Indelible Musings

The increasing number of farmer suicides in Orissa in the past few weeks is a grim reminder of the state of farmers in our country. The government as usual in order to clear its stand has put loan burden and poor crops as well as deficient rain as the reasons behind these deaths. Although it has strengthened its stand and decided to take immediate steps, the surmounting number of farmer suicides is proving to be a blot on the image of the government. There is no doubt that the country has not received sufficient rainfall this year, required by the farmers to grow their crops. Keeping in mind the scenario, the government should have adopted some alternative methods for the farmers, such as providing better irrigation facilities, pesticides to prevent crops from being eaten up by insects as has been happening in many farms of the western part of Odisha. The state government has now appointed a team which would be visiting the drought affected areas. Examining the situation and then chart...

The villages of India have their own identities. They are an abode of rich and diverse heritage. One such village that occupies a unique place in the map of India is Raghurajpur, in Puri district. The village is located on the banks of river bhargavi and is surrounded by several tropical trees as mango, jackfruit groves, palm etc. The idyllic setting is the first thing to strike your eyes once you enter the village. The village has its own distinct identity. According to the villagers, tourists from all across the country and outside throng this village to have a view of the rural arts and crafts of Odisha. All the households prepare different types of art and every individual has his or her expertise over the artwork. These artworks are a source of income for all the families, from which they are able to pay the interests on the loans given by the government. The craft works or paintings and other works bore their themes to the mythological stories especially those of lord Krishna, ...

Pattachitra is one of the oldest forms of artwork in Odisha. Its emergence dates back to generations ago. Often people regard its evolution simultaneously with the Jagannath temple of Puri. This form of art is mainly found in Raghurajpur village of Odisha. It involves a lot of hard-work. The patta on which paintings are drawn is made with the help of cotton cloth, tamarind gum and white chalk. It takes around 4-5 days to make the colours that are used in the paintings. 25-30 colours are made out of 5 basic colours. Stone colours are basically used to make these many colours. The 5 basic colours are white, red or hingol, yellow, brown and black or kaajal. These paintings are sold in and outside the country such as Delhi, Mumbai London etc. The pattachitra makers have a long working schedule working from almost 10 in the morning till 4 in the evening. Per day they get a wage of rupees 100, while their monthly salary amounts to 15000. Within these tight working hours they also face proble...

The baliyatra festival in cuttack is a pleasure to all the foodies who visit this fair every year. Whether it be pizzas, burgers, chowmeins or the traditional all time favourites thunkapuris, dahi vada-aloo dum, gupchups; the mouth watering delicacies are simply irresistible. If one thinks that the craze for the traditional food items as thunkapuri has deteriorated, one has to see the fair in order to believe it. The traditional food items hold a special place in the hearts of the people compared to Chinese or any other fast foods. There are hoards of stalls that come up every year with new delicacies but those do not match the conventional taste of thunkapuris and dahi vada-dum aloo. “The new stalls of fast foods and Chinese tensed in the beginning, but later on we saw that people were enjoying the thunkapuris as much as the others”, said an owner of a thunkapuri stall. These stall owners do a business of around rupees 50,000 or so during the baliyatra festival. They are overwhelme...

How often do we donate blood and then take the pain of assuring whether our blood has been used or not? Or how often do we get a call from the recipient and are thanked by them? I had heard people say that one should donate blood once in life; it gives your mind a sense of contentment. So here I was, all set to donate blood for the first time. My mind was full of anxiety and enthusiasm. Moments before donating blood, I had a feeling as to how would everyone react when they would get to know my blood group. (It is a rare group after all). Leaving aside my anxious mood I stepped into the room where blood donation camp had been put up. As expected, once the normal registration and check up began, I was told that I cannot give blood because it was of a rare group and it might not be of any use keeping in the blood bank. I was disappointed but after sometime the doctor came up to me and said that I can donate blood since there was a patient in Sambalpur who was in need of it. I was glad th...