Gita Mehta to be Cremated Today

Bhubaneswar: Daughter of great leader Biju Patnaik, sister of Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik, and eminent writer Gita Mehta will be cremated at Lodhi Road crematorium in Delhi on Monday.

Her elder son Aditya Singh Mehta will arrive in Delhi from the US to conduct the last rites.

Gita Mehta, who was ailing, passed away at her residence in New Delhi on Saturday evening at the age of 80. Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik has also reached Delhi to take part in the funeral rites.

Several dignitaries reached to pay their last tributes to Gita Mehta.

Gita Mehta was born in 1943 to Biju Patnaik and Gyan Patnaik in New Delhi. After her early education in India, she studied at the University of Cambridge.

She was a war correspondent for US television network NBC during 1970-71. She covered the Bangladesh war. She produced and directed at least 14 television documentaries for UK, European and US networks.

But she is best remembered as an author for her five notable books, Karma Cola, Snakes and Ladders: Glimpses of Modern India, A River Sutra, Raj, and Eternal Ganesha: From Birth to Rebirth.