How cruel becomes the Time at times!

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

He could have excelled in geology; but he had the passion for journalism. In the specific area of sports-journalism, he was a star.

In 2003, when the details of the Cricket World Cup were flowing in from South Africa to cherished pages of the Times of India, the country became sure that there shall be no dearth of illumination on her children who sweat on the playing fields to fetch pride for the motherland.

The TOI had honored this illuminating product of the Times School of Journalism with the post of Deputy Editor, Sports.

Ever since his rise in the horizon of sports reporting, no major event had passed sans being spangled with the rays of this star.

But shockingly, this star is no more in the sky of sports-journalism as Maxsport, the all-sports weekly of The New Indian Express group has lost its Sports Editor Siddhartha Mishra, who, while undergoing treatment at Chennai, breathed his last in his Kilpauk residence at 9 am on October 30, 2012 , leaving behind Prachi Tara (wife), Mamali (daughter), (Sumeet (son), Prof. Ganeswar Mishra, founder Editor of Prameya (father), Prof. Surangini Mishra (mother), Subrat, Sunand and Sandeep (brothers) and innumerable friends and admirers.

Even as his father is a personal friend to me, his mother is a dear friend of my wife Sabita. My son Saswat staying in USA, whenever I see Sandeep (one of his dearest friends, now in TOI), I feel like being in physical proximity to my son. Therefore, words fail me to say that Siddhartha, only 40, is no more. I am sure; all who knew him beyond his family, his relations, colleagues, friends and fans must be having the same severe paucity of words to say how impossible it is to withhold tears; and how cruel becomes the Time at times!