I recently read The Storm written by Kanhu Charan Mohanty, a famous Oriyan writer, who is little known outside his state, mainly because his works had not been translated. Otherwise, he is a brilliant writer, and his novel Jhanja (Storm) abounds in pearls of wisdom, that mesmerized me with their timelessness. The novel was written in 1949 and translated in 2011, but his thoughts can still create a storm!

1. A man is slave to the words he utters, but a master of his innermost thoughts.

2. The entity called ‘public’ is a lifeless machine. This machine is devoid of heart and has no power of thinking.

3. The public becomes active only when excited. Once their excitement subsides, they become dormant.

4. Man has learnt to give advice from the very day he started to utter words.

5. Much blood has been spilt in numerous battles and wars fought on the surface of earth. But all the battles and wars put together pale into insignificance before the ideological wars that are being fought.

6. The law is like a strong rope. The few strands that hang from the rope move along with the rope. If it is put on fire, the hanging strands are, first, burnt into ashes. If it is severed with the hand, those strands sever first and fall on the ground. You, and your leaders and followers are like those hanging strands that will fall and be burnt into ashes while trying to break the laws.

7. The laws of the country are like poisonous snakes. Don’t touch the tail of the snake deliberately.