BHUBANESWAR: Rajani Mohapatra is numb with grief. Twelve days after she lost her celebrated sculptor-husband, Raghunath Mohapatra, to Covid-19, both her sons - Prasant (47) and Jasobanta (52) - are gone too, within 24 hours. Her youngest son had died in an accident four years back.
Jashobanta, Mohapatra’s eldest son, succumbed to Covid-19 while undergoing treatment here on Thursday. He was shifted to SUM Covid Hospital from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on Wednesday after his condition deteriorated.
Prasant, former Odisha cricket team captain and a BCCI match referee, died after suffering from a heart attack in AIIMS on Wednesday, two days after he was found Covid negative. Raghunath, Prasant and Jasobanta were admitted to AIIMS within days of one another after being found positive for Covid-19. While Raghunath and Jasobanta were comorbid, Prasant had no ailments.
The master sculptor, who had founded the Raghunath Mohapatra Arts and Crafts Foundation in 2013 to train youngsters in traditional sculpting free of cost, had breathed his last on May 9. “My entire family is gone. I could not even see them for the last time. There is no reason for me to live anymore”, says Rajani, crying inconsolably.
The grief is unending for the family. Everyone has lost someone very dear. If Rajani lost her husband and sons, daughter-in-law Trupti tries hard to be strong and hold the family together despite suffering the loss of husband Prasant, a very popular man in the cricketing circle. “There is not a single day when my mother-in-law has not fainted remembering my father-in-law and now with her sons’ death, she has become physically and mentally weak”, says Trupti, who had to overcome her grief to manage her family members.
Apart from Rajani and Trupti, the family is left with Trupti’s daughter Baishnavi, sister-in-law Swarnaprabha and her daughter Devishree and son Smitesh. Call it luck or cruelty of fate, all of them escaped the coronavirus infection despite staying with three infected persons. Smitesh, who carried on his young shoulders the burden of consigning the mortal remains of his uncle Prasant to flames at Satya Nagar on Wednesday, is numb after his father’s death news reached him on the day. “The three men were our pillars of strength. They managed the entire family and now they are all gone”, says the 25-year-old youth who is now pursuing MBA.
With the family losing its three heads to the pandemic, the task of shouldering the responsibility of the Raghunath Mohapatra Arts and Crafts Foundation at Sisupalgarh now lies with Smitesh. Earlier, the foundation was being managed by his father. “Yesterday, we were busy with the 11th day death rituals of my father-in-law when news of my husband’s death came. Hours after his mortal remains were cremated, we received the news about my brother-in-law’s death. How can destiny be so cruel?”, says Trupti, who has been leading the family through the crisis.
Only after the death rituals are over, the family will take a decision on opening the foundation which has remained closed since April 21. Till he was found infected, Raghunath was training 50 youths at his workshop free of cost. Condolences poured in from various quarters after the demise of Jasobanta and Prasant.