It has been long since I posted something to the Chhenapoda blog. I am going to share an incredibly funny experience from my last trip to Bhubaneswar. Though I have generalized the headlines, I recommend this be taken as light humor rather than an anthropology research.

Here goes the funny experience with Odia Youth.

In December, 2011, I was at home with my parents. The plan was to spend the ‘New Year’ with family and friends. My Mother tried to keep me longer to attend the ‘Grand Finale’ of their ’51 Sani mela’ but I had to return back to New Delhi for business commitments. Poor me and Sorry Mummy.

During this time, I happened to be at HDFC bank, Sahid Nagar, a couple of times for some payments and drafts. On one such bank visit I was approached by a lady sales executive.  She was neatly dressed, well mannered girl with marginally over-par Odia looks.

You know it and I know it, its hard for a Single guy to NOT respond to the advances of a young lady, even though we know she wants to sell us something that we really don’t need at this time. In my case since I am a business chap as well it is purely unethical to say ‘F*** Off’ to another sales chap.

So I turn around with a smile and she begins to implement her months of training on me. How am I doing? Business, Job, NRI? Some guess about age and marital status? Then she makes a candid transition to the products and services they offer.

Now here is the funny part. She started the conversation in Odia, except for the English greeting. After two lines of Odia conversation, to which I responded in Odia, she switches to English. Ok, so for the next 4-5 interactions our medium of interaction is English. (keep reading – ok)
Suddenly, she decides to speak Hindi. “Achha, to abhi aap unmarried hain! Delhi mein kya business hai apka?”.
Ok, so now we are conversing in Hindi. Well, “Delhiwalon ki Hindi waise hi gazab hai”. No sooner than I realized we were in the National Language mode and before the nationality began to surface she had changed tracks again. Back to Odia now.

Somehow, I convinced her I am in a hurry and some friends were waiting for me nearby and escaped without buying a ‘Life Insurance’ or opening a ‘Privileged Business Account’. No offences to anyone.

My question is why can’t people just stick to one language. It either shows you know a little of multiple things or it shows you know nothing properly. It kind of wavers the trust. Fluctuating between Ideas and Topics during a conversations is a put off, but so is Fluctuating between Languages.

This is not limited to the Bank Girl, I noticed the same trend with Waiters in restaurants, salesmen in Malls and many other situations.

Once I remember asking a guy at CCD in Patia: “Bhai, ethi kouthi Steel Chhaka achhi ki”?
Guy : Haan, wo age do red light ke baad. (Hindi? But why?)
Me: Thank You dost, to doosre red light ke bad kahin trun marna hai kya?
Guy : Depends. Where are you Going? ( English? but why?)
Me : Gotta meet an old pal at his house. Here is the address. Is it familiar?
Guy : Hmnn, naa kahi paribini. (Odia?)

Ha ha, there were more such experiences, it amuses me as well as annoys me – both at the same instant. Dunno, “brain bhitare sayad chemical locha heithiba” .

Antima dhadi jayein padhi-thiba bandhu mananku asesh dhanyabaad.
jagannath Apanankara manga karantu.

Batoi Bhai

Ok Ok – Here is what the news channels are screaming. BIRD FLU ALERT IN ODISHA.

Like you give a damn to that. All you care about is your Chicken so I gave you the piece of news that matter to you. (total pun intended)

State Government has issued a high level food and wildlife alert to 30 districts of Odisha and the concerned departments have been strictly ordered to stay alert and contain the spread of the disease. Center of the action is a place called Keranga in Khurda district, where two cases have been confirmed. One being a duck and the other being a Chic.

According to sources to be believed 370 blood samples were sent to Bhopal Animal Disease Lab for testing and the results prompted the Govt. to take a hard stance. Good to act early if you ask me. Well for God’s sake, no Bird’s sake, will someone explain to our readers why the hell Odisha does not have a similar lab like Bhopal? Why do we have to wait so long for the test results before we can act?

Khurda district administration has been instructed to stop the movement of birds to other districts.   ( how does one do that? put scarecrows on the borders?)
No poultry products move out from Khurda, that is what they mean by controlling the  movement of birds. So the Capital city of Bhubaneswar is in the hot zone as well.

Officials at the famous Chilika bird sanctuary are keeping a close watch on the migratory birds. (they will probably use this as an cover to kill some of those beautiful winged guests and have a ‘new year bhoji’).

We at Chhenapoda.com pray Vishnoo, Kartikeya, Lakshmi and others who ride those birds to cure them of this impeding epidemic. God bless the birds.

Bird Flu Virus and other Animal Viruses and how they can affect Humans

Biju Patnaik, or Bijaynanda Patnaik, the uncrowned hero of Kalinga, maker of new Odisha, and formidable personality of Odia politics, was born in Cuttack, Odisha on March 5, 1916. Biju babu, as he was fondly called by his followers was a towering and multi-dimensional personality no less than a colossus in every sense of the term. This legendary leader and idol of the masses had almost a hectic and uninterrupted political career serving his state and the country in different capacities.

Early Life

Biju babu was indeed lucky to be born in a patriotic family. Lakshminarayan Patnaik, his father was a natural inhabitant of the village Nuagaon in Ghumushar area in Ganjam district. The history of Ghumushar is the endless story of rare glory, greatness, glamour and patriotism all through the pages of history. His mother, Ashalata Devi, came from a Bengali family who had sacrificed their lives in the struggle for freedom. Biju inherited the undaunted spirit of his patriotic father and mother. Biju Patnaik’s life has, indeed, been one of challenges and adventures. These traits in his character led him to many spectacular achievements.

Biju studied Aeronautics at the Aeronautical Training Institute of India. He became an ace-pilot. During World War II he did not join the Indian Air Force which attracted many young Indians but became a dare devil transport pilot. During those war days, he met a Kashmir girl, Gyan in Delhi. Very soon they got married in 1939.

Ascent as a political figure and industrialist

Biju Patnaik was imprisoned until 1945 due to his participation in the Quit India Movement. He had also plunged headlong into the Nepalese Democratic Movement and Indonesia’s struggle for independence from the Dutch. He flew out the then Indonesian Prime Minister Sultan Sjahrir to Singapore, and then to Delhi where Sjahrir met Jawaharlal Nehru. After independence, the grateful Indonesian government subsequently conferred its highest civilian award, Bhumiputra to him.

In 1961, he assumed the presidency of the State Congress. Under his leadership, the Congress Party won 82 of 140 seats and Mr. Patnaik became the Chief Minister of Odisha on 23 June, 1961 and remained in the position until 2 October, 1963. Due to his strong initiative, the construction of Paradip port and Sunabeda MIG factory was started.

In Odisha, Biju Patnaik embarked on the path of industrialization and development. Ambitious and enterprising as he was from his boyhood, Biju Patnaik always cherished a dream to industrialize Odisha and turn himself into a top-flight industrialist by setting up large industries in his state without any help from capitalists like the Tatas or the Birlas and show to the people in Odisha that it was possible for them to take up big enterprises on their own.

Soon, he set up other industries like Kalinga Tubes, Kalinga Ironworks, and Kalinga Refrigerator Corporation and in fact became a monarch of an industrial empire in Odisha.

Works towards charity and re-election as Chief Minister

Biju Patnaik was a doer. Be it freedom movement, politics or charity-he was the leader who led by examples. All his earnings and income derived from his business activities were invested in Odisha for the purpose of setting up of industries and development of scientific and technical education in Odisha. In 1947, he founded a public charitable trust called the Kalinga Foundation Trust and in 1951, he established the international Kalinga Prize for popularisation of Science and Technology among the people and entrusted the responsibility to the UNESCO. He also established the Kalinga Cup in football.

In 1990 state assembly elections, the Janata Dal received a thumping majority, which saw Biju Patnaik being the Chief Minister of Odisha for the second time after a long gap of 27 years. In 1992, Biju babu left this quote for the people of Odisha:

“In my dream of the 21^st century for the state, I would have young men and women who put the interest of the state before them.  They will have pride in themselves, confidence in themselves. They will not be at anybody’s mercy, except their own selves. By their brains, intelligence and capacity, they will recapture the history of Kalinga”.

Golden words indeed..!!

In the memory of Biju Patnaik

Mr. Patnaik was no ordinary man, and this proves in the number of memories created on his name. The government of Odisha has named several institutions after his name, The Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT) being the most prominent one. The Biju Patnaik airport at Bhubaneswar, the capital of Odisha is another sign of honour in memory of this great man.

In addition, during his second term of Chief Minister Ship, the Panchayat Raj movement gained momentum under his dynamic leadership. As a mark his profound love for Panchayat Raj institution, the people of Odisha observe his birthday (March 5) as Panchayat Raj Divas.

Last few Days

The “son of the soil” breathed his last on 17 April, 1997 at the age of eighty-one. The whole country was stunned by his untimely death. The nation had lost a valiant soldier. His very own son and able successor, Naveen Patnaik, another long-standing Chief Minister till date very aptly remarked- “Biju Patnaik made the impossible possible”. Such was his stature, gigantic were his deeds.

The Ironman of ODISHA, we salute the real founder of ODISHA-The Biju Patnaik.

Reference :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biju_Patnaik

Now we analyze the sites usability factor. You would be astonished how poorly planned is a public site like thedamaja.com. It does not render properly as intended in different browsers. I wonder if the babus at Samaja know there are other browsers apart from Internet Explorer.

Here is how the site appears in Chrome, I have highlighted several issues. Some of them are browser incompatibility issues while others are design / usability issues. These happen to be apparent on other browsers like Firefox and Opera too.  The people who come to a website to read the news regularly are mostly very tech savvy and are expected to be using either Chrome or Firefox to a good extent. (like me ) Today about a half of all website visitors are using better browsers like chrome and Firefox on which thesamaja.com score very poorly on Usability standards.

Here is a screenshot from chrome.

Click to enlarge

Error 1 : Punch Line is severly blurred. Discussed in details in the previous post. (link provided above). Is visually out of sync.

Error 2 : Live Ticker of Latest news. If that is important and people are interested in it then why the hell is it not clickable? What does one do if he is interested in the latest news and wants to know more?

Error 3 : Words are eaten away. Sentences do not render properly. Improper use of height attributes probably and shabby coding. This is really annoying.

Error 4 : Take a look at the username and password fields. Am I supposed to write my biography in the username box? Who the heck makes a mistake like that?

Error 5 : The unread characters are a big turn off while reading too.

Error 6 / 7 : Use of distracting colors. We understand advertisements are essential for keeping a website running. But Using purple colors with moronic font faces inside it makes no sense at all. That will only tell the advertisers – Run away – save your money – this site sucks. Especially the Err 8 is too much of a pain in the eyes.

Ever since I moved out of Odisha and lost touch with my mother tongue I have always comeback to thesamaja.com to read a bit of Odiya and stay abreast of happenings in my state. I never bothered to go and check out other news paper online. You may say I am biased but that comes with deep emotional bonds I just cannot shoo away.

But the current state of the site thesamaja.com makes me sad. It way too poor to be Odisha’s most popular online news site. The technology that drives the site is bloody pre-historic. The Babus who manage the site are most probably computer illiterate. Incompetence is a trait among Odiyas that would be hard to do away with for some more generations to come. Being the best in the field you need to set standards for young minds to idolize. That breeds entrepreneurs. That is what promotes healthy competition. Our leaders have always lacked that ability, be they in politics or in Media and Journalism.

If you look at News and publishing houses around the world you would see they are not just leaders in Journalism they are pioneers of Technology as well. They know how to make it easier for people to access News. They know how to make the news more presentable. They know how to make big profits out of all this as well.
The days of print Media is numbered now. You cannot stick to the sinking ship for ever, even though it means a lot to you. You have to move on.

I am presenting below a Case study of mammoth pitfalls on thesamaja.com that literally pisses of a visitor and makes sure he never bothers to return to the website again. I will mostly be discussing design and technology issues associated with the website. I am listing them pointwise as they appear to me on 14th August, 2011 at 2:50 PM.

The Samaja Logo

Good logo, Popular but very poorly presented.

How can people be so short sighted. The most prominent element on a webpage is the company’s logo. Here is the logo as they are using on the website. See the quality of the graphic? It looks like some 4th standard kid who got it scanned from the newspaper in poor resolution and used it for his assignment. He would get a D for this quality of work.
The fonts are all hazy and the borders are faded. The name of its founder is not visible. Did the Editor order that? You must remember that you sell because of his name (to a significant extent) so does it not make sense to make it prominent.

Will someone care to explain if “Pratisthta – Utkalamani Gopandhu Das” is a part of the logo or not? If yes what the fuck is it doing in a separate image?

Solution : Get the damn logo traced and converted to a scalable vector. Re develop it if required. Do try to look antique.
Out the “pratisthata” line in the logo as well. If its supposed to be a part of the logo – else its fine. But in either case it should be bloody readable.

here is the next part of this series – Usability Issues with thesamaja.com

SABARA SHRIKHETRA JAGANNATH TEMPLE – This is a well known temple of Koraput. This temple is situated on a hill top which is known as Sabara Shrikhetra. The famous Ratha Yatra is held here annually when thousands of people gather and celebrate the auspicious occasion. Basically this place is of tribal origin. Every year, a popular tribal festival called ‘Parab’ is organized here by UNICEF. Different dance and art forms of tribal’s are performed during the festival. You can also shop tribal handicraft items from the nearest market.

Img Credits (www.gvanstijn.nl/india/koraput_en.htm)

TRIBAL MUSEUM – The tribal museum is situated behind the Jagannath temple in Koraput. The museum houses a collection of images and objects of tribal culture and traditions. Different types of sculptures, objects, jewellery, images and anthropological items can be found here. There is also a library inside the museum. Government museum is another museum in Koraput situated in the town hall. It houses antiques and handicraft things and objects related to Jain period.

SUNABEDA – Sunabeda is situated at a distance of 20 kms from the main town in Koraput. It is a modern town surrounded with green valleys. Jonk and Sunar River flow along this town. There is a temple called Sri Ram temple known for its highest kneeling hanuman statue. The temple is situated in a village near Sunabeda. The MIG fighter plane factory of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited is also located here.

DUDUMA WATERFALL – The waterfall is found in Machhakunda (Fish Tank) with a height of 175 meters. The area is surrounded by mountains and lush green valleys. The spot is also known as ‘Matsya Tirtha’. The beautiful atmosphere of this place attracts many tourists. Ankadeli is another place of attraction near Duduma waterfall. It is located at a distance of 3 kms from Duduma where tribal community people sell forest products to the visitors.

Img Credits : http://picasaweb.google.com/mazins1

JEYPORE – It is considered to be one of the important places of Koraput district. You can visit forts, temples, churches and lot many historical places of interest in this largest town of Koraput. Neelakantheswara temple, Maa Kali temple, Sirdi Sai Baba temple and Jagannath temple are some of the famous temples of Hindu religion. Besides, a number of gurudwaras and mosques are also found in Jeypore town.

MALIGUDA – Maliguda is situated at a distance of 35 kms from the Jeypore town, Koraput. It is a beautiful village bounded with green hills, forest, scenic climate and other nature wonders. The broad railway tunnel called Maliguda tunnel is located here. It is the highest broad gauge railway tunnel in the country.

GUPTESWAR TEMPLE – The temple is a well known temple of Koraput district. Gupteswara is one of the other million names of Lord Shiva. Gupteswara literally means ‘hidden god’. The temple is located in a cave inside a hill on the banks of Kalab River. Shrine of Lord Shiva or Shiva lingam is worshipped here. The famous Mahashivaratri festival is celebrated in the temple in a grand way by a large number of devotees.

DAMAN JODI – Daman Jodi is a place of hilly terrains and serene beauty. NALCO, Asia’s biggest aluminum factory is located here. For trekking enthusiasts, this place is the best choice. Another nearest interesting place is Kolab dam. Kolab dam is a water body over which a hydro-electric plant is located. This place provides the facility of boating and regarded as one of the major picnic spots in Koraput district.

Maoists have issued their seven demands in telugu in a four page letter including the release of senior mao leader Ramakrishna’s wife, Padma and other arrested Maoists. They have also demanded the government to put an end to operation Greenhunt.

Earlier chief minister Naveen Patnaik appealed for the release of the officer. And now home secretary of the start U N Behera had also talked to social activist Swami Agnivesh for the safe release of the two hostages. Government agencies have also contacted Akkaraja Haragopal alias Ramakrishna, member of the Maoist central Committee to negotiate on this matter. The government has given an open invitation for dialogue to Maoists either at Malkangiri or at Home Department in the Orissa Secretariat at Bhubaneswar.

It is the first time when the Maoists have kidnapped an IAS officer. The government is closely monitoring the situation and has made a fresh appeal for the secure release of collector R. Vineel

Krishna.

The fraud in supply of dal for Mid-Day Meal Scheme and Children Nutrition Programmes came into light when the Vigilance Department with other civil supply officials and food inspectors raided in almost 26 places to reveal the root of this scam. According to the report prepared by Vigilance Department, rotten quality dal stocks were supplied to schools and Anganwadi centres while in some cases, 50 percent of dal stocks or even lesser quantity of dal stocks were supplied.
Procurement of dal stocks was fixed for schools and Anganwadis at RS. 75 per kg while the same stock was made available in market at a much lower price.  Orissa Food Suppliers Agency, Bhubaneswar and Orissa Supplier Agency, Baripada; these two agencies were involved in supplying of dal to Balasore, Ganjam, Mayurbhanj and Jajpur districts. The procurement for 2010-2011 for these districts was fixed as  Rs. 44.74 crore, Rs. 63.71 crore, Rs. 55.07 crore and Rs. 33.40 crore respectively.
The investigation team indicates that there might have been bulk of dal supply in the four districts and other districts also where the investigation is still going on.

The mulicrore scam has raised questions on the State Government’s sensitivity, work mechanism and the level of mid-day-meal, supplementary nutrition programme and emergency feeding programmes. The corruption could have resulted in serious consequences by putting small schools children’s life at stake. However, further investigations are being carried out in digging out more facts on this matter.

In 1983, the then state and central government granted lease for drilling bauxite deposits at Gandhamardhana under Balco project. Militant mass movements were raised in different parts of the state against the project as it was supposed to cause pollution on land, forests, rivers, mountains, the Nrusinghnath—Harishankar temple and  on the entire ecological system to an alarming extent while the livelihood of nearly 50,000 poor people depended on this ecosystem. The 50 crore rupees worth project was finally turned down by the Government.

After a shamefaced failure at Niyamgiri hills mining lease, in Kalahandi district, Vedanta Alumina Company has gone one step ahead in meeting the Chief Minister and the mining ministry and requesting to get the grant done soon. This was the main prime motive behind the fake encounters of Madhav Singh Thakur and Ramesh Sahu.

The resident of Bargarh district, Madhav Singh and Ramesh Sahu were social activists and active members of Gandhamardhan Surakshya Yuba Parishad (GSYP). They were brutally murdered by the Bargarh police citing an encounter. In the name of combing operation against the Maoists, innocent and poor people have been killed.

If the opinions of the members of GSYP) are to be believed, police first murdered them and then tried to associate them to Maoists. Many questions arise in this context.
First if they were members of left wing extremists, how could they be actively involved in a social cause for so long?
Next, the place of encounter, the hilly terrain, which is 15 kms away from the village and tough for someone to trek those miles.
There is high degree of contradiction in the statements given by police. Earlier police claimed they belonged to Chhattisgarh and when the villagers recognized them the statement of police turned out in a way that they are Maoists. Lastly, the Post-Mortem was also not conducted, which is clearly indicating a highly suspicious motive behind the killings. However, it is obvious that opposing to the bauxite mining on Gandhamardhana took the lives of Madhav Singh Thakur and Ramesh Sahu. Only the administration can answer how a social activist became a Maoist overnight. One month has elapsed since the clod blooded murder and justice has been delayed!

This is how it looks now

img credit – http://publictrustofindia.com/news/?p=1085

This how it will become once Vedanta lays its ugly hands over Gandhamardhana

image credits : http://balconagar.blogspot.com/2009_01_01_archive.html

So what are you going to do about this?

Civil Services—the name says it all. The power, the prestige, the dignity it holds, you will hardly find something like this in any other lucrative job. The opportunities and the broader spectrum it provides is what makes it worthy of all.

In the history of Civil Services, odisha has never been behind the scene. Hrusikesh Panda, Prafulla Mishra, Madan Mohan Mohanty, Roopa Mishra, Bijay Ketan Upadhyay—these r some of the names who have made Odisha proud in their process of building the nation. They were not born with a silver spoon in their mouth. But what it took was the sheer effort, perseverance and a never say die attitude which made them stand in a crowd.

So work hard n do all what it takes to be a civil servant. Most importantly, believe in yourself that you can do it. Success is a design, not a choice.
All the best!