Height of observation. It didn't go unnoticed to me that the heights of the current generation of Odias have increased by couple of inches on an average. The girls are taller than their moms, the boys than their dads by at least a couple of inches - the usual disclaimers apply. I saw quite a few young girls as tall as 5 feet 10 inches, a rarity among Odia girls back in those days, but not so uncommon today. A good height always attracts the opposite sex. Also keeping a beard is a fad amongst the youth here, perhaps popularized by our Indian cricketers most of whom sport a beard. Cricket stars in India are considered as Demi Gods and icons in a nation where Cricket is a religion, practiced more widely than any religion in a highly religious nation where religion is a way of life.
A day doesn't go by without the average Odia, including my father looking at the PANJIKA (Register or Treatise of Hindu Lunar Calendar) to find what "TITHI" (auspicious day) and "BAARA" it is and what occasion goes along with it. Odisha is a land of BAARA MASA RE TERA PARBA (13 festivals in 12 months). No sooner the Makara Sankranti was over on January 15, than follows the festival of Samba Dasami on January 20.In USA I watch cat fights on regular basis as there are a dozen or so feral cats who loiter around in my backyard. Kitties being territorial in nature, like their tiger cousins often engage in turf war of supremacy. Few days ago the local newspapers carried the news about a cat fight of different kind, between a bunch of girls in the heartland of Bhubaneswar.
Three girls were eating "GUPCHUP" (As Golgappa or Panipuri is named in Odisha) at the Master Canteen Chhaka, a centrally located area in the city. Another girl suddenly barged in showing attitude with a sense of entitlement and demanded to be served before the 3 girls who were already ahead in line, already munching the tangy, crunchy snack.
Arguments started between the girls, followed by fisticuffs. A ferocious cat fight ensued. The bystanders cherished the sight of girls clawing, scratching and bitching each other using choicest of words from Odia vocabulary, rolling over the dusty floor strewn with paper cups of left over food and muddied water. Spectators were enjoying every moment of the scene, capturing and taking pictures of the cat fight. Now with Smartphone on hand every one is a reporter these days for social media. As usual, police arrived after the action was over and the girls got tired of wrestling each other, wiping off the dust from their scratch laden bodies. The police put them on a van and carried them away.
I remember one of my prior visits when I was standing near a GUPCHUP vendor who was busy perforating the large, crunchy, puffed shells using his long, uncut thumb nails looking dark from the dirt inside it. It was about 6 PM, the peak time when like all fast food vendors in street, he got busy pouring mashed potato and chickpea paste into the shell, dipping it into the spicy water stored in a large, earthen pot before distributing it to the surrounding buyers.
The vendor's customers, almost all of them girls holding tiny plates made from leaves (more eco friendly than plastic plates) were taking their turns extending their hands to the man, demanding - "MATE AU TIKE PANI DIA. MATE SUKHA GOTE DIA" (Give me more spicy water, gimme a dry one). The multitasking man was super busy catering to their needs, counting the number of Gupchups he passed on to his customers, keeping track of those consumed by each individual.
Done with their rounds of GUPCHUP munching, the girls left their leftover plates strewn around, a pariah dog lurking around, waiting for the right opportunity to start licking them, polishing off whatever he could in the narrow window of the timeframe he had before being chased away. The irritated vendor shooed it away with "Hey JA JA (Go away), as the hapless mongrel fled with its tail well tucked behind hind legs. There was a puddle of water nearby. Feeling secured and safe from a distance of 10 feet, the dog started slurping from the puddle to quench its thirst post feasting on the spicy leftovers.
I heard a girl closeby talking to her friend in a soft but audible voice - "EI MAA, TU JANICHU NA, MO BOYFRIEND TA EBE BEWAFA HEI JAICHI (Oh my dear, do you know this ? My boyfriend has turned untrustworthy)" ! The other girl was absorbing every bit of the spicy story of her friend's "Bewaafa" boyfriend in rapt attention, spicier than the watery Gupchup she washed down her throat. Both girls were oblivious to my eyedropping. Good luck young lady on your "Bewafa Boyfriend" and thanks for enriching my Odia language by adding a news word "Bewafa" to it. More spicy stuff later...
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