ALL THE STORIES SPEND IN WRITING THE EPIC, ALL THE SONGS SPENT, ALL THE LIFE SPEND IN PREPARING TO LIVE

ALL THE STORIES SPEND IN WRITING THE EPIC, ALL THE SONGS SPENT, ALL THE LIFE SPEND IN PREPARING TO LIVE

6-FEB-ENG 3

RAJIV NAYAN AGRAWAL

ARA----------------------A condolence meeting was organized at Jai Prakash Narayan Memorial Amphitheatre near Ara Collectorate pond at Ara to pay tribute to a poet, litterateur, cultural and social woker Pawan Srivastava. Professor, teachers, political leaders and social workers paid tribute to the departed soul and also garlanded his portrait.

Former Rajya Sabha MP and Minister, Bihar government and his close associate, Shivanand Tiwari, former MLA Ramakant Thakur, Prof. Kanhaiya Bahadur Sinha, JP Senani Ravindra NathaTripathi and others were present on the occasion. Pawan Srivastava loved Tilak and so the visitors, his sister and sister-in-law applied Tilak on his portrait.

Speaking on the occasion, Shivanand Tiwari said that he was 10 years younger than him but it never felt that he was not our friend. He had formed the JP Manch and today they were paying tributes from his Manch. He said that they met during the 1974 movement when Kabir Khan used to be the collector here and there was a talk of his closeness to Indira Gandhi family. When an FIR was lodged against the injured persons and he was made to sit in the collector’s car, the song ‘Loha se Loha bajane chale hain aur apne vatan ko jagane chale hain’ written by Pawan Srivastava surrounded by the car and started singing. Ultimately the collector had to release him.

The specialty of his personality was that even after joining different ideas and organizations, his relationship was the best with everyone. Tiwari said that his  first fund was released for construction in Muslim colony on the recommendation of Pawan Srivastava. He called him a multidimensional personality and said that his works should be published.

Prof. Neeraj Singh while conducting the meeting said that he always used to say that if any one of us is no more, the one who survives will take the responsibility of running the organization. Today after his departure, as soon as he came to conduct the meeting, he remembered that old saying of his.

Salil Bharatiya said that Pawan Srivastava was the leader of the 1974 movement who climbed the pole at the flag hoisting place at Ramana Maidan and hoisted the black flag. All this happened so fast that no one could believe it. He was a very adventurous and fearless. He always used to say “Fikir not, all is fine.”

Secretary, Indian Red Cross Society, Ara Chapter, Vibha Sinha said that while talking to him, his sense of humour remided Kaka of Hathrasi while on spiritual discussions, he seemed like a saint.

Jitendra Kumar said that they used to meet often on Makar Sankranti. There were talks of poetry and humour. Along with Hindi, he also had amazing command over English language. When he lost his eyes due to sugar, he sued to say with a smile that he has now become a leftist because now he has started seeing the world with his left eye.

Sushil Kumar said that there was competition among those with similar views but friendship is only among those with opposite views. He was a brother but he always remained like a friend and a colleague. Recalling two lines written by him, he said-“All the stories were spent in writing the epic, all the songs were spent, the whole life was spent in preparing to live”.

Rana Pratap Singh said that he was a very courageous person, be it social field, literature, art or spirituality. He used to express anything in a big way.

Deepak Srivastava, his companion of the 1974 movement, said that he was a person with such a creative mind that he could do any work in any field immediately.

Former MLA Ramakant Thakur said that they were deeply saddened by the sudden demise of their dear friend and prayed that God might give courage to the family to bear their sorrow.

Sushil Tiwari said that discussing about Pawan Jee in any field is too little. He was expert in how to maintain relationships with someone and how to anything. After the departure of Pawan Jee who had reach at the national level, a corner will definitely remain empty till century.

Ashok Manav said that on the morning of February 16, his ashes will come to Ara from Pune which will be brought to the JP Memorial Amphitheatre after touring various routes of Ara where a meeting will be organized and after that it would be taken to his native village Kalyanpur for paying floral tributes. His ashes will be immersed in the urn from the village at Salempur Ganga Ghat.

On this occasion, people from every section of the city participated, in which students, teachers, advocates, professors, doctors, litterateurs, artists, journalists, social workers and intellectuals had special participation. The dignitaries present were Rana Pratap Singh, Deepak Srivastava, Sushil Tiwari, Arun Singh Bhole, Qayamuddin Ansari, Dilraj Pritam, Salil Bhartiya, Gulabchand Prasad, Arun Srivastava, Virendra Singh, Ashwini Kumar, Jitendra Shukla, BJP leader Dhirendra Singh, Kaushal Kumar Vidyarthi, Shiv Gunjan, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Jai Prakash Singh, Vinod Singh, There were many prominent and enlightened people of the city like Heengmani, Sonu Singh, Sachin Sinha, former head of Bihiyan Mohd. Zubair Khan, Amarendra Kumar, theater artist Pankaj Bhatt, Ashok Manav, OP Pandey, Sanjay Pal, Anil Tiwari Deepu, Lovely Kumari, painter Kamlesh Kundan.