Upendra Chandra Biswal
[12 Dec 1951-13 May 2021]
A Tearful Note-Bidhu K Mohanti
“I don’t want to leave you all friends and go back.” Upendra looked around and told those words to us, as we were finishing our breakfast in the Blue Lily Hotel and preparing to depart from Puri after 3 days of bonhomie at MKCG 1970 batch mates’ meet, on the morning of 03 March 2019. We all were lining up to thank Uday Misra, the batch mate-cum-local organizer in 2019. For every meet of our batch mates, Upendra would work for months in making all arrangements connecting with the local organizers from Delhi. He would come down to the re-union venue a day in advance, with his spouse Dr. Kanak and his son Jagan (ebullient on a wheelchair). For no reason, those words of Upendra remained etched in my head and then the Covid-19 pandemic in its swirling ravages denied us another reunion in 2020/2021. Now, Upendra is gone, succumbing to corona virus SARS-Cov-2 after twelve days inside the ICU of RML Hospital, Delhi.
Upendra’s long hand note to Kanak from inside the ICU is a reflection of his valiant mind against all the tragedies hammered in by Covid-19, “get me tested tomorrow morning, so if I am –ve, you can meet me in non-Covid ICU in afternoon”. For us to picture, this note was written on 10th May 2021,3 days before he left for his heavenly abode. Sadasiv Swain finds the poignancy, “Upendra is already with Natabar Swain, and they both are smiling down at us.”
Born in Taradipal village, under Pattamundai tehsil of Kendrapara district, Upendra was brought up by his father, a brilliant mathematics teacher in the Salipur High School and then studied at Salipur College before getting selected for the MBBS course at MKCG. After obtaining the Master in Surgery(MS) from SCB Medical College in 1979, he served for a short stint under the Govt. of Odisha and then moved into the central health cadre of MOHFW, Govt. of India.Uprendra served the best part of his career at Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia(RML) Hospital, Delhi which later on acquired the distinction being named as Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Medical Sciences, a postgraduate medical education Centre, where he deservedly became the Head of Surgery. On his retirement from RML in 2013, Upendra joined the North Delhi Medical College(NDMC) and Hindu Rao Hospital as a Professor and retired in January 2021 at 70.
He was a star. Such an apt expression from Prasanna Misra.In our MKCG 1970 batch, Upendra maintained a phenomenal connect with each one. In 2000, when Sadasiv brought up the plan for a reunion on our 25th year of graduation, Upendra steered the preparations for the event from Delhi. For the first time after leaving MKCG in 1976, a bunch of us with our families from different places of India and abroad met at Pantha Nivas, Puri. From then on till 2019, Upendra had always remained at the forefront to organize our reunion meets every one to two years. He would call up months in advance and egg on, “let us form a small group and start calling each batch mate on weekends till she/he agrees to join the meet”. With advancing age and often due to infirmities, when someone would dither, he was on-the-face, “aaja mere dost, do deen saath rehne se sab theek ho jayega”. He was excited to share a logo with me, “This time on our 40th year of leaving the campus we all should gather at MKCG. Let us make t-shirts and carry for all to wear”. In 2015, we had a memorable meet and revelled for 3 nights at Mayfair Resort Gopalpur-on-Sea,15 km away from MKCG campus, meticulously organized by Sudhansu Panda. Upendra was pretty clear about our reunions taking place at a venue in Odisha; coordinating from Delhi with a bunch of our batch mates in Odisha. He was a star who remained rooted.
[ Upendra proudly presenting to Baidyanath, the t-shirt he made and carried from Delhi to MKCG, Berhampur,2015.]
He touched lives. Rajkriti Sinha one
of his medical students
from NDMC, wrote in her FB post on 13 May 2021, “I can picture Sir in his
operation theatre, wearing his scrubs. I can picture Sir in his room as HoD
Surgery as we sat around in a circle around him, and he taught us about
salivary gland swellings……. He was also very fond of Apple devices.”
He was offbeat. It always struck me how Upendra was unconventional in many ways. His distinct fondness for gadgets, car, music; and yet a craving for the Jagannath Mandir prasad at Hauz Khas or Tyagarajnagar, Delhi. He was a teetotaler, and yet would hover around for hours and never be censorious towards those who buzzed. He was highly observant and would keenly note down places, people, and events. “Why were you carrying a novel to the lectures and labs in MKCG?”, decades later he would remind me about my out of place behavior in a playful manner. He had his unique smile, curly hair, and an easy natural air about himself; whether in a stiflingly formal 5-star hotel or on a listless train journey. Suddenly from nowhere, after a long silence, he would step into our house in AIIMS Delhi, carrying a bunch of drumsticks. “You know, Paplu has come from Boston. Let us all meet.” Out of all children of our batch mates, his elder son Punyashlok(Paplu) was outstandingly brilliant who went over to MIT on a full scholarship after schooling. When parents would exhibit the small achievements of their children, Upendra was always the first to congratulate. Still, he was quite reticent about his or his family’s attainments.
Tears cloud my vision at the desktop as I visualize a picture. The death of Jagan, again succumbing to Covid-19, on 19th May 2021 has reached our group through Hemant Kar.Upendra steering his disabled second son Jagan on a wheelchair, with Kanak a step behind to join every batch mates’ reunion without fail. That picture is gone forever.
Friends, that sight will be missed by all in MKCG 1970 batch whenever a reunion will occur after the pandemic. Henceforth, all should make a journey to the meet, to remember and to celebrate those meaningful words of Upendra, “I don’t want to leave you all friends and go back.”
Bidhu K Mohanti, Bhubaneswar.19 May 2021 .drbkmohanti@gmail.com
