I was born in the village of Kakhadi, which belonged to Cuttack District in the year 1964. It was near Dhabaleswar, the famous tourist place of Cuttak. My father was a farmer until he shifted to Bhubaneswar and joined Orissa State Transport service. My fathers’ name is Biswanath Nayak and his elder brothers names is Bhagirathi Nayak. They have two buses for business they have to bring the bus to Bhubaneswar. The two bus run from Bhubaneswar to Puri and other bus moved from Bhubaneswar to Konark. My parents started to live in Puja Panda sahi of Old Town. But later their business could not flourish hence by the time his father turned 20, he joined OST.

I have three brothers and one sister. My two brothers are also doing white colour job. One of my brother is working as chartered accountant in Dubai whereas other brother is working as an Officer in Govt of Odisha. Similarly, my only sister is a computer professional who is married in Keonjhar. She is working as a teacher and her husband is a software professional.

I have two sons. The eldest son is an electrical engineer who stays in Mumbai and works in a German based company. The youngest son is doing MBA in Bhubaneswar.

My primary education is from Subhadra Mahatab Balika Bidayala in Bhubaneswar where I joined in class two when I was just five years old. Then I went to complete Bhakta Madhu Bidyalaya and completed my schooling in 1980. Soon after, I went to complete my college education in BJB College, where I took Political Science and History as subjects. In 1984 I joined Utkal University and completed my Masters’ in Political Science in 1986. In 1987 I joined M. S Law college to pursue my  Law Degree. But my father died in between which halted my career further.

By this time, he got an offer from Nalco as an apprentice and was offered a job in Nalco. But I could not join as his younger brothers were still small. In 1987, I got a job as a welfare officer in Block which I accepted joined there in a permanent portfolio. The dept was earlier known as Community Development and Reconstruction, which was later merged with Panchayatiraj Dept. Currently I am working in SSEPD Dept and prior to that I have been working in various blocks of Bhubaneswar.

My yesteryears of Bhubaneswar were far different than what It is today. I often get nostalgic when I think about old Bhubaneswar and how convenient life was at that point of time.  The food was cheap in those periods.  Within, 250 rupees one can easily get groceries for a family of four people throughout the year. Within that amount one can easily get 5 lts of oil, 5 KG of Rice and 5 Kgs of dal.

Baramunda, Jagamara, Old town , Laxmi sagar,Baragarh , Sundarpada, Kapileswar were the villages that was known as Bhubaneswar. The new establishment set up which developed around Raj Mahal was known as Capital.

Bhubaneswar has grown largely because of educational institutions which came up after 1990 in large numbers. KISS, KIMS, OEC, Krupajal Engineer college are the reason because of which many people came to Bhubaneswar to pursue education.

In the then Bhubaneswar, Harekrushna Mahatab, Satyapriya Mohanty, Dr. Gadadhara Mohapatra were very popular. Dr Gadadhar Mohapatra used to charge Rs 5.00/- per patient.

People who used to loiter around Harekrushna Mahtab became extremely powerful.  Dhirananda and Kau Nanda of Sundarpada, Sura Sundar Roy of Baragarh, the then chief Engineer Mumtaz ali were very influential. They were doing charity and hence people liked them.

The old Bhubaneswar doesnot have much scope for entertainment, Rupamandir was oldest of the talkies of Bhubaneswar. I frequented Kalpana talkies and watched movies like Hathi Mera Sathi and other.

Jatra and Circus were also very popular then. Circus used to be performed at exhibition ground and paramount sporting stadium which was located at the backside of the BJB college. The cost of the ticket was around 50 paisa. Whereas, tickets of first class chairs which is close to the performance were bit higher, yet it was limited to Rs 1.00rupees.

Transportation system of old Bhubaneswar was weak but was sufficient to meet the requirement of the people. By 1980 private busses already started plying from Bhubaneswar to other districts. The cost of the ticket from Bhubaneswar to Berhampur was 25 rupees per person only.  Nilachala express was very popular train around 1980.

There was one Konark express which changes its name to Minar Express once it reaches Hyderabad. And from Hyderabad to Mumbai it moved in this name only. Mumbai to Bhubaneswar used to take 35 to 36 hours. Puri Howrah and Coromondel was also very regular and popular in those days. People most often travelled within the city by Bi-Cycle. Only few have cars.

By 1975, all the major roads of Bhubaneswar were mohurrum laid. The road to Nandankanan was through Chandaka. The road till DM school and RIE was black top road. But Acharya Vihar and Vanivihar was not also developed. The Rasulgarh to Kalpana road also existed and it was also a black top road. Similarly, there also existed a road from sanitorium Chhaka road to Ravi talkies.

There are two to three petrol petrol pumps in Bhubaneswar. One was near Unit-1 market, one was at Rasulgarh and another one was at ravi talkies. Petrol sold around 1 to 2 rupees a litre.

The corruption did not exist then in Govt.offices, Peons or clerks at times demanded small gratitudes from people. But Officers donot requested from gratitude. But now officials are asking for money. In spite of Bhubaneswars’ growth, the quality of Human resources have not grown. Still many workforce of the secretariat cannot handle softwares.

Apart from Municipal Hospital capital hospital existed. Haribandhu Mohanty was also a homeopathic armature practitioner . He used to come to clinic after 5.00PM and continued to sit their till 8.00pm. The cost of the medicines of Haribandhu was limited to 2 rupees. Paresh pattnaik was also another homeopathic medicine doctor of old town. Bamdev acharya was an ayurvedic doctor who used to sit at mausima mandir square.

If I am asked about news papers, I must say that Samaj was very popular at that time  but it did not have Bhubaneswar edition. Prajatantra was also very popular. Dr. Hare krushna Mahatab used to stay in Old town and when he returns from Cuttack he used to drop 4-5 copies in the old town. Hence, people of Old town used to get the paper one day before the date. Times of India paper used to come through flight from Delhi and people used to get them in the evening by hawkers. Competiton Success Review was very popular among Job aspirants.

However, Bhubaneswar does not have much eateries to hang out at that point of time. People don’t consider it necessary to buy and eat outside. However, small hotels existed at places which sold limited low priced food. One Sobhana Bhaina Dosa Shop in Old town sold dosa and other mouth watering delicacies.

Near Khan Watchco at raj Mahal Square the Venus inn hotel started. The food is so cheap that within 30-40 rupees three to four people can easily eat adequate food.

There was a hotel called Gellard, at Raja Mahal square which was good in preparing Rolls. Eating rolls in this hotel was considered as a status symbol for many . A single roll cost Rs 1.2 in 1980. People used to make fun around this hotel in afternoon.

Kelu charan Mohapatra, Raghunath and Sanjukta Panigrahi werevery popular who used to perform regularly in Bhanja Kalamandap and Rabindra Mandap. Later Raghunath Mohapatra joined as a sculpture designer in Bhubaneswar. He started his studio in a rented house at Old town. The cost of the rent was Rs 5. 00  per month only.

I have seen Khandagiri and Dhauligiri were major tourist place. The Dhauli temple does not have a Shiva temple earlier. One Durga Prasad Tripathy the vice chairman of BDA took the initiative of constructing the Shiva temple which is now known as Dhabaleswar Mahadev.

Bhubaneswar was having only few Police station. People were afraid of Police Station and always avoided going to police station without a reason. Sri Lingaraj Station was earlier known as Bhubaneswar Station. Similarly, Chandaka police station used to report Bhubaneswar Police Station.

Bhubaneswar was very pleasant climate. Most of the households have their own well. The water table has gone down. The 42 foot water table used to go down 12 to 15 foot down even in those areas.But now the water table has gone down to 40 ft. in next 4 to 5 years the water table is likely to go down completely.

Ramakrushna Matha was prominent  mutt of Bhubaneswar. A no. of Mutts existed in Old time. Shyama Sundar Matha, Goudiya Matha and Kathia Mutt were also very popular. The Mahanta’s of mutt were very affectionate. People go to get mental peace by visiting mutt. Mutt was very popular and organize many events round the year.