I was born in the year 1954 and the place of my birth was Barmunda itself. My great grand fathers belonged to Baramunda. My father’s Name was Maguni Sahu. My ancestors were staying in Bhubaneswar since more than 6 generation. My father was a business man. They were earlier staying in Baramunda area, later In search of business, they shifted from place to place and completely stayed in Jagamara area after few years.
My father was having four brothers and each brother has one son. I have 5 sisters and I was youngest of all the kids. All of my eldest sisters have died. I have two sons and two daughters. My eldest son has died in road accident. Two daughters have got married. The only son is doing petty business in Baramunda area.
I have seen High schools existed in Unit-1, Unit-6 and Unit-3 areas. I had completed my primary schooling in Jagamara primary school. I completed my 6th to 11th class from Unit-6 High School . Later I joined BJB college to complete my PU. After PU, I got the offer to join the Jagamara school in 1971. My earliest salary was Rs 20/per month. In 1974, my job got permanent. After doing service for 42 years, I got retirement from the service in the year 2012. I am now actively engaged in social service. He has rented few shops and collects rent every month from them.
To me, most of the vegetables were available free of cost and cultivated at the backyard. Only few of the vegetables are brought which were costly. Patato, onion, bottle guard where usually brought from the market. The cost of the same was less than 50 paisa per kg. Soaps were available in many formats and maximally cost it 2 anna. Tiffins were cheap. The foods were served on wooden plates. Baras and Gulugulas along with Ghuguni costed them less than one rupees. Around 1966 one meal in hotel costed 75 paisa to 1 ruppes. But the quality of the food is not good. Mutton cost Rs 6.00 per kg. When the price was increased to Rs 9.00 per kg., people made a huge uproar against the price rise. As Bhubaneswar was surrounded by forests, the people used to get quality meats of deer, barah and kutra etc. The cost of the meat is very low.
Buses plied to Banki, Haladia & Jankia and other local areas. Govt. STS buses plied to distance places, whereas within Bhubaneswar ORT buses run from one end to another. Around 1965 rickshaw started appearing on Bhubaneswar streets. The cost of one rickshaw was Rs 550/- and it was available from Cuttack. Hind Rickshaw was available in Cuttack. People used cycle and walked on foot to reach one place to another within Bhubaneswar City.
The bus ticket cost was 2.25 rupees only from Bhubaneswar to Kakatpur. There was one bus named Pushpak which used to take Rs 8 as ticket charge from Bhubaneswar to Berhampur. From Khandagiri to Nandankan a bus plied too. From Jagamara to Bus stand the ticket price was 21 paisa. A town bus was there from Khandagiri to Bus Stand. The bus used to come to Khandagiri at around 12.00 stayed there for one to two hours and then it used to leave Khandagiri around 3.00PM. The price of the ticket in this bus was around 12 to 15 paisa.
House rent was even cheaper. One house with a toilet and verandah costed Rs 5 rupees as rent per month. Most of the people stayed there to oversee construction of their house. Gradually the rent rose to Rs 20 to 40 now the rent is more than 10 to 12 thousand per month.
Grocery shops even though existed yet they were far placed. Kataki Sera and Balasi sera system was measurement of food grains. Bisa kathi was also prevalent during 1966. Patato, Saru and other vegetables were sold through Bisa Kathi System.
Roopmandir, Kalpana Hall and Ravi Talkies were earliest film halls in the Bhubaneswar. Sriya Swati developed after 1980. People used to come to movie hall from distance places. They used to come by Bullock cart. Earlier it was having two shows. One show started 6.00 pm and continued till 9.00 whereas the other show started at 9.00 am to 12.00 PM. Later Matinee show from 3.00 to 6.00 PM started.
Jadupur and Naharkanta areas were having major football tournaments in the area. People used to go the match sites through bicycles. Occasionally villages were having fights on the results of a match.
Khandagiri was totally a forest and it was difficult to go there in foot drawn roads. Many medicinal plants were there. Bhramaramari was there. Naharkoli, khirikoli, Barkoli, sagad batua koli, kanteikoli were largely available. Most of the time school students near to Khandagiri go to pluck these berries. Many times they were unable to guess the berry right, hence they consulted with seniors to get the edible berries.
Rath Yatra, Dashahara used to be prime function. Old town used to have 10-12 durga pendal. Vanivihar and unit one market. Chandi medha was not there till 2000 in Bhubaneswar. Stress was on building good quality Medha and paper decoration.
Harekrushna Mahatab, Satyapira Mohanty, Biren Mitra were highly influential personalities of Bhubaneswar.
Jokalandi Mutt existed earlier near Khandagiri. Around 1952,Baya Baba Matha started. People used to go there to fulfill their religious requirements. We used to go to Nandanakanan with friends and to Dhauli too. By 1960,the Dhauli was not very well developed. Only one lion was there and people used to go to Dhauli top by foot only. No all weather motorable road was available upto top of Dhauligiri.
Train tickets were cheapest. Train ticket costed less than 1 rupee from BBSR railway station to Mancheswar station. Coal Engines used to drive the train. People used to go to Puri from Bhubaneswar by train.
Medicals existed in Unit 6 which is now known as Capital Hospital today. Private Practice was not prevalent. Till 1970 private practices did not exist. But after 1970 Doctors started doing private practice and they started sitting in medicine shops.
Only capital police station existed. Dacoity and snatching of goods was limited to Sunderpada area only. People were having no stress. Most of the items, such as Rice, Dal etc. were available locally. People did not have to buy it. Most of them grow it on their own farm. Varieties of dals were available. Only salaried employee used to have Arhar Dal. Hence they were not concerned for a job or a salaried engagement. But Govt jobs were available and people used to get them with effort.
People were not having any proper job. Most of the people did Govt jobs and others choose to be associated with private company.
There was no construction worker in Bhubaneswar. Most of them were agricultural worker who did this part time job during agriculture off season. Contractors used to bring them from outside.
