Jatindra Kumar Nayak has played a prominent role in a variety of literary and educational institutions in the state of Odisha and his translations, essays and lectures have been instrumental in presenting Odia literature to the larger world. For the last four decades, he has been exploring the print culture of Odisha. In this free-wheeling conversation with Murali Ranganathan, Nayak talks about how he has engaged with print Jatindra Kumar Nayak
How did your engagement with print get stimulated?
My father, Kashinath Nayak, was a writer of textbooks and books for children and managed the printing press owned by the Primary Teachers’ Federation at Puri. I was fascinated by the work of compositors and printers at this press. My father also used to take me along to the offices of some of his publishers in Cuttack during Dussehra. As a student at Ravenshaw College, Cuttack in the 1970s, I was actively involved in the publication of