did say fairly
hard things about men and events. Indeed in a sense, Mr. Das was never
a successful man, if success is measured by the amount of worldly means
and leisure secured. His Utkal Tannery had failed, he was financially
ruined and he had to pursue his profession of law right up to the end to
maintain himself.