Banabihari Das retired in 1999, but he continues to teach in the same school at Kakharuni in Kendrapara district, Odisha, where he has taught since 1964. He continues to impart education even now, at the age of 84.
The Kakharuni Upgraded Government Upper Primary School, in Pattamundai block is where Bana Sir, as he is fondly known, teaches and lives with his three sons and a daughter. There are 338 students from classes one to eight in this school.
“My students are wonderful and I am lucky to teach them,” the 84-year-old veteran teacher told Gaon Connection. “I will only stop when I am tired, but plan to teach till I am 100,” he laughed. His energy and enthusiasm is infectious, said his students.
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“Many current teachers of the school were once Bana Sir ‘s pupils,” Renuka Mohapatra, the head mistress of the school, told Gaon Connection. And, they all say his way of teaching has not changed one bit, she added.
Ashok Kumar Parida is one of them who is now teaching at the school. “I studied in this school when Bana Sir was a teacher. He is a legend and has taught hundreds of students in his career spanning 60 years,” he said. “In his dhoti and shirt, he is a picture of enthusiasm as he starts teaching Odia literature, English or Mathematics,” 58-year old Parida told Gaon Connection.
Suryamani Das is also a former student of Bana Sir. “I studied in this school in the 1960s, my son Ajaya studied here in the 1990s, and now, my grandson Amitav is also a student of Bana Sir,” Suryamani said.
Krushna Chandra Pradhan, a retired professor of Sambalpur University, now settled in Kakharuni village, said Bana Sir had taught him and was an inspiration to so many others like him. “I wish him a long and happy life. He deserves to be immortalised for setting such a positive example to others by providing education to many children of our village and its nearby areas,” Pradhan told Gaon Connection.
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After retirement Bana Sir decided he wanted to continue teaching. It was his love and he had the energy and the desire in him to do it. And he teaches with all that love, energy and passion, all free of cost.
Banabihari Das retired in 1999, but he continues to teach in the same school at Kakharuni in Kendrapara district, Odisha, where he has taught since 1964.
“It’s people like Bana Sir who show us the way. I am sure there are many more Bana Sirs in the country who serve the people, yet remain unseen and unheard,” Ramesh Mallick, the sarapanch of Kakharuni Gram Panchayat, declared.
Suprava Nayak, a teacher at the school and a former student of Bana Sir described his teacher as ‘unstoppable’. “He still connects effortlessly with the pupils, engages them and challenges them. A wrong answer still elicits a stern rebuke,” Nayak laughed.
Talking about his father, Ranjit Das, who is a physics lecturer at Kendrapara Autonomous College, said that his father (Bana Sir) thought providing education to the children of the village was his calling. “He will do that till he draws his last breath,” Das told Gaon Connection.
