People have a lot of opinions. And those are, often, on topics that they have little or no expertise on.
There is even a website that makes a living out of sharing views of amateur opinion makers. Ever heard of Quora? It is a question-and-answer website where you can post preposterous questions (some that have no answers) - and receive deserving answers.
It is not until I started reading Quora that it struck me how often people sneak in opinions as questions.
It appeared the person had already made up his mind about "naxalite-infested" Odisha.
Someone gave a fitting response which went something like this:
This was posted in 2016, in the "achche din" of Narendra Modi.
You can imagine, then, back in the "bure din" of twenty five years ago, how skewed the opinions of people would have been about Rourkela and Odisha. Especially, if you were from a family of adorable bigots, like I was!
During a subsequent trip, our neighbor in Mylapore, the delightfully funny Mr Varadachari, stopped me by the roadside to inquire about my whereabouts.
"No, no, uncle! There is abundant rice available" I defended in vain.
"Whatever you say, rice eaters have more brains than chapati eaters. All they have is speed. Look at Kapil Dev. Gave the last over to Chetan Sharma!" he concluded.
"But uncle...Orissa is not in the North" I clarified.
"Dei dei...keep quiet. Don't dupe me. I have seen you since you were running around naked" he said and walked away. In another country, he would have been booked for pedophilia for saying such a thing.
"Chechu! Come here! He lives in Rourkela in Orissa and studies in Sambalpur university" Ramana mama introduced me and started laughing in anticipation of a joke.
"Rour..."?...
"...kela" someone completed.
"Sounds like doodh peda. Must be a very sweet place!" he winked. The crowd roared.
"Sambalpur? Phoolan Devi is the vice-chancellor, eh?" he added. My cousin, Raghu, rolled on the floor laughing uncontrollably (even before ROFL as a style of laughter was invented).
"Look...Phoolan Devi is not from Sambalpur...it's not correct? I protested, but was outvoiced in the din.
Another relative even corrected the name of the town that I had been living in, then, for a year.
"No...no. You mean Roorkee, right? Not 'Roor-kela'" he said, waving off any counterarguments.
After some time, I stopped offering defense. There was no point. I let my native people bask in their bigotry and liberally offer opinions about Odisha, "North Indians", and chapatis and their degenerative effects on the brain.
I didn't clarify that Odisha wasn't in the North. Or chapatis were not staple for Odias. Or that Rourkela was a beautiful, well-planned, cosmopolis, very rarely seen in India. My mom continued to tie amulets around my wrist for my safety, with mantras on her lips.
So, what were the questions that you were asked by relatives and friends about Odisha, Rourkela, or wherever you went to college? How did you manage?
Interested in reading my other blogs?
How about my ode to old Hindi film music? Which is here --> THE GOLDEN AGE OF HINDI FILM MUSIC.
The first episode is HERE.
Or my eulogy to one of the greatest playback singers of India? SP BALASUBRAHMANYAM.
Hi @Puttu: Hilarious piece as always. I love the characters (Ramana mama et al). 'Chappathi' eaters have always been viewed with suspicion by the old timers down south. Ironically, the same people when afflicted with diabetes nonchalantly switch sides!
ReplyDeleteIn my case, hailing from a brahmin family of maharashtrian origin, although we had adopted the south indian culinary habits over the centuries, we were not averse to chappathi/roti. Plus, I was and continue to be a connoisseur of food, so the food was not really a topic of worry for me. Well, I was in for a rude shock when I started eating in the Hostel-1 mess. I mean, I know it is possible that the food can get cooked badly on occasion. It happens even at home once in a while. But to offer burnt rotis, watery insipid dal, a unique tasteless variety of rice and a funny tasting sabzi (always aloo plus another vegetable) of a consistently bad quality day in and day out needs a certain special talent. The hostel mess personnel had it abundantly and swore by their Quality Plan.
I remember mentioning earlier about my uncle. Most of my relatives knew Rourkela (although they used to pronounce it Roorkela) because of this uncle. We actually used to call him 'Roorkela Mama'. It was almost as if the steel city had got its fame -in a large measure - because my uncle had set up shop there. So, there were no uncomfortable questions asked of me. I was made to feel privileged and honored to be in the same place as 'Roorkela Mama'.
P.S: Thanks @Sita for your kind words on my previous stories. As a child, I used to dream of becoming a writer (among other things). I am thankful to Brags for giving me a platform for living this dream:))
Kreeesh , whatever sita says , they are my words .. always ..
DeleteYou are a revelation in the true sense 😊😊😊...
And what is this confusion here .. You are from Maharashtra originally .. and you lived in TN .. so where does Karnataka fit in ?
DeleteHi Rachs:
DeleteHonestly, I still haven't figured out whether I am a Maharashtrian or Kannadiga or Tamil. It is a big dilemma facing our dwindling community. Check out this link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deshastha_Brahmin
Hope this gives you an idea what a complex situation it is:)
Nice one Krishna. Yeah...the mess food was indeed messy. But you know, when we had the jaundice epidemic, I was taking training at RSP; we cooked in the room and got the rice from the limited mess that was functioning. I can't appreciate enough how that rice saved us after a tough day in Rourkela heat. So I won't complain.
DeleteBut, hey, you almost got me their Mr Food Connoisseur! My post was not about food - and was about opinions and prejudices!
Hoooohooooohooooo ... really really hilarious 😂 ... and CHECHU MAMA makes an appearance again 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼😍..
ReplyDeleteAnd Varadachari uncle ..🤣🤣🤣... Now I see where you get your profundity from, Puttindies ... Such a rich heritage you had !!!
The illustrations are hilarious too ..
But all jokes apart, Please gimme the contact of Varadachari uncle ..I need to file a defamation suit 😡😡😡😡..
I AM A PROUD CHAPATI EATER SIR .. BUT WHERE IS MY SPEED THAT HE TALKS ABOUT ?????
I have been shortchanged here .. SOMEBAADY'S gonna get hurt badly ,,
Yeah, I don't know where he is. Good that I changed some of the names, or some of these mamas may get into serious trouble!
Delete@ Puttu,
ReplyDeleteTalking of Mr. Varadachari, I remember one of your teachers at school that you used to frequently refer to and mimic- T.T. Varadukutty, if I am not mistaken. (See, I remember even the initials). When you mimicked him it was ROFL time:)))
Hzx .. ok agenda fixed for reunion with Puttu .. T.T.Varadakutty mimicry ..
Delete:-))). Oh, TTV's exploits continue to be legendary with my high school mates. No one to beat him!
DeleteSo, one of TTV's quotes (of course, has to be said with the right intonation):
"See....day before yessam (exam), you gaave to go to movie, I say!!
But simply you can't not study, close yuvar books, and go for movie...and then say TTV Master only tolj (told)" :-))). What a character!
🤣🤣
DeleteROTFWL!! This is so beautifully written Puttu. Probably your best one so far.
ReplyDeleteThe scene was just the reverse at my home. Anything with an SP in it was strictly revered, whether SP stood for Steel Plant or SP Balasubramaniam! This was thanks to 40 odd years of Dad being in Steel Plants, most of which being in Andhra. So Rourkela had a tag of being premium, not for the REC but for the RSP. On the contrary, Dad had turned down REC Jamshedpur and REC Durgapur (was getting electrical in both these places) saying 'these colleges are ridden with strikes and delays'. Well, little did he know Rourkela would be no different the four years I was there :-)
Your dad definitely was worldly-wise! :-)). Rourkela was more "peaceful" compared to the accounts we used to hear from across the state border!
DeletePlus, riding for 4 more hours in Bokaro Steel City express...that would have been a further test on our patience!
DeleteAn excerpt from my book 'The Next Door Raghu', which describes Rourkela in spring-
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, winter was slowly melting into spring and the Garden City of Rourkela on the banks of the River Koel, had slowly but surely metamorphosed herself into a sequined, iridescent, and brilliantly colored multi-hued butterfly, from the enticingly attired pupa that she already was. The Krushna Chuda (Gulmohar), Saana Chakhunda, Bada Chakhunda, Kagaja Phoola (Bougainvillea) trees, and several other local plants and flowering plants in gardens, parks, shopping malls, and all over the place were all a riot of brilliant and enchanting colors. Most of the trees had their luxuriant branches all adorned with more flowers than leaves. There was brilliance, poetry, and enthralling beauty all around. All the trees that lined all the roads and occupied each and every inch of space available in the garden city would all bloom at approximately the same time at around the beginning of March.
Rourkela, on the banks of the River Koel, would then appear to be decorated and bedecked like a glowing and expectant bride. Her brilliance in spring is comparable to none. The whole place would be awash in all colors of the rainbow and hordes of multitudinous lovers in the form of birds, insects, and beautiful butterflies, who would have the place under their siege.
The most brilliant and eloquent of the trees would be the Saana Chakhunda trees. These deciduous trees which shed most of their leaves in the winter, would practically be plastered with dazzling bright yellow flowers that shone forth even more luminously when the infant rays of the mellow morning sunlight caressed their youthful cheeks. Not to be outdone, the Bada Chakhunda trees would also send showers of luminescent and enthrallingly beguiling purple flowers that would bedeck the trees like the tiara and the jewels of a princess. They would be given stiff competition by the Krushna Chuda (Gulmohar) trees and the Bougainvillea shrubs with their mesmerizing flashily red and violet and white blooms respectively.
But the King of all sights would be the Central Ring Road, which is a perfectly circular four lane road that connects almost the whole of Rourkela. The pavements of this perfect circle of a road that could easily be mistaken for a necklace for the gods, if viewed from the air, are all lined with several row after row upon row of Krushna Chuda, Saana Chakhunda, and Bada Chakhunda trees. The extra wide dividing median barrier (the central divider of this road is nearly eight to ten meters wide and was originally designed by the German Founding Fathers of Rourkela to function as an Electric Tram Track), bore multi hued Bougainvillea as its ornament of choice. The end result of this was that when certain sections of the Ring Road was viewed from a distance, it sometimes resembled the National Flags of some European Countries, with near perfect and several horizontal bands of yellow, purple, red, white, and violet.
All the heavily wooded and tree lined avenues of the green city would also blossom out to their fullest resplendence. Various flowering trees, shrubs, and vines lent their magical colors and aromatic odors to compound the serenity and the beauty all around. Unlike most other cities of the world, the Garden City of Rourkela on the banks of the River Koel has more trees than ugly steel and concrete structures. In fact, the built up space in this city, especially the Steel City part, is only a very small fraction of the available land.
Lovely, vivid description of beautiful Rourkela
DeleteAdded to all this magical world of ethereal beauty and charm would be the several decorative flowers that Rourkelites (this is a collective noun that the residents of Rourkela like to call themselves) like to lovingly plant in their gardens during the relatively mild winters. And this is one of the most striking features of the Garden City of Rourkela. Almost everybody in the Garden City of Rourkela has a beautiful garden in their house. Those who lived in flats had balcony gardens or had terrace gardens to make up for their lack of earthy ground. This love for trees, natural beauty, flowering plants, fruit bearing trees, and as a corollary, their love for the environment and Mother Nature herself, is a striking characteristic of the inhabitants of this garden city that was painted on the canvas of time by the world’s Greatest Artist, and that which differentiates them from the inhabitants of many of the other cities in this world. Needless to say, there are several nurseries in Rourkela, all dedicated to provide and cater to the insatiable appetite for trees, plants, and shrubs and bushes, of the populace in this city of nature lovers.
ReplyDeleteSuperbly written Biju! Great job!
DeleteI miss that quaint, little town. I wish I had stayed longer to explore its beauty. Does it still retain it's charm to the current day or has so-called "development" has wreaked havoc like it has in other cities and towns in India?
Delete