Remembering MK Sinha — the writer of अनुभूति

हिंदी | English

In memory of Mithilesh Kumar Sinha (MK Sinha). Explore his essays on his author page and discover more portraits in the Writers section.

On Vrikshamandir — आस्था, परिचय, the अनुभूति series, and डाक्टर कुरियन; एक अभिव्यक्ति — एम के does not argue a thesis. He walks Haridwar’s ghats and galis, remembers Anand, and asks what आस्था is, what खुशी is, who he is among so many living inside him. The answer is always अनुभूति: felt, unfinished, offered without a sermon.

He began with the Bihar government, joined NDDB in 1971, later knew Amul from the inside, and wrote these pieces from the Ganga at Haridwar. Bihar roots, Anand neighbours, Haridwar stillness — titles stay back; people stay forward.

Faith, for him, begins where ज्ञान and even institutional धर्म fall silent. He hunts a definition of खुशी and keeps admitting his hand is empty. His finest portraits are of the “unlettered” — Shaukat Miyan the kabadiwala, Tek Chand who gives a little extra sabzi, the woman who says “किसकी चली है जो मेरी चलेगी.” He learns from them; he does not instruct. Alone he walks the inner city we ourselves built, and sees himself as a collage of memories and epic shades — a little Bhishma, a little Duryodhana — consoling himself that we are all from the same sack. In lockdown he helps stranded yatris and weeps when a child says “दादा, आवजो,” still unable to name those tears. With Anand’s Jassi Ben, forty years of neighbour-love become, for him, what अनुभूति may mean.

The Kurien piece shows another side of the same eye: affection without hagiography. Dr Kurien is विक्रमादित्य’s बैताल — every telling hangs a new facet on the peepal tree. What Sinha claims as rare luck is the बाल-सुलभ streak — innocent play and बालहठ: wanting noni grass for the campus, padding up on Christmas to show Nirmala he can still bat, the Uttarayan kite joke, the Holden driven like a toy with Molly beside him, Syed Bhai seated as the day’s VVIP at Nirmala’s wedding. After NDDB to Amul he listens for hours to Tribhuvan Kaka, Ramanbhai, Manubhai and others — “प्रिस्टीन,” “बालहठ,” “अगम्य” — and ends simply: ऐसा व्यक्तित्व, बिरला.

On the page he is humble, observant, open-hearted and lightly humorous, faithful without dogma. He trusts tea circles, two extra grams of vegetables, and a child’s kite more than slogans. Through it all: life is beautiful if one has the सलीका to live it.

A dairy-world professional who, in his later years beside the Ganga at Haridwar, became a chronicler of ordinary sacredness — and of the rare, childlike face of a giant — less keen to define experience than to honour it.

This tribute was written with the help of Grok Bot.