It doesn’t come within the ambits of any lyrical description, the tale of a man at the dawn of his life. When his perennial encounters with needs got him singularly pushed to the wall and the entire family caught in a mire of financial insecurity.

It was like straddling in the midst of a confluence of worries where it was difficult to differentiate between the pain of hunger and the joy of a fulsome meal in a day. 

But there was something, somewhere, that got him wadding through the turmoil of that time when, he had thought, as if, the time had stopped for him.

Then as a young boy, even without a formal name for himself, his plight was beyond words and for the mother of the family, after losing the husband early, looking after seven siblings, the task was humongous.  

Battle He Never Gave-up

Somehow, the boy entered a school in the village. His aptitude caught the attention of the school headmaster and others. Realising his determination not to give up, despite the shackles of hardship at home, his headmaster gave him the name, Achyut, which means one who accepts no finish.

And he went ahead, almost swimming against the tides. It was literally a roller-coaster ride, from the mires of uncertainty, towards a new goal, i.e education. For which he had taken up even menial jobs to support himself.

He completed his studies with a doctoral programme after graduation. Out from the inner world, he had a dash with another bottom reality. The backwardness of the interiors and the crippling poverty made more potent by illiteracy, he realised.  

Literacy As Major Weapon

He found an interweaved chemistry of his childhood and the backwardness in the state`s interiors. Which was more pronounced among the tribal community.

From then on, about 27 years back, his efforts at rolling out educational facilities did paid the dividends albeit with some opposition from there.

Wedded to an ideal to instil the urge for literacy among the backwards, suddenly Achyut Samant was ushered into politics of the day. It was such a challenging assignment he had never expected to be in.

From World Of Letters To `Rajniti `

However, politics opens the road to become closer to the masses was what influenced the educationist to walk through the lanes of politics or `rajniti`.

For him the "shift was paradigmatic and so challenging" feels Samant. Because, it was a straddle between two seas, "one that helps us to create good human being " he quipped adding that " politics offers us an avenue to serve people and make them become partners in the process of development ".   

" Politics belongs to the people, politicians only steer it through " believes Samant "we are like drivers whereas the vehicle is owned by the people " he quipped.

That was an alien land where to sustain with a goal and a narrative, is a delicate balance and a huge task, is what he perceived as he had more encounters with problems of the people.

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