Madhusudan_Das

32 Madhusudan Das :
I carried away the impression with me that here was a great
intellect passionately devoted to the cause of justice and truth, but
rather embittered by what life had brought to him so far.
I met him again, more than four years later, when he came
to plead before the Orissa Committee the case for the amalgamation
of Oriya-speaking territories into a single political unit. It must have
been a source of immense satisfaction to him that he lived to see
his dream of a united Orissa on the eve of realisation.
Mr. Das died towards the end of my tenure of office as Collector
of Cuttack (March, 1933 to May, 1935). During these two years. I
had many opportunities to meet him, and the more I saw him the
more I realised how truly great the man was. If he was at times hard
and bitter, he had softer traits in his character which I had failed
to discover at our first meeting. He had a charming childlike smile
which, on rare occasions, illuminated his face and softened the usual
grimness of its expression ; and right up to the end he could enjoy
a joke, even one against himself.
It would be a mistake to judge a man like Mr. Das by his tangible
achievements. He left behind him neither wealth nor a successful
organisation. But the high ideal he set up before his people and the
impress he left on the Oriya public character will last for ever.
Throughout his life he was a fighter who never considered immediate
gains or losses. He staked his all for the good of his people whom
he deeply loved, but whom he often roundly abused. Though he lost
all and died a disappointed man, he gave to his country a spiritual
heritage which they should cherish for all time to come.
• • •
(4)
A HOMAGE
P.C. RAY CHAUDHURY
A lean and thin man with the time-honoured Hukka by his side
and a table littered with papers and books in his front and breaking
into a child's laugh in the course of conversation, and that was late
Mr.. Das in his study. To this study repaired men of all walks of