Centenarian Nanda Kishore Prusty, fondly called Nanda Sir, who was conferred with the fourth highest civilian award for imparting free non-formal education in his native village with missionary zeal succumbed to COVID-19 on Tuesday in a private hospital here.
Prusty passed away at 1.18 pm today, the private hospital informed in a statement. He was 104. According to reports, Prusty was undergoing treatment for post-Covid complications.
In Kantira village of Sukinda block, Prusty, a class 7 pass out, was a household name with locals holding him in esteem and respect for teaching their wards the basics and laying the foundation of their educational career.
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Locals used to send their kids to Prusty’s “chatashali’ (non-formal school) before enrolling them to regular schools for classroom teaching. He drew respect in the village for his skillful art in making the pupils learn the alphabets and basic arithmetic like addition, subtraction, division and multiplication. The unlettered adults also used to drop in at his chatashali to read and write.
Many of his students have tasted academic success and have excelled in professional careers
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