Koraput - The hidden jewel in the crown of India.

Crossing the valleys of Salur, Sunkhi and Potangi, taking a series of ascents and descents while travelling through the mountain passes, a place welcomes you with a steadfast wind and your ears popping. A location unexplored by many and a place where the mountains kiss the heavens, Koraput.

A road among the forests of Koraput.

Koraput, the town surrounded by numerous hills. Nature's beauty is at its peak with every step you take. The view from the hilltops give you a nice view of the town and its hilly neighbours. Also the deep valleys that would take your breath away. The district of Koraput is a god gifted place with the bauxite rich mines of Damanjodi where NALCO industry thrives and giving it a touch of high end technology is HAL in Sunabeda which produces the engine and its components of the Sukhoi and MIG fighter planes. By experiencing a cooler climate, the place encourages a better yield from various kinds of plantations like pepper and even coffee. The Kolab river has its own charm which curls and curves with its sparkling water that flows in and out of almost every place on the outskirts of the town. Not to forget the temple of Maa Kantabausuni which gives u a feel of serenity and fills your heart with peace and tranquillity from the shade of the bamboo trees. Reaching the skies is the king among all the mountains in Odisha, Mt. Deomali which touches the sky at a height of 1672 meters making it the highest mountain peak.

Locals selling fresh vegetables, Koraput.

The natives of Koraput are the adivasis(tribals) which are seen very less in the town. They live in the forests, in their villages with houses made of mud and thatched roofs. Living a simple life, depending upon the natural resources and self made items for daily use. The adivasis mainly engage themselves in farming and every Sunday they can be spotted on every street of the town sitting on the roadside setting up their own haat to sell their fruits and vegetables, sometimes handmade articles too. Roasted meat is considered a delicacy for the people of Koraput which is often sold in leaf wrappings. People of the town can be seen everyday going to the temple of Maa Mautyalma, their main goddess to offer their prayers.

A general villager of Koraput finds himself trapped in the middle of a war between the police and the rebel groups. The rebels find the innocent villagers as an easy target and use them as a shield to achieve their goal of overthrowing the existing law and setting up theirs. The place suffers from various attacks and conflicts which always has a sad story to tell. The rebels sometimes reside in the houses of the villagers for a day or two by threatening them in order to carry out their plans. The police tries its best to tackle this kind of terror and so guards the city night and day 24/7 by staging its personnel throughout the city. Almost every house has a coconut hanged on its doorway with an evil face painted on it to keep bad spirits away, but is that enough?

A stream between the hills, Koraput

In spite of these problems, the people of the town along with the adivasis come together to show their unity in the cultural festival of Parab which is celebrated at a stretch of 3-5 days during the winter. The festival consists of various cultural shows like local dance, drama and songs. The villagers set up stalls and showcase their handmade items and crafts for sale. Puppet shows are organised to which the puppets can be seen dancing to the tunes of the local songs. Art forms like local paintings and even sand art in the form of rangoli are displayed in the festival. Parab attracts a lot of crowd and leaves its glowing mark every year.

In a place, where people know less of modern life but with a smile on their faces they move ahead in spite of all the problems to lead a life with simplicity. A visually impaired boy, Nagapati from a school in Koraput has never seen the world around him which has a stark contrast, but he dreams of becoming one of the biggest singers of the town and readies himself to perform with his group in Parab. Koraput, a place where such dreams also take birth. Every where you stand, the place embraces you to make you feel fused with nature. Nature makes you a part of itself, every time it breathes, and breathes life…into you….

"To whine is to err". Why whining is not an option in New India.

It takes time to understand, but the truth can be harsh sometimes. The truth is, apart from our two national holidays i.e. Independence day and Republic day we have 363 days and on those days too we are the citizens of India. I know, everyone of you must be thinking that 'Yeah, we know it!', but the real thing here is, do you feel it?

So here comes the big question - As citizens of India, are we doing enough for our country? Do we have that pride in ourselves to call ourselves Indians who believe in doing rather than participating in collective whining and whimpering.

In a country with a population of over 1.25 billion there will be problems somewhere or the other. If there is not, then there are people who are in constant search of problems and they find it too as they lack in optimism and action. They will find problem with roads, cleanliness, transport etc. and start complaining about it. In a scenario where a person has met with a road accident, the people in the vicinity are heard complaining and discussing about road safety instead of calling an ambulance or providing first aid to the victim. The things which we do defines us, so why not try our best to do the possible.

These problems are meant to be solved and they will be solved only if we the people take it as an opportunity to serve the nation by taking up the responsibility that we are the creators of New India.Collective action is the need of the hour and of course time is a factor, but where immediate action can't be taken atleast the problem should be reported. The whole world is a tap away today and reporting a problem hardly takes any time. We all have seen that our honorable Railway minister Mr. Suresh Prabhu and EAM Ms. Sushma Swaraj use twitter to help the people in distress. People are even heard today saying that if you are stranded in some galaxy far away, then just tweet and Sushma ji will come to your rescue. A point to be noted that their work is not less than any superhero. 

Talking about reporting tools, yes, there are apps and websites which can be accessed via your mobile phones to report various problems. The government of India has also launched emergency helpline numbers to help people in need. Please check below for the important numbers. Soon we will be having a single emergency number 112 in our country which will act as an all in one solution.

• Police- 100
• Ambulance-102/108
• Fire-101
• Women Helpline- 181
• National highway emergency- 1033
• Rail Emergency- 182
• Rail Complain- 138
• Women & Child Helpline- 1091(Women)/1098(Children)

So next time when you come across a problem, knowingly or unknowingly, make sure that you act on it. The honorable Prime Minister of India has started working for the New India. So do not fall back, its time we all work together for our nation. Its upto you if you believe it or not but there is nothing greater than the happiness you feel after doing something for the country. India is a great country with young blood. If we all work together then anything is possible but first, get up and be the change!

This tree bears fruits or "Gulab jamuns"???

Ranchi, Jharkhand-

It might be difficult to believe but residents of Lohardaga claim that a tree in the region bears a unique fruit. According to locals 'gulab jamuns' grow on the tree.

The tree belongs to 65-year-old Gautan Bharti. The tree starts flowering from Feb to March. The fruits, which are large berries, develop by May or June. The fruit is pinkish when young, changing to a leathery, glossy dark green with a yellow midrib as it matures. As the number of people consuming these 'gulab jamuns' are increasing, the price is rising too. This year, Bharti sold 'gulab jamuns', ranging from Rs 100 per kg to Rs 150 per kg.

According to a report in Dainik Bhaskar, this fruit tastes exactly like the one you get at the neighbourhood sweet shop. The only difference is it doesn't come with a special packing.

Source: network18

Kartika Purnima... Bon voyage to the legendary seafarers of Kalinga!

Bhubaneswar, Odisha- The rise and fall of the maritime activities and the ports of Odisha had been inextricably linked with complicated twists and turns of coastal geomorphologic forces. In the maritime history of Odisha, the fortune of Kalinga Sea-farers ebbed and flowed with ever-shifting sands of Eastern Sea coasts. Countless historians have tried to reconstruct this fascinating story from various sources as given below.

1. Legends and Puranic Anacortes.

2. Historical accounts of Travelers.

3. Archeological remains.

However, the story of Odishan ports, the tales of the daring marine conquests of the people and seafarer of different times, at best, remains hazy, thanks to the many apparent contradictions and inaccuracy of these sources and the lack of availability of authentic data.

Legends:

The legends and festivals of Odisha indicate the prosperity of maritime trade that flourished in those times at these ports and the contribution it made to the overall economy of the region. The Kartika Purnima festival observed in the Autumn Season is a pointer to this. On this day, early in the morning, people of Odisha make small boats out of the banana-trunks and sail to them in the nearest water body amid melodious chants in a symbolic remembrance of those times when the people of Odisha used to observe this festival to celebrate the home coming of Odia Sadhabas.

In those days, marine architectural science was not developed and any vessel has to navigate completely with the wind and by a clever Manipulation of the attached sails. The Odia sailors used to set sail towards Java, Sumatra, Indonesia and Malay, taking advantage of the wind which flows in the North Easterly direction from Mid October to February. The ideal moment for such a voyage was full moon night of Kartika month. In early morning of this day the seacoast of different port cities of Odisha used to reverberate with the sound of thousand conch shells blown by the wives of these indefatigable sailors whose sail would gradually fade into the horizon in search of trading prosperity at distant lands.

The symbolic floating of banana boats observed on this day is a faint reminder of the maritime superiority once enjoyed by the People of Utkala in the high of East-Asian archipelago.

Odisha, in those days, enjoyed a unique geographical advantage. It had a long coastline and numerous rivers criss-crossing its vast expanse, which were highly navigable well into the innards of their hinterland. Some historians are of opinion that these rich port cities and the flourishing trade of Kalinga with most of the East Asian countries through its long coastline and deep navigable rivers could have actually served as the main reason for attack of Ashoka in 261 B.C.

It is a well-known fact that the Kalingans had mastered the sea well before the times of Ashoka. Greek traveler Meghasthenes mentions of trading relation of Kalinga with China in his memoirs. In his memories Meghasthenes writes about the elephant trade between Kalinga and Sinhala even in the first century A.D.

One can well imagine the kind of robustness of the ships which were capable of carrying hordes of elephants over such long distance braving the vicissitude of the mighty waves of Indian Ocean. The existence of such ships also indicates the prevailing technological advance required in ship building and the manufacturing of their spare parts. As per the Greek Historians, there were five important ports at that time from where trade and colonial relationship with the countries of Far East was being attempted.

In the first century A.D. Ptolemy’s geography mentions the following ports.

1. Nanigen (Present Puri)

2. Katikardam (Cuttack)

3. Konagar (Konark)

4. Koshamaba (Balasore)

5. Kalinganagar (Toshali)

In the Buddhist era some other ports like Tamralipta, Palore (present Palur near Chilika) rose to prominence. In the third century A.D., Mahendra & Sanghamitra –son and daughter of the great Ashoka- sailed from the Tamralipta port to Singhhala (Present day Sri Lanka) along with Bodhisakha for spreading Budhhism.

In the third century A.D. from this very same port, the daughter of the Kalinga emperor Grihasiva-Hemamala and his son-in-law -Dantakumar, sailed to Sri Lanka carrying the “Holy Tooth of Budhha”. The temple containing this “HolyTooth” in present day Srilanka is still great place of pilgrimage for the world Buddhist Community.

In the fourth century A.D. Fahien, the great Chinese traveler went from this TanvaIipta port to Sinhala and then returned to his own country aboard a Kalingan Ship via Java. So important was the prosperity of Kalingan-Sea-traders that the great poet Kalidas describes Kalinga King in his epic “Raghubansa” as Mahodadhipati” or the “Emperor of the High Seas”.

The fame and fortunes of Kalinga traders of the Eastern seas rose to such dizzy heights that the astonished tribals of the Eastern Archipellago used to think them as “Messengers from Heaven”. No there exists no archeological remains of those giant seaports that dotted the once enviable Odisha Coastline.

There exist almost negligible remains of the rich and industrial hinterland that fed these busy seaports. The silent waves, the marauding sand and the brutal marine sources had joined hands with the inexorable march of history to wipe out any vestiges to their existence. But the story has to be told and with exact details. The drama of the period of marine history needs to be unfolded. It requires multidisciplinary research and the concerted efforts of Historians marine architects and ecologists towards reconstructing the history of that period.

Source: Dr. Ms. Sanghamitra Pati saihp.org.in

InDiA Vs pHAiLiN

As meteorologists warned last week of a monster storm ploughing towards India's east coast, the country's  disaster preparedness teams snapped into action, pre-positioning emergency response teams and supplies, and evacuating nearly a million people - ultimately saving countless lives.

Cyclone Phailin, India's fiercest storm in 14 years, smashed into the coastline of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha states over the weekend, flooded swathes of farmland and ripped apart tens of thousands of mud and-thatch homes
When Cyclone Phailin slammed into Odisha and neighbouring Andhra Pradesh with winds gusting at more than 200 kmph (125 mph), India was braced for the worst. A monster storm that hit the very same region 14 years ago had killed 10,000 people. But this time, the death toll was astonishingly low, at the latest count just 21.                                                                                                                      

Early warnings which started five days before the storm's arrival, the pre-positioning of food rations and packaged drinking water in shelters, and the orderly - and sometimes forceful - evacuation of close to one million people saved many lives, said aid workers.

As Phailin approached, authorities cancelled the holidays of civil servants during the popular Hindu Dussehra festival, deployed disaster response teams with heavy equipment and positioned helicopters and boats for rescue and relief operations.

Trains and flights were cancelled, roads barricaded and helplines and control rooms set up. Satellite phones and generators were dispatched to the heads of districts to ensure they remained in contact with the state capital.

The army, navy and air force were put on standby, and power and telecoms companies were instructed to be ready to restore damaged infrastructure as soon as possible after the storm.

Efforts to save people's livelihoods were also taken. Specific warnings were given to fishermen not to venture out to sea and to put their boats in safe places, while farmers were advised to harvest their standing crops.
It was a rare moment of relief in this disaster-prone country, one that has already been hailed as a triumph of official heroism and defies the Indian bureaucracy’s reputation for bungling and indecision. “It’s nothing short of a miracle that so many lives were spared. We were expecting the worst, but it just shows that all the time and investment put into preparing for such disasters by the authorities, civil society organisations and communities has paid off,” said Devendra Tak from Save the Children, the international NGO.