I belong to Balasore Block. I was born in Baliapal village of Baliapal block. My father was a freedom fighter and was a farmer too. He was having a brother and one sister who have died prematurely. My father later joined politics in the post independence period. He was Sarpancha for a period of 20 to 25 years of our Gram Panchayat.

I was the first generation of my family to come to Bhubaneswar. I have one younger brother and one sister too. I was born in the year 1942 and started my schooling in Subarnarekha High-school of Balasore. I passed my matriculation in the year 1959 and completed my formal education by 1967.  I was not interested to do any job. I was more interested to do service to the nation. Hence, my education suffered.

However, I was forced to join the job by one of my teachers. In the year 1969, I was asked to join as a technical officer in Buyer India Ltd. It was a pharmaceutical company dealing with pesticides.  I worked there for three years and later returned to BBSR and joined OUAT as a Research Officer in a Jute research project. Then from 1974 to 1981, I joined as Operational Research Officer in OUAT where my role was to test the Universityled innovations at field level with the farmers fast.  In 1985, I joined as a faculty in the university. By that time, it was too late and all my friends have been leading some dept. I was given the responsibility of leading mushroom research and education. I promptly took it up as it was only available dept. at that point of time. For long period I continued to work in the mushroom cultivation, research and academics. Because of consistent effort by the dept in those period of time, now millions are earning huge revenue by mushroom cultivation.

Odisha ranks no-1 in mushroom cultivation in the nation. I have taken retirement in 2003 and from 2003 to 2023 I have been working on numerous projects such as literature and mushroom cultivation. I am working with many civil society organizations to organize Odia community outside of Odisha. Around 2.5 Cr.  Odias remain outside Odia in 32 districts  who are organised by culture but separated by administrations.

Old Bhubaneswar was very pleasant place to stay. I remember people from west Bengal used to come in summer season and stay as guest in Odia houses in Old town. It was an open place having no of springs, trees as well as ponds. They used to stay here in Odisha for a month and enjoyed the climate. There were large trees which essentially kept the city cool. But now you wont find any large tree. Forest Dept has cut the large trees and supplemented them with small bush like trees which are neither adequate to provide the oxygen nor appropriate to provide shed. Because of which the tempreture of the city is gradually  increasing day by day.

We used to go to Khandgiri for merry making during holidays. Now, the thickness of forest cover has substantially reduced and it has became thinner. Similarly, we also went to CDA to Kathajodi river bank and enjoyed there. We also went to Konark many times but in those times, Busses could able to go upto Junei which is good 4 to 5 km distance from Konarak. People has to walk long distance to reach at Konark. Similarly, in Puri, engali tourists often out number Odia tourists.  As Kolkata gets hotter during summer, Bengalis turn to Puri for respite.

Bhubaneswar was also having few marketing  set ups. Only grocery and vegetables market existed in Unit 1. Small market was also there in unit four. But for all other places, people have to come to Raj Mahal to meet their daily requirements.

Barring few main roads such as roads near by secretariat area, the cuttack road and road from Vanibihar to governor house chhaka, these were pucca and rest of them are red soil topped. The road condition and Bhubaneswar area improved in 1964 when Congress organised a AICC meeting in Bhubaneswar.

I came to Bhubaneswar to study and garner some knowledge. We never anticipated that we will ever stay in Bhubaneswar for long.  In Bhubaneswar, I always wanted to be Politician but already established political leaders are afraid of us in that time of Bhubaneswar. As we are educated and can take our decisions, the established politicians did not wish to take us alongside them. Even I was not given a ticket to contest election.

But fighting election in those time was not that costly. One can easily win a election on the basis of his public relation. Student’s election was less expensive. We used to prepare hand written banner and post them on wall. We don’t have even money to spend in election.

I always wanted to be a politician. I have spent years of my life running after politicians to seek their patronage. But later I realized that politicians don’t breed talents and they often give space to moron and hooligans in the political set up. If you are talented and intellectual, you will never get a chance to grow in politics. That’s what I realized later and left politics for ever. 

Bhubaneswar does not have a mall at that point of time. Only market building existed. Even that was not very populated. The shops open only for few hours and by evening, the building closes. Even people did not have adequate resources to buy much and buy non-required things.