Its time to change the gears in the development vehicle...

Yesterday one of my school friends called me and I was happy to get to talk to him after many years. On the go we asked each other about the whereabouts of others and spent some time in remembering what are they doing and all. We remembered the happy old days and cherished. After the call I just thought where we all are now & why. From a small sub urban village to the metros in the country, we have explored the opportunities around. Why could we not be in our home state Odisha only prosper? For all such queries, my mind answered in a way which neither I nor any other Odia will like. We in Odisha put focus on Children's education and spend a lot in it and we too have a equally best education system in place. But after we complete the studies we aim towards the metros for employment and to earn a descent job. A rough estimation figures out the number of engineering colleges to 30+  and close to 40000 students pass out every year from these colleges and look for employment and its shocking to know that 90% of these students have to leave Odisha aim towards the metros to justify their degree & employment. The condition of students doing normal graduation is better not to mention. Here one question arises why these people go out & work for some other state and why can’t we provide them opportunity & use them in the domestic development  of Odisha ? If all other developing states can create opportunities for growth and can progress, why can’t Odisha do the same way? 

Primarily we call ourselves as a farm based state and we keep focusing on the same, but time has come to change the gear and move to the next level. In that race I am not saying to stop farming and sit idle. We should keep the focus on but additionally we need to built infrastructure and attract investor and get opportunities for other industries to grow and create employment. and to lure the investors what we need; basic infrastructure as compared to other states, Availability of ample natural resources for power usage, better transport system(road-rail-air), availability of skilled & semi skilled labor, Quick government clearance & laws enabling business, easy & ample availability of power and wherever possible creation of special and moderate economic zones to lure investors. Out of the all above said factors for creating a growth movement & creating opportunities in Odisha, I dont think we missing in any single factor except the one one called a Political willingness to do so. I strongly feel a gap which if put in right time & place can change the gear and take Odisha to the next level. We should now aim at the outside investors like the TATA, Ambanis, Zindals, Mittals and other international investor to step into Odisha. I can see there are many projects pending at different intent levels which need a government nod to kick start. And fast pace growth will of course need a supporting hand from the govt. 

Now time has come for us to compete with the sates like Gujrat, Maharahtra, Kerala & Tamil Nadu and all other developing states. For this if it is required to support a regional or a national party we should be ready to vote for as after all what we need is a developed and a next generation state leading to growth & glory.

May the days come soon

Long live Odisha 

Long live Odia..

Ratha Yatra or Ghosha Jatra or Gundicha Jatra (2days to go)

Two days to go for the auspicious Rathayatra or the famous Ghosha jatra. Preparations are on as per time and tradition to make the lord's annual visit to his aunty's place. Many of us may or may not know the reason why every year this Rathyatra is being performed and why so much of chaos every time with the grand festival.To all curious people for the answer let me tell you the reason.

Rathyatra hosts Lord Jagannath, the lord of the "ODIAS" and as they call it as "lord of the universe" he is regarded in all religions. But he represents sanatan dharma and an avatar of Lord Krishna. He is the only deity who is not made up of stone but instead he is made of wood (in Odia DAARU which means Neem tree trunk). The lord resides in Srimandir in Puri. Everyday lakhs of devotees pay holy visits to the deity to offer their prayers to him. And being one of the four most sacred places for the Hindus Puri Jagannatha temple has special place in devotion & sacredness for the Hindus across the world.But for non Hindus or people from all other religions, entry to Srimandir is Strictly prohibited. Even the Converted Hindus from ISCON are not allowed in the temple. In local media we hear many foreign creatures being caught at the main gate while they were trying to enter the temple. you may ask the question like why this restriction as at other places of worship for Hindus there is no such restriction. Let me answer you - this is a sacred place for Hindus and not a tourist place and we Odias have faith that our deities are Moving Gods ("Chalanti Pratima") & they are very sacred. from ancient times the deities & the temple have been kept very sacred and the spirituality has been maintained till date. From the British time to the Mughal invaders nobody has been able to enter the temple or touch the deities. At times when the invaders attacked the state & raided the temples,  deities were taken out of the temple to secret places where sacred temples were built and the deities were worshiped. The instances of Kalapahad & other non Hindu rulers attackers and the safe & secret custody of the lords are well known to the world.The current temple which under the care of Archeological survey of India has been raided by many invaders and looted by many. And every time with Vedic rituals we have made the temple clean and as sacred it was ever. In that concern the temple is kept heavenly sacred and you can feel the sacredness the momment you enter it.
Even there were many non Hindu devotees to the Lord bu they too were not allowed in the temple. "Bhakta salbeg" the great muslim devotee's name come first in the list who was a cotton weaver in the ancient city of Cuttack & was a great devotee of lord Jagannath. Once he dreamt of offering his handmade pillows to the lord and carried two greatly weaved pillows to the temple but the Badapanda - Pujari's dint allow entry to the temple & even threw away the pillows made by him. Bhakta salbeg pleaded the lord and offered his prayers and to everybody's surprised the very next day morning when the main doors were opened for the first rituals of the Lord, it was seen that the lords were resting on the same pillows made by Salbeg.

Earlier Hindus from lower caste too were not allowed in the temple & the instance of "Dasia Bauri" proves that. Once Dasia bauri being a lower caste Hindu devotee wanted to see the lords & offer coconuts to him. He entered the temple but at the 22 steps the Pujaris caught him and getting to know his caste they expelled him out of the temple.Dasia bauri was a great devotee and being bitten by the Pujaris he too pleaded to the Lord and for one Momment the lord vanished from his place and took the coconuts from dasia Bauri's hand and paid him for the due devotion. And then to maintain the dignity of the devotees and the temple & deity sacredness the lord announced that once in a year, the lords will come out of the Srimandir & give darshan to his devotees who are not allowed inside. During this Rathyatra the lords come out of the temple to visit their aunt's place called Gundicha, hence its called Gundicha Jatra. The lords stay there for 9days and on the 9th day they return to Srimandir. Once the lords are out of srimandir anybody can touch him, see him & pray him. But the number of people at the Bada danda during the rathyatra is so much that you need to be really lucky enough to touch the deity. What kindness the lord is showering ; for people who can not come to his place he is coming out to offer a darshan and its said that everyone who makes Darshan of the lords on the Ratha will be free of all his sins.
Thursday, the 21st 2012, the lords are coming out for which Bada danda is waiting, Ratha is waiting and his all his devotees are all waiting....

May Lord Jagannatha bless you all with all good fortune & best of health.

Jai Jagannath ...

a social cause

It was a busy schedule on Friday and everybody was planning for a perfect weekend. I too was closing the show for friday. On moving eyes on the various websites before closing i stayed my eyes on an article on Rediff.com where I read an article about a generous man Called S.Babu and the story was a real eye opener. The way the man took the social responsibility without any support from outside is a courageous step. In these days where inflation and price raise, when its very difficult to manage daily expanses, the man with a postman's salary serves the society. He manages to get food & medicine for the poor people and people with disability. Hats off to the spirit of the man with a great cause. My eyes becomes wet when I feel there people who not only feels the heat on the poor but also stretched their hands to wipe it off. This is just a cause which inspires me to do something & return something to the society in my way and with my capacity.

Don't we have anything to return to the society from which we have got so much and expect so much.  I promise to do it in my way & urge people to come up & extend a supporting hand to many social cause and make a little difference.

Power & willingness to move on...

Daddu

As usual after a long gap I was at home for a vacation in December 2011. Like always this trip was full of happening things and i was fully occupied. Amid all this every time i go home I pay a visit to my grand parents at our ancestral village and this time too I went to meet them. Its always been a privilege to spare time with them and they too enjoy they same and wish us richly. I dont know how other family members feel but I always try to see their prospective & way of thinking to know their success story.After a long gap of many years Daddu took me to the farm lands and we were discussing some criticality in the farming and the raising cost factor. The rising cols of labour to the cheap rate asked by the local vbendors for the crop was all we were discussing. Amid all this what I could notice is his interest in buying few more acres of farming land & adding to his existing huge area. the way he was enthusiastic about the job he best knows, farming to arranging funds to buy more land, just chilled me. He at his late nintees is still planning and he has got strong ideas to execute the ideas. In is liife span he might have seen more than 60 crop years but amid all these ups & downs his determination has net shaken. And at this age too he does the farming for the 60-70 acres ofland he has & pleans to buy more. Howcome he is maintaining the positive minddset & where from he brings that courage and mood to carry on his job so restlessly. I fall sick and dont feel going to office on the 5th day but he never takes leave from his job i.e farming. I have witnessed he has a solution to every issue and he catches the root cause of the issue & bei\lieves in prevention more than to cure it. And at things or situations panicky for me he handles them with a different attitude and upfront. It may be because of his ample experience in life and because of the maturity & the way he thinks of life. But whatever decisions he takes its the best and I appreciate his way of thinking. I admire the way he keeps on going and the way he moves on. and of course he inspires me at this point of time and I love it.

Smart Punters

Smart Punters

O teri....