By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR: The mysterious and low profile visit of the Beacon Press Publisher and upcoming Director, Gayatri Patnaik, happens to be the daughter of Prem Patnaik’s 1st wife, Mrs Sharma, who had a teaching job at Frostburg State Teachers College (now Frostburg State University in the USA), has created a lot of buzz in BJD in Odisha. Gayatri Patnaik is joining as Beacon Press Director in this August. Gayatri visited Odisha with her son Matthew. Gayatri Patnaik’s twitter handle @gpatnaik1, does not show anything about her Odisha visit while her last tweet was on a new book release.
Her father’s sister, Gita Mehta, has written numerous books. His brother, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, was published by Jackie Onassis at Doubleday. Her uncle is Knopf head Sonny Mehta.
Gayatri Patnaik, who herself an acclaimed literary figure, kept her Odisha visit low profile and as per media reports, she skipped her Chief Minister uncle Naveen Patnaik’s Naveen Niwas and stayed at a hotel.
If grapevines are to be believed, Prem’s second wife’s (Mexican origin) son Arun Patnaik was known among the general public but the sudden appearance of Gayatri Patnaik in Odisha, hinting something different with some speculating rift between Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and his elder brother Prem Patnaik. “If she was in Bhubaneswar, she should have a visit to Naveen Niwas but she didn’t turned up and instead stayed at a five star hotel in the city,” said sources.
It may be noted here that Arun Patnaik had in January 2015 said, that he had no intentions to enter politics. Although Arun Patnaik is involved in the family business run by his father Prem Patnaik, many people in the BJD want him at the helm of affairs so that they can continue to evoke Biju and Naveen legacy over the years.
It would be interesting to see whether Naveen Patnaik would pass the baton to Arun or Gayatri Patnaik before he announces his retirement if anything like that.
Some media reports said, several officers of State Government had approached Patnaik for a meeting at her hotel while she denied any such interactions with them.
Sources said, the 47 year old Patnaik, has written several books, which included The Vegetarian by Han Kang, The Fire This Time by Jesmyn Ward, Maulshree by Sheela Sharma (who is Patnaik’s grandmother), and My Father’s Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett.
Patnaik’s grandmother Sheela Sharma, who helped raise her, wrote 20 books in both Hindi and English. Even now, when Patnaik can no longer speak Hindi or read it, she keeps one of her grandmother’s books in her office and her home, where she can see it. Her father’s sister, Gita Mehta, has written numerous books. His brother, Naveen Patnaik, was published by Jackie Onassis at Doubleday.
