Madhusudan_Das

34 Madhusudan Das :
of marvellous craftsmanship of the silversmiths of Cuttack than a shop.
His imagination worked marvels and it was he who brought out teapots
out of cocoanut shells and shoes of pure bark of tree without any
leather.
Coming to think of him two traits of his character stand out
very prominent. The first was his intense regard for his mother. Even
in his old age whenever he would speak of his mother his eyes would
indicate his feelings. Again and again did he allude that it was his
mother who taught him the rudiments of high personal character. How
many times on the platform I have heard him say that it was his
mother who taught him "Apana Mahattva Apne Rakha". That is, keep
up your own prestige yourself. The child that lisped those words on
the mother's lap remembered them well and carried the torch of that
lesson high throughout his career. It is this spirit that bred in him
an optimism that recognised no defeat. He had known many phases
of life. He had tasted poverty after being rich. But he never murmured
and he never lost hope. Never did he lose sense of dignity and prestige.
Throughout his chequered career he never forgot the lesson imbibed
from his mother.
The second trait was his love and regard for the poor. His was
an open house and in his usual evening walks by the side of the
Mahanadi he would often pick up some rustic and talk with him as
a brother. He always used to say that the statesman's real work is
amongst the poor and as a Minister he tried to carry some of his
ideas into fruition.
It is heedless to report that his work as the Father of the Orissa
Nationalism has been recognised well. It was his cherished dream to
bring all the Oriya speaking tracts into one administrative unit and
he plodded laboriously for this end. He was a keen journalist and
it was a well-known fact that the now defunct "The Star of Utkal",
the triweekly newspaper of the late Khirod Chandra Ray Chaudhury,
derived contributions and editorials from him often. After "The Star
of Utkal " had set, he edited "The Oriya" for some time. He could
write brilliantly and there was a note of suave witticism when he was
scathing in his remarks. As a speaker he could stand out as one of
the best dozen speakers of India. A keen educationist he was ; he
always used to say that education and agitation were the two media
through which a statesman should work.