I was born in Nharkanta in the year 1940 and I was a Doctor and was posted in different parts of the Odisha. As I did not stay in Bhubaneswar, I have very faint memories of the city. But I often travelled to Bhubaneswar and seen the city growing in my eyes.

My forefathers came from North India and they were devotees of Lord Jagannath. They were jamindars who wanted to settle down in the Odisha so that they can visit Lord Jagannath easily. The King of Puri supported them and provided them lands to settle down near Naharkanta and Balianta of Khurdha District.

I started my education from Naharkanta Primary School, then went on to complete my school education in Balianta minor school . Later I moved to Banmalipur High school. I joined Ravenshaw College for ISC and went to became a doctor when I completed his medical education from SCB Medical College. By 1960 I joined Medical service as a Doctor. I have four brothers and now only three survives.

My first posting was in SDH Jeypore. Later he joined health institutions of Chhatrapur, Jagatsinghpur, Patkura . But frequent transfers ensured that I leave my job and focus on my practice as a private practitioner. I returned to home in 2008 and made a house and since then, I am staying in the village. 

There was no college in Naharkanta during that period. Even High school was not there. They were Zamindars, but faced challenges when Zamindary system was abolished in the country around 1955. Hence, everyone struggled to get quality education in the village.

Bhubaneswar was quite cheap in those times.  Eggs sold 10 paise per piece. Vegetables sell Rs 50paise to 1 paisa per kilo. The food was cheap that if you spend 1 rupee you can have a very sumptuous meal or snacks.

I fondly remember, my father was having a bicycles, radio and Austin car which was first of its kind in the area. People used to come from long distance to see the car. In our times Balianta was a known place then. It was a weekly hat which was organised once in a week. Ganesh Sahoo was a known sweets maker in Hanspal area. Bomikhal has developed though not fully. Bapuji Nagar and Ashok Nagar was not developed when he was still in schools. Most of these places developed much later.

I did not like going to cinema halls for movie but I remember, film halls existed at the Kalpana & Old town. But people more or less wanted to see opera. Mancheswar, Haridaspur and other villages were used to have opera shows. People were very happy to see opera. The village youths take the responsibility of organizing them in the city. Even the artists used to be given shelter in people’s house. Ashokastami was celebrated and we used to go to see the rath yatra with family on bullock cart. It took us two to three hours to reach the venue.

Harekrushna Mahatab came to our house as Subhadra Mahatab was contesting election. He was chief minister then. Laxman Mallick of Congress and Sukadev Jena ex MLA of Cuttack Sadar visited our place. He stayed over night with us too.

From my experience, I can say Doctors were dedicated. I used to see patients for 9 to 10 hours a day. People used to give us 5 rupees to10 rupees then to doctors. But the amount of respect Doctors used to get was of paramount importance. Hardly any one was running after private practice or earning money. There was no anxiety among people. People have low expectation. Women were not allowed to work. Only few women were seen working. Alcohol shops also existed but they were limited in nature.

We used to board train from Mancheswar station. But there was no all weather road to the station. We used to take a walk by crossing the river.  The trains run to Puri Kolkata and Chennai regularly. We used to go to different places through train.  Once we travelled to Tata Nagar through train which took us the whole day. We began in the morning and reached Kharagpur by evening. Then we changed the train from there and reached tata nagar by mid night. Local trains were more prevalent and people preferred to go through that as they cannot afford to buy costly tickets that of fast and express trains.

People used to go to Ashokastmi Rathyatra to pull the chariot. They all board the bullock cart to visit from one place to another. From Naharkanta to Rath Road It usually takes 3 to 4 hours to travel the distance. Even women used to go to Ashokastami rath yatra.