Today evening I was at Hotel Shirose near Ravi Talkies ordering a Parcel (the term used here for "to go" or take out food). I was about to wrap up my order when a gentleman barely a feet behind me suddenly interrupted in a very thick Odia accented Hindi by placing his order - "EKE MASRUMU PANIYARI PACKETE PARSALA KARO" (Parcel a Mushroom Paneer packet for take out). Extending his hand holding couple of 100 rupee notes (bills) over my shoulder he was trying to order before I had finished. Jumping queues to get ahead in line is part and parcel of life life.
Not sure why an Odia placing an order face to face with another Odia in the heartland of Odisha has to talk in a thick Odia accented Hindi ! Same was corroborated by a friend who just moved to Bhubaneswar from Mumbai and found out to his unpleasant surprise that most of his Odia colleagues here talk in Hindi amongst themselves. Some of them have never ever ventured out of Odisha.
I politely told our impatient guy in Odia to wait for his turn. He responded to me in clear and unadulterated Odia - "TIKE URGENTE KAMA THILA. LAYTE HEI GALENI (Had a little urgent work. I am getting late)". I replied in Odia, "We all here have some urgent work to do". It didn't seem to deter his recalcitrance. I reiterated myself, this time transliterating exactly what I just told him in Odia into English. "You can't just get ahead in the line. You need to wait for your turn". He acquiesced by miraculosly falling in line. In Odisha we love to respect those who speak in Hindi - more those speaking in English. My switching to English did the trick.
I have found biking is fun, but for a short distance. The local traffic is too erratic and unsafe to venture into the main road where one needs to be a zigzag Zen master to manoeuvre. Being out of the milieu for so long - if I drive on the main road it won't take long before either someone hits me, or I hit somebody. There is hardly any designated Pedestrian or Zebra crossing in Bhubaneswar. You have to tip toe and sway your hips, waving and clenching hands like an eunuch towards the incoming traffic in order to walk to the other side. Road crossing is an art and one needs to be a trapeze artist to cross roads at the crossroads of Bhubaneswar.
Though the temperature stayed under 40°C (104°F) it was another muggy, lazy dog day of summer. After lunch, I lied down reading SAMBAD, a vernacular Newspaper. It's a boring newspaper and the best medicine for insomniacs. Read couple of pages from the newspaper, you will be sleeping like a baby. Didn't remember when sleep overpowered me until wafted in a high pitch voice from a street vendor - BALTI, MUG NABA, BALTI MUG (Will you buy Buckets and Mugs).
The voice appeared louder and louder, gradually closing on me and slowly fading away reminding me of the Doppler's Effects we studied during Intermediate Physics - the effects of approaching sound on ear. I turned my side yawning, semi asleep. Then poof, electricity gone again. But thanks to the inverter, the fan kept on churning the air to my relief but soon the circulating air was slowly getting too hot for my comfort.
I stepped outside the room, still wobbly when our maid cautioned me not to step into the floor she just finished mopping. Thanking her for saving my somnambulist torso from crashing on the slippery floor, I tip toed carefully trudging into the balcony. Another vendor came yelling DAHI BARA, DAHI BARA (Bara soaked in buttermilk), a big tin container tied to the back of his bicycle with rubber tubes, the air inside the tires barely enough, making the steel frame of the bicycle wheels almost touch the ground.
It reminded me of an episode from my childhood, when defying our parents my sisters and I bought DAHI BARA from such a street vendor to find couple of drowned cockroaches who had taken a "Buttermilk Burial". We were squarely reprimanded by our parents not to buy anything from such vendors again.
Had a taste of BIKRUTA (Wierd) Odia today while I caught the local FM. Some of my non Odia and NRO friends speak far better non-accented Odia than the anchors on FM, especially the female ones who apparently think speaking accented Odia is a fad. And the quality of modern Odia songs - the less I speak of them, better. More later....
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