Arnnapurna Das : A poet of Odia music albums

Arnnapurna is the new icon in the Odia music industry. She is a lyricist of Odiya songs. By birth she is a Bengali, but born and brought up at Dianbaga, Kanta pada, Niali, Dist. Khurda. Somewhere during the early 1800’s in search of livelihood her ancestors had migrated from Nabadwip of Nadia district, West Bengal. She belongs to the tanti community. They are the weavers who make a living by producing both cotton and silk handloom fabrics. Her home is on the edge  of Prachi river and across it is Cuttack district located. Her father was working as a daily labourer. During childhood of Arnapurna i.e. 90’s of the last Century in an average her father was earning somewhere 15 to 20 INR. With this little he was feeding altogether five bellies of his family.

Both parents of Arnapurna are illiterate that is why   her father has realised all the difficulties one has to face in the society when the head of a family member doesn’t recognise the alphabets of the language which people are speaking on the neighbourhood. Her father enrolled the names of her three children in Sandhapur Prathamik Bidyalaya, Gopinathpatna. That’s a government run Odia medium school where free education is imparted to children. Unlike today then Odisha Government has not yet introduced midday meals to school going children. So every morning her mother was feeding rice and dal to Arnnapurna and sending her to school with a poly bag of puffed rice and one raw onion and two green chillies for the afternoon lunch. But only when Arnnapurna reached 7^th Class she was served the midday meals at school. That boosted the tempo of that little girl. It was only at school during the noon she was having a belly full food. But on Sundays when other girls were playing on the street, she was repenting thinking why school is closed? Yes you understood right, she was missing the midday meal more than the studies.

Later her father bought a plot

admeasuring 2 acres of land to cultivate betel leaf plants. Their home is barely 45kms from the Astaranga sea beach of Puri. But during the Super Cyclone of 1999 their farm house was completely devastated. Her family was below the poverty line and they were living while facing all the maladies of life. They were residing in a mud wall hut thatched with paddy straws. The violent wind of the hurricane tore apart the straw roof of their cottage. But prior to that her father and mother took Arnnapurna and her second brother and stood at the centre of an open field. No umbrellas would have withstood the violent wind speed of 260 kms/hr. And you would fail to believe they stood in the rain neither for 5 minutes nor for 15 minutes, but for long 21 hours until rain subsided. Her mother covered Arnnapurna and her second brother under the cover of her saree. Whereas her father was holding her mother just to give the moral strength. They did not know if they would survive by the time the torrential rain ends. They sat there with the empty stomach for long one day. The cyclone was followed by the floods in the river Prachi, which flows by the side of her home. Due to consumption of contaminated water Arnapurna fell sick with jaundice. At such a young age her hair started greying. Then they did not have either a toilet or a bathroom at home. Like the million Indians she and all of her family members were going to the open field for defecation.

During her school days Arnapurna

was a tom boy. She was playing with her friends on the streets, while riding the cycle of her elder brother. That apart during the summer noon, she along with her friends was expediting to the gardens to loot the raw mangos and ripped tamarind.

While her eldest brother was studying in the hostel, the rest four of the family members were working together in their firm. When her father, mother and second brother were going to work, it was Arnapurna that little girl of 12 years age who was cooking at home. She had learnt how to boil rice and cook dal and vegetables. She recounts how most of the nights her mother was sleeping empty stomach, because shortage of food.

One afternoon her parents after working in the firm returned home with hungry stomachs. But due to some reason that day Arnapurna has not cooked. Her mother had a spat with Arnanapurna and she thrashed her a lot.  Out of agony and ego while crying, Anapurna fled from home. She went to main road and caught a bus for Odaspur. She wanted to rich her elder brother who was staying in a room. In the bus the conductor asked for the ticket fair. She did not have even 2 INR to pay. The conductor suspected and asked if she is fleeing away from home. Arnapurna while cleaning the tears of her eyes lowered her head. The conductor said “Ok ok you sit comfortably”.

In the mean while the news spread in her village as a wildfire. People started gossiping the girl has run away from home with a boy. By evening from Odaspur her brother brought back Arnnapurna to their home. Her mother came forward to beat her. But it was her elder brother who hedged Arnnapurna from getting the punishment. Her mother cried while recounting about all the troubles she had faced to get this girl child, but in return Arnnapurna brought a bad name for her family. Arnnapurna realised the blunder that she had done. For many days she could not show her face to anyone in the village. She was isolated by the society. But it was a turning point in her life. While staying in between the four walls of her home she concentrated on her studies. She appeared for the 10^th exams and in the very first attempt passed the Odisha Higher Secondary Education although with a third division. So what, even if she secured poor rank. But it boosted the moral of that stoic girl.

Her elder brother enrolled her name in Udayanath College of Science and Technology, Adaspur. She joined +2 Arts. She stayed in the hostel. But the following year onwards her father unable to send money and she was forced to vacate from the college  hostel. With a heavy heart she asked two of her batch mates to give her the shelter. Arnnapurna stayed in a private chamber. At the new place she cooked her own food so able to manage at a lower budget. She passed 12^th with 2^nd Division. Then she joined B.A. (Odia Honours) in the same college. In the first year of college her Odia lecturers Benudhar Padhi and Pradipta Chaudhury encouraged her to write in Odia.

In the first year itself she became a topper in her college and secured 2^nd position in the entire Utkal University. She passed BA with 2^nd position. People of her town who were earlier talking ill about Arnnapurna, started asking their own children to be a student like Arnanapurna. In her college she started publishing the first ever wall magazine by the name “Akankhya”. Every month her father was sending 450 INR to Arnapurna to meet her expenses. Out of this Arnapurna was paying 200/- for room rent, whereas with the rest 250/- she was buying the grocery and the note books. She was cooking rice in a kerosene stove. Once in every three days she was cooking rice and fermenting that, by putting in the water. With basi pakhal she was eating boiled potatoes.

Then Arnnapurna realised when there is hunger in the stomach, she has virtually stopped doing all the mischiefs to which she was otherwise habituated to. You would be dumb struck to know, for long four years of her college Arnnapurna was managing with just one pair of uniform. But only when she reached final year of BA, a senior student by the name Lipi donated her uniform to Arnnapurna, because she  passed out of college. After hand stitching at couple of places Arnnapurna wore that uniform for a year.

Her father wanted Arnnapurna to study in Vani Vihar, Utkal University, Bhubaneswar. She joined MA in Odia. Her brother was sending 1,000 INR every month. In the year 2011 she became a Gold Medalist of her University. She was felicitated by the Governor of Odisha Chandrakant Bhandare. Then she set her goal  to appear for NET(National Eligibility Test).  

It was since 2011 during her graduation Arnnapurna has started writing poetry in Odia. In the University poetry competition she even stood first. After graduation at age 21 she joined one orphanage at Bhubaneswar. She persuaded them to give her shelter and food, for the services that she will render. But on joining they did not allow her to go college. Then a friend of her by the name Manas who by vocation is an auto rickshaw driver took her and kept at his home. Later he even arranged a room for her to stay. She got a placement with a New Delhi based organisation. Her job was to do survey on the literacy of urban poor. They paid her a daily wage of 500 INR. After working for 15 days she got a pay of 7,500 INR. On getting the very first pay, she paid back 2,000 INR to that auto rickshaw driver from whom she had borrowed money.

From morning 7:00AM till evening

7:00PM she was doing field survey. But on returning to her room after cooking and taking dinner she was studying till late night around until 1:00AM. During December 2011 she appeared for NET(National Eligibility Test) and JRF (Junior Research Fellow) of UGC exams and qualified as well. As early as at age 21 she qualified JRF. It is worth acknowledge NET is considered to be one among the toughest exams that is conducted in India with a success rate of barely 4 to 6 percentage. It is to be noted NET qualification is mandatory to join any Government colleges or Universities.  

In 2012 she joined M.Phil at Ravenshaw College, Cuttak. She started getting a stipend of 18,000 every month which later upgraded to 25,000 INR. In M.Phil she did the thesis on “Akhyaya Mahantinka galpa re dehabadi chetana”. In PhD the topic was “Unabinsha satabdhira prabhandha”.

The girl who happen to be a street ruffian or a loafer is now working as a Odia lecturer in a private college at Kothagad, Dist. Kandhamal.

In the year 2019 Timepass

publications of Bhubaneswar published her first ever anthology of poetries. The book titled “Basi phulara mahaka” carried 35 poetries altogether with a volume of 72 pages. This book is available online in Amazon. This book has got an ISB number.

[ watch the video]

One of her poem “barsha bhija rati” has been picturised by BnR Films. With this video song Arnnapurna Das made a debut in Ollywood non-film industry as a lyricist.

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