The Land of No Return

On the banks of the river Gobari, completely engulfed in the darkness and amongst tall trees- lay our dream island- Jambu! We only knew someone before this visit who could help us with a night stay. Loading our bike on a country boat, we reached the other side of Jambu, popularly called Jambunut. Ravi Tripathy had an earlier acquaintance with Govind Senapati- the khalasi (loader) of the irrigation department who lived in a tile-roofed government quarter. There was hardly any facility for water and power. Spreading our mats on the floor, we spent the night brimming about visiting Jambu. The next day, riding a boat on the Gobari River, we were in Jambu to meet many unknown people who later became part of the Jambu Saga.

Finding time from my academic life between 2010 and 2017, I continued solo travelling to Jambu multiple times. There, I was introduced to Sri Samarendra Mohanty, a television reporter from the Chhapali Chowk. He could comprehend my working style and extended full cooperation to me. In those seven years, as many times I visited Jambu, my reporter friend Sri Mohanty arranged my stay at varied places- government bungalows, forest bit houses, even in his own home. He had taken me to many places around Jambu like a kind-hearted guide.

Along with Jambu, he had arranged my visit to Ramnagar Kharnasi, Odisha's first lighthouse, and to Hukitola- the first port of Odisha. Through a generous introduction to forest guards and rangers of the area, he helped me to understand the topography and lifestyle of the Jambu people. I could have many exciting conversations with younger and older people from different Bangladeshi hamlets and colonies through his kind introductions of me to the Jambu people.

I tried to tape-record the life and struggle of the people of Jambu. Binoy Das, who was displaced during the civil war and riots in erstwhile East Bengal and finally could settle in Jambu, often turns nostalgic and talks about his struggling days; the cloth merchant turned Indian nationalist Bakul Talukdar; the youth leader Nimain Sarjan who raises his concern and voice for the issues and rights of the refugee brotherhood living in Jambu; Tapan Sikdar who, after being tortured in Bangladesh, along with his family had to leave the country and have greyed in Jambu; Madhoi Mandol who was damn scared after receiving an expulsion notice from the Indian government for illegal entry into India; Kadamb Sena, with nine months pregnancy fled the country during the East Bengal and Pakistan civil war and arrived here. I tried to record the lifestyle and life stories of hundreds of people of Jambu, like Jatia of Kharnasi village and octogenarian Purjan Mandal.

Only one common malice of these refugees in Jambu inspired me to write this novel. Jambu has seen three generations since the 1960s. They have an unresolved question: Which nation do they belong to? The country they left a long time ago or the country in which they have been living for generations!! One nation brands expatriates, and another government names them as 'refugees'. Wherever there is a civil war, a religious war, or a political war related to international borders, people are bound to cross the geographic boundaries as refugees for their own and kin's safety and welfare. The issues of displacement and refugees are global phenomena. Jambu may be a tiny place on the world map of immigration and refugee settlement. Still, Jambu continues to be a mini-representative of refugee colonies of the world. After arriving at these colonies, including Jambu, There is no way open to going back. Jambu is the Land of No Return!!!

Bhima Prusty (b1959) is a native of Jajpur district, Odisha. Now, he lives in Bhubaneswar, the capital of Odisha and retired from his academic career as a lecturer of Odia language and literature in different colleges. Equally admired by both critics and readers, he has carved a niche for himself as an ingenious story writer and novelist by executing path-breaking fictional work based on participatory research, exhaustive interviews, historical records, and private observations spanning many years of any chosen subject, such as a group of poets or a journey to explore a legacy or a community and their distinct locale. He moulds the language according to the indigenous characters and their precarious situations. He won the Odisha Sahitya Academy Award for his novel 'Samudra Manisha', based on the conflict between man and nature. Jambu Loka (THE LAND OF NO RETURN in English) has won the prestigious SARALA AWARD-2023. This book is about the Bangladeshi refugees and their settlement (illegal) on an island, Jambudwipa, not far from the Paradeep Port on the shore of the Bay of Bengal. Most of the refugees are Hindus who were forced to leave their homes and motherland and finally got anchored in a seaside place seeking shelter and certified recognition from an alien government. It tells their poignant stories evocatively, their perilous journey, and the new bizarre life they had to adapt to in a place from which they can't return anywhere.

Dr. Tapan K Panda is an alumnus of The University of Houston, USA. As a full-time faculty member, he worked at The Indian Institute of Management- Lucknow, Kozhikode and Indore. A well-known management guru in creativity, branding and advertising, Dr. Panda has translated stories, novels and poems from Odia to English and vice versa.His literary works in English include Naxalite & Other Stories (short story collection), As the Years Go By (anthology of poems). His works in Odia include Kabita Pari Kichhi Kichhi & Lal Swapna (anthology of poems), Jahna Rati o Prajapati (short story collection), Bajar Yudha (Essays on Economics and and Markets). His translation works include Don't Wash Wound with Blood (Selected Poems of Rumi), The Infidel (Prashant Patnaik), The Arch of Fire (Dr Madan Mohan Mishra), Autobiography of a Queen (Ratnaprava Devi), The Actor (Bibhuti Pradhan), Dawn after a Long Night (Gourahari Das), 5 Ways to Kill Rama (Devdas Chhotray), The Nest (Sarojini Sahu), The Minor (Ajay Swain) and Jagannath Desha ra Katha (Devdutt Patanaik). He is also a lyricist, and ad film writer who has written memorable campaigns for leading Indian and Global Brands. He can be reached at tapanpanda@gmail.com.