The other day I remember the Odia song by Akshay Mohanty in late 1970s referring to the New Capital BHUBANESWAR. The song goes like this "AAGE THILA BAGHA BHALU BHARA E JANGALA..TU DEKHLO SUKUTA BOU..GHAIN GHAIN BULE BINCHNA NALA ..BAH BAH RE CAPITOL" roughly transliterated ' Earlier it was a jungle filled with Tigers and Bears, now you see O The Mother of SUKUTA..The hand fan rotates superfast, hail to Our New Capital Bhubaneswar." Not sure about Tigers and bears but when we moved to the newly constructed BJB Flats in 1976 howling of jackals were not uncommon coming out of some of today's poshest neighborhoods. SUKUTA which in colloquial Odia means "the lanky lad" is referred here as the typical down to earth Odia guy from a village or small city lost in the din and bustle of Bhubaneswar. GHAAIN GHAAIN BULE BINCHANA NALA was a slang from late 70s. I was too young to comprehend what it meant. It probably meant nothing. Whatever it meant the weather in Bhubaneswar most part of the year needs AC these days, BINCHANA NALA (hand fans) are now restricted to villages. The song goes on further " MATHAA RU ODHANA TEKI DEKHE LO TIKIYE..NUA JAJADHANI KHALI HUKU HUKU DIYE..DEKH KETE BADA BADA SARAKARI GHARA again transliterated.. " O mother of SUKUTA, lift your head cover and take a peek. Our new capital totally rocks. Look at those huge government bungalows". Bhubaneswar was a sleepy township of salaried employees who lived in Government Quarters. There were few private houses those days. The song goes further..NUMBER NA JAANI TUTA PAI BUNI GHARA.. SUKUTA TA JANICHI TA MAMUNKA NUMBER.. TU DEKHELO SUKUTA BOU RAASTA GHATE PAACHE BELA..meaning " You see O Mother of SUKUTA..You can't get you house without knowing its number, SUKUTA (our Odia commoner) knows the number of his maternal Uncle who lives in our New Capital. On the roads you can see Bael fruits( Stone Apples) ripening" Those quarters in different Units (from Unit 1 to Unit 9) had all unique numbers at a time when numbering of houses was an alien concept in Odisha (except few industrial cities like Rourkela). The better known cities at that time, i.e., Cuttack and Puri ( A well known shuttle train connected those two cities) had a SAHI (lane) culture where the houses were not numbered. All you need to know the name of the person living in so and so lane in so an so SAHI (MOHALLA in Hindi meaning locality). This was enough for the Post office to deliver a letter. The city those days was far from today's concrete jungle, the streets were filled with Bael (BEL in Odia) fruit, KRUSHNACHUDA (A tree bearing crimson colored flowers in spring) trees. An interesting features about the Government quarters was most of them had at least one Jack fruit, Papaya, SAJNA (Drumstic) or a BARAKOLI (small sweet & sour berries) tree or combinations of those. At trunks of many of these trees were surrounded by termite molehills which were prone to become free quarters for snakes. While playing in the yards my friends most of whom like me lived in Govt quarters were told to stay away from those molehills. BAH BAH RE CAPITOL, BAH BAH RE Akshaya Mohanty for correctly capturing the ethos of Bhubaneswar of those days.
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