Eminent English Poet Jayanta Mahapatra Beats COVID-19

Cuttack: Jayanta Mahapatra, one of the prominent poets writing in English in India has recovered from COVID-19 and has been discharged from the SCB Medical College and Hospital on Wednesday.

The 92 year old poet was admitted to the ICU on May 31 after he developed breathing issues. After battling with Covid for 16 days he has finally defeated the virus.

The SCB authorities in a statement stated, “Initially, he complained of breathlessness. Gradually, his oxygen level came under control. He did not require oxygen support in the last 48 hours.”

A team of doctors comprising Dr Jayant Panda (HoD of Medicine Department, SCB), who had been treating the poet for the past 25 years, Dr Deba Prasad Mohanty (Anesthesiologist at SCB), Dr Jyoti Patnaik (Professor of Pulmonary Medicine at SCB) and Dr Debasish Swain (Associate Professor of Anesthesiology Department at SCB) took care of his treatment.

Jayanta Mahapatra is considered as one of the finest Indian English poets that India has given to the world. A reader of Physics, Mohapatra started writing poems in English in the late sixties. His first poetry collection was Close the Sky Ten by Ten published in 1971, the same year he published another collection titled Svayamvara and Other Poems. A Father’s Hours(1976), A Rain of Rites (1976), Waiting (1979), The False Start (1980), Relationship (1980) were some of his other poetry collections.

He became the first Indian poet to receive Sahitya Akademi Award for English poetry for his collection Relationship in 1981.