Landed at Titipa, in Chari Chawk block, at 1000 hours on 04
Oct, 2015; weather was clear, no cloud, visibility more than 5 km, winds light,
temperature 30 degree centigrade! When landed in this small village, surrounded
by the tributary of Chilka Lake by three sides, realised the crowd to welcome one
RS member & local two ministers of Orissa Government was more than 7-8
thousands!
I knew halt was for 4 hours, as the guests, whom I brought
in small American Enstrom-480B helicopter, were to lead a Pad Yatra (Foot
March) in support of communal harmony, progress and of course their political
party, that is Biju Janata Dal (BJD)!
After securing the helicopter with the security forces, which
included IRS (Indian Reserve Security, their 75% pay is given by the Central Government),
I went to a local Higher Secondary School, 1 km away, escorted by a local
pharmacist, on a bike; as no other vehicles were available (Busy in the function)
in this village!
Being Sunday, the school was closed, but they have a hostel,
housing about 100 students, of area surrounding approximately 8-10 km, and
40-50 young boys and teachers, staffs were available there and wanted to
interact with me!
I do not have even bare knowledge of Oriya, the local
language, and this prompted one staff to ask me if I was an Indian?
Food was served 3 times to me, despite my protest, by 1 pm,
which included Khanga fish (Akin to Rohu in our side), crab, prawns, 2-3 types
of vegetable, Dalma (A local dish, mix of Dal, that is, pulse and vegetables),
rice, sweet, etc! They felt sad, as I could not eat one fifth of what they
provided!
I was sitting in Teacher’s Common Room, relatively void of
any sofa, carpets, curtains; had 4-5 chairs, 20 odd pictures hanging on walls
(Included Subhash Chandra Bose, Chandra Shekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh, MK Gandhi,
JL Nehru, Pundit Utkalmani Gopabandhu Das, Lal Bahadur Shashtri, Indira Gandhi,
Biju Patnayak, Rajeev Gandhi, etc).
After the initial bursts of questions (Local ‘translators’
did good job), related to helicopter, my past, my pay, cost of helicopter, my
native place and family size, etc, I got chance to query few questions! I was
told, people of this district, Puri, favour BJD, Congress is almost out, BJP
remains non-existent, but CPIM was visible! The population, which survived on
Chilka Lake, fishery, farming, etc were poor, even though, literacy rate was
rising, youths favoured Left!
Yes, there were 6 college in that area, basic medical facilities
were available, serious cases had to go to Puri, Bramhapur or even Bhubaneswar!
On enquiring, why Hindi remained unpopular, they confessed, though
they do not dislike but do not need it! In schools, till Secondary, students have
to take 3 languages, and most preferred Oriya, English and Hindi/Sanskrit but
none took Hindi seriously!
On non-veg culture of this region, they told, they prefer
fish, chicken and mutton. Beef or pork is relatively unknown! They knew the
incidence of UP, where a Muslim man was murdered as part of conspiracy, they
all disapproved such politics and showed their hatred towards RSS or any such
organisation! (Few weeks back, there were massive procession in Bhubaneswar,
demanding arrest of Babas; In the Capital of Orissa, where people are very
religious!!). Political awareness was not lacking! They have access to most of
the channels on TV, there is no movie hall, popular sports include cricket, bit
football!
Women are food earners of every family, like men, and as
such, there is hardly known sex discrimination! Same goes with religion,
Muslims are part of society as the Christians, and RSS effort to polarise
society in name of Hindu Nation is treated with disdain!
Great! I loved this part of country, though not fully alike
Nan Cauvery Island in Andaman & Nicobar, where religion, till date, is
individual matter, not even that of family (One family has Muslim, Christian
and Non-Believer, the last one in fact is not an atheist, but has own form of
god, a tree or something else), where in 1988, the ‘Queen’ of island was an old
lady, named Lakshmi Bai!
When a society is deprived of its natural harmony,
Secularism due religion, caste, creed, colour, etc; it can never be restored
back due Capitalism and its henchmen! Negation of Secularism is Communalism
with some economic base, which is Capitalism, as of now, but next negation of
of Communalism is never back to natural Secularism! Now there is only one way to
attain Secularism, that is, change the economic base of society to
Socialism!
Note: Pundit Gopabandhu Das (1877–1928) known as Utkalamani
(Gem of Odisha) was a social worker, reformer, political activist, journalist,
poet and essayist.
