AGGING along with Prof Birendra Nayak for a dayyou notice right away that he is fast—very fast.Birendra walks, talks, and thinks with a slightlydizzying energy and efficiency. On a typical day youwould see him leave home near Utkal University inBhubaneshwar, where he teaches mathematics, andwalk briskly toward his office. Once there, he wouldcatch up on messages and talk with students and col-leagues, with attention and humour, but in a waythat suggests that he is thinking a mile a minute andtrying not to waste time.

Why is this brilliant, outgoing, funny and down-to-earth professor in such a hurry? Well, he is a manon a mission. This scholar with a keen interest in so-cial science is committed to social justice as much ashe is to mathematics, if not more, and wants tochange the world in a radical and fundamental way.

Prof Nayak is not a Naxalite or a political activist.He is a man who is not afraid to stand up for what hebelieves is right.

“Birendra always fights against injustice and standsolidly behind you when you are in trouble for nofault of yours. He is last man to compromise on is-sues,” says Adwait Mohanty, who has retired as pro-fessor of economics in Utkal University.

His deep interest and involvement in social issueshave made Prof Nayak one of the foremost social sci-entists in Odisha. He thought that if, as a social scien-tist, he showed decisively that things were not just orfair, policy makers could be influenced.

That’s not all. A social scientist who cares aboutjustice should point out how to fix an unfair situationor a discriminatory process, he says. Also, you cannotwait for policymakers to come asking for your work;you need to seek them out and tell them.

This explains Bikalpa Sandhani Mancha — a socialplatform he set up along with the late Pradumna Bal,the then editor of Pragatibadi, D P Dash and theXavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar, toaddress issues related to Odia and Odisha.

“Our objective was to bring people thinking of al-ternative development onto one platform to shareideas,” says Prof Nayak. “Till now, we have not giveninstitutional form to the forum,” he adds proudly. In-stitutionalisation curbs creativity, says the occasion-al short story writer and music lover.

“My father used to sing old numbers during mychildhood days. He even he used to translate thelyrics of popular Hindi numbers into Odia and sing tohimself,” says his eldest son, Soumya Dev.

For Soumya, there is no change in his father’slifestyle (“We will be surprised if he stays home for alonger period”) and no compromise on his principles(“He has always been protective about us, but neverspares us if we are on the wrong side”).

Prof Nayak’s radical roots lie in his feudal familybackground, which saw a lot of reforms due to hisuncle’s involvement in the freedom movement. Thevillage home at Kuanrpur near Jajpur town was ameeting place for the compatriots of his uncle.

He grew up in Jamshedpur where his father wasthe secretary of a Tata Iron & Steel (Tisco) employees’

cooperative society.He was a shy and studious in his school days when

he learnt Odia, Hindi, Bengali and Urdu. In 1967, hewent to Ravenshaw College, Cuttack, and then to theBanaras Hindu University in 1970 to do post gradua-tion in mathematics.

During his BHU days, he started writing poems,moved by the plight of down-trodden people. “But ittook some time for me to mature in poetry writing.Societal orientation came only after my contact withMr Dwarakanath Rath, an SUCI (Socialist UnityCentre of India) leader,” Prof Nayak says.

That was in 1976, when Nayak joined RavenshawEvening College as mathematics lecturer, leaving IITKharagpur after pursuing doctorate on the mathe-matical aspects of relativity under the guidance ofProf R N Tiwari for two-and-half years.

“My life took a different course…. Interactionswith Dwarakababu provoked me to think about soci-

ety and what is happening around me,” recalls ProfNayak. His association with the likes of Tapas Dutt,Sitesh Dasgupta and other members of SUCI (its stu-dent wing DSO had a strong presence in colleges inthe state) drew him closer to the Left ideology.

“Tapas Dutta belonged to a well-to-do family andwas a renowned sculptor. He left everything to workfor the poor. Similarly, Sitesh Dasgupta was a greatartist and his pencil drawings inspired one and all,”he says. “They were politicians of a different breedand they were not hypocrites.”

Nayak’s foray into social science research wasmore by default than choice. When Dwarakanathmade him the seminar secretary of GopabandhuCentenary Committee, he read a lot about UtkamaniGopabandhu Dash, the freedom fighter, and his con-tribution to the people of Odisha. He studied aboutGopabandhu Chaudhuri in 1995, when he had todeliver the Gopabandhu Chaudhuri centenary lec-ture. Again, he learnt about Ishwar ChandraVidyasagar when he had to write about the Bengalischolar’s contribution to Odisha on his 150th deathanniversary. All these were great people who initiat-ed social reforms in Odisha. “I was taken aback whenI found that Vidyasagar had a profound impact ondoing away with widow marriage system in Orissaalso,” says Nayak about one of his inspirations towork for the society.

During 1994-2003, Prof Nayak’s provocative edi-torials in ‘Oriya and Orissa: Sameeksha’ provided analternative perspective on development of the econ-omy, education, language and women, among otherissues. ome of the issues this unassuming man dweltwith include regionalism in Odisha, post-independ-ence people’s movement, people welfare schemes –

the myth and reality, women’s participation inOdisha in the 21st century, super cyclones that hitthe state so very frequently, the shape of Odisha’s vil-lages in the 21st century and the staggering unem-ployment problem.

His articles have come out in several publicationssuch as Pragativadi daily and The Samadrusti fort-nightly. This multi-faceted talent has also composedBele Bele Kavita, a book of satirical poems, and editedVinna Drusti, a periodical priced Re 1. The famous Aal-tu Faltu cartoon team derives its intellectual inputsfrom him, while The Samadrusti and the SamadrustiTelevisions’ Madhyantara video magazine are alsoguided by him.

Nayak, however, has steadfastly avoided associa-tion with funded social organisations. In fact, he iscritical of the activities of NGOs.

“Honestly speaking I am not a mainstream person.As I give priority to freedom of thought and expres-sion, I do not think of joining ever any political party.But I am responsible through Bikalpa SandhaniMancha to bring about closeness amongst activistsseeking alternative to the present predatory econo-my,” says Nayak.

He has been associated with organic rice and veg-etable production in Nariso where farmers, underthe leadership of Natabar Sarangi, have successfullyproduced almost 350 varieties of indigenous riceseeds, without any support from anywhere.

And, of course, he also teaches mathematics. Andexcels in that. “He has all the virtues of a teacher. Heis an excellent teacher who inspires students andteaches effectively,” says Sudhakar Sahoo, one of hisstudents and now an assistant professor, who de-scribes Prof Nayak as a friend, philosopher and guide.

His articles have been published in journals such asthe Physical Review, USA, Journal of MathematicalPhysics, USA, Journal of Physics, Great Britain, Aus-tralian Journal of Physics, General Relativity andGravitation (Plenum Press).

Presently, he is pursuing research in areas such asFractals, Chaos and Automata Theory. Prof Nayak wasalso the president of Orissa Mathematical Society in2007 and 2008 and edited the Journal of Orissa Math-ematical Society and Ganita Bichitra for a few years.

He is still active in conducting MathematicalOlympiad Test for school students organised by Na-tional Board for Higher Mathematics of Department ofAtomic Energy. He was also a member of the Govern-ing Body of the Institute of Mathematics and Applica-tions, Bhubaneswar, a fundamental research institute.

“Prof Nayak is possibly the best socio-economicanalyst and political-philosopher in the state, not de-spite his mathematics background, but because of it;his analysis stands out because of its powerful logic,”says Professor Banikanta Mishra of Xavier Institute ofManagement, who considers Prof Nayak the guruwho enlightened him about the realities of Orissa.

But ever a silent worker, this ever humble andsilent worker never makes a fuss about anything hedoes, never takes credit himself and never followsthe camera around.

24 * THE ECONOMIC TIMES MUMBAI WEDNESDAY 30 DECEMBER 2009

This professor of Utkal University uses a mathematical approach to his first love:tackling social issues in the state , says Nageswar Patnaik

T

NEWS-STANDS are unlikely places for culinary insights. The few In-dian food magazines are usually uninteresting, obsessed with diets andvegetarian versions of Western dishes. Some general magazines are try-ing to perk up sales by alternating their endless sex surveys with foodspecials, but most of the articles, done by regular writers taking a foodbreak, just tend to repeat the usual clichés about food. And newspapersseem to focus only on the five star or multicuisine restaurants that mightadvertise in them.

Yet newspapers, if they want, can do much more. Their daily focus al-lows them to capture trends, and the fact that they reach householdsmeans that they can link to the ordinary food of people, rather thanwhat restaurants offer. Newspapers that seek out food advice, tips andrecipes from readers can become really valuable chroniclers of their eat-ing habits, especially if they compile them as a book. In Sri Lanka, for ex-ample, the Ceylon Daily News Cookbook is one of the standards for lo-cal cuisine.

This is even truer for publications catering to small communities.Food binds communities together, and also involves the women whomight otherwise get sidelined. In South Africa theDurban Post, the papercatering to the Indian community has become a great repository ofSouth African Indian recipes. And now in Mumbai, a few days back atmy regular newsstand outside Bandra station, I found something simi-lar in a compilation of the recipes of four Muslim communities put to-gether by Inquilab, a local Urdu newspaper.

The recipes cover four communities: Bohra, Kashmiri, Konkani andMemon. They are utilitarian booklets with recipes in Urdu and English,and clearly meant mainly for Urdu readers, since only that is used forthe index and write-ups of the lady contributors, whose beaming pic-tures are shown upfront (or from an English perspective at the back,since the page layout, even for the English recipes, is right to left). ButInquilab must be complimented for giving English versions at all, sincethese booklets underline the rarity of Muslim community cookbooks.

There are a few. There are several Kashmiricookbooks (though more often from a

Pandit perspective). I have a photocopyof Dhaal-Chawal Palidu, a Bohra

cookbook done by Shamime Lakdain the UK. A few years back FatimaHooda put together Khoja Khan(BPI India). And UmmiAbdulla,who has done so much topreserve Moplah food in Kerala,has collected these recipes in her

Malabar Muslim Cookery (DishaBooks). There must be more, probably

untranslated from Urdu, but in gen-eral Muslim community cook-

books are few and hard to find.The Inquilab collection is

the first I’ve ever seen ofMemon and Konkani

Muslim food. Of course, one

could argue thatMuslim cuisines getcovered automati-cally in Mughlai,Hyderabadi andAvadhi (Luc-know) cook-books, as well asreferences in re-gional cook-books, like Kau-mudi Marathe’srecent one on

Maharashtr ianfood which has a

few Konkani Mus-lim recipes. One

could also argue thatsome of the differences

from the other food ofthat region are slight – the

food of the Nagercoil Muslimsin Tamil Nadu may not differ

all that much from that ofnon-Brahmin communi-ties in that region, and themany sweets and snacksin Mrs Abdulla’s book arecommon with all NorthKerala communities.

But these Inquilab bookletsshow, I think, why there is still

more about ordinary IndianMuslim cuisine that can be collect-

ed. The Mughlai, Hyderabadi andAvadhi books are essentially about court

cuisines, with recipes for rich birianis and desserts that would rarely appear onordinary tables (and there are also Muslim court cuisines, like that of Bhopal,which are still little known). The Inquilab books are of middle class, mostlymerchant communities which certainly have some special dishes for celebra-tions, as for example, the Royal Dhokla in the Memon book; it’s a complicat-ed dish of vegetables and bajra flour dumplings in a fish curry. But it is preced-ed by a Dhokla ka Salan, bajra dumplings in a simple vegetarian gravy, thatsounds like it is everyday food.

An interesting question is whether there is a specifically Muslim ele-ment to these dishes. The parallel is with Jewish food which, as ClaudiaRoden shows in her magnificent global collection has gone around theworld, adapting to local ingredients and cooking habits, but always witha few Jewish tweaks. I think these recipes show that — most obviously,of course, in the many mutton recipes, but also perhaps in dishes likethe Memon Randleli Roti, a mutton curry in which pieces of bajra rotiare soaked. This quite possibly shows the influence of tharid , which Lil-ia Zaouali in her book Medieval Cuisines of the Islamic World, describesas being “a kind of national dish of the Arabs in the early years of Islam.”

Tharid dishes simply consisted of bread pieces soaked in meatbroth, “but because it was the preferred dish of the Prophet, itentered into Tradition (sunna), which every Muslim had to re-spect, maintain and hand down.” The bread in the Randleli Rotithough is made from bajra, and that’s where the regional influ-ence comes in. The Memon recipes are quite recognisably fromKutch (Juna Gadhi Kebab), the Bohra recipes, in their similarity toParsi ones show a common background in Gujarat, while theKonkani recipes for pomfret and bombil and for methi ke laduplace it firmly in a Maharashtrian context.

There is much else to enjoy in these booklets, like the unembarassed-ly home food touches (fanta orange ice cream in the Bohra booklet), thetips like how to keep mixer blades sharp (once a month grind some saltin it) and even the vagueness, which is confusing for first time cooks,though typical of home recipes (some recipes just call for ‘spice’ withoutspecifying which kind). But I think the real value, and the reason I hopeInquilab does a larger book, and other communities consider doing thesame, is the way these recipes show how the roots of these communitieslie firmly both in the Muslim world and in that of their region.

(vikram.doctor@timesgroup.com)

A set of new booklets by Inquilab papershows that there is more to Muslim cooking

Muslim recipesfrom Kashmir to

Kanyakumari

GARAM MASALA

Food & Flavour

BY VIKRAM DOCTOR

Photo: SUBHAJIT PAL

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