Chak De Bhubaneswar!
I was a student of M.A. at the Utkal University, Bhubaneswar forty five years back. It was a sleepy little town at the time with gentle evening breeze, dim street lights, and two shopping areas offering limited goods at exorbitant price. For all major purchases (including for my wedding in 1979) one had to go to Cuttack twenty five kilometres away.
We used a bicycle to roam around the town on its up and down roads. There were stretches, particularly at Ram Mandir and Master Canteen where the climb was so tough that we had to often get down from the bicycle and walked up. If we decided to ride on, the huffing and puffing was strong enough to cause flutters in our young hearts. But once we were over the stretch of the climb the downhill slide was heavenly. Only those who have experienced a slide on a hill on a bicycle will know the gust of wind that cools you down and the young heart going dhak dhak in a pleasant sort of way.
A movie ticket was one rupee, a decent sum which could also buy a dozen Golgappeys. There was no burger-shurger, coca cola was unheard of. Even Chinese soups, noodles or chicken rolls were a few years away, as were momos and piñacoladas.
One of the highlights of our student days was the salaciously persistent story of a lady ghost (a ghostess?) preying upon late night travellers on the deserted road near the main burial ground at Satya Nagar. Her modus operandi was to deck herself with a bright saree and attractive jewellery and stand on the road. She fancied only the motorbike riders and used to stop them and ask for a ride. Once she was on the bike, that was the end of the enchanted biker, whose dead body would be found a few kilometres away in some deserted road the next morning. For some reason we the bicycle riders from the university hostels were not worth her trouble and that is how we have lived for all these years to tell this interesting tale of the ghostess and her hapless victims.
Bhubaneswar of those days with all her shining roads, uncrowded markets and sparkless street lights had the quiet charm of a shy, demure princess. I left Bhubaneswar in 1975 and by the time I returned in 2017 after forty two years, Bhubaneswar had changed irretrievably. It had become the centre of irresistible attraction for people from all over the state. It had transformed itself to a city by then. Beautiful bungalows had been razed to make spacious apartments. Roads, although wider, had become more crowded and malls had sprung up everywhere. Anybody and everybody wanted to move in to the capital city with its expanded markets, malls, well-lighted streets, flyovers, thousands of shops and restaurants, kiosks and food marts. The demure princess had transformed into an elegant queen proudly displaying her status as the capital city of a growing state.
These days the the queen is at her dazzling best, hosting the World Cup Hockey with players and officials of sixteen different countries including India. The streets have been beautified, lighted up and are brimming with road side stalls selling handicrafts, tons of delicious food, drinks, fruits and ice creams. There are balloons everywhere. Colours of different hue are spread all over the town, in the painted pavements, in murals-filled walls and guzzling fountains. Colours are spilling into the sky through the lighted buildings, and blinking lanterns made of decorated Pipili appliqués hanging from the trees. Vibrant Light and Sound shows at Bindu Sagar and Dhauli are creating quiet ripples in the heart of visitors who are likely to savour the memory for many years to come.
Bhubaneswar has been transformed into a city of dreams. A ticket to watch a favourite match is as much a part of the dream as entry into the crowded food stalls dishing out local and exotic food items. There is a maddening joy on the face of the people. They are ecstatic. Never before they had seen their cute little town turn into such a beauty! There is music in the air and an expectant buzz in the atmosphere, as if eighteen days of Hockey festival is going to turn their town into a fairyland! The mildly breezy winter and the insignificant but perceptible fog add to the eerie charm.
The Kalinga Stadium is a work of art. At the same time it is a technically perfect wonder, possessing every requisite to host a World Championship. The flood lights in the stadium radiate a spirit of pleasurable abandon. Anyone who manages to get into the stadium to watch the game experiences a quickening of the pulses, the sight of the ball moving from end to end at incredible speed makes the heart beat faster. Possession of the ball by the Indian team leads to a deafening roar, dispossession a collective oooh resonating in the crowded stands.
Yesterday I was in the spectators' stand, soaking in the excitement of an Indian encounter with the talented Belgium team. The electrifying atmosphere, the infectious enthusiasm and the cacophony had weaved a magic spell around the stadium. There was a teen-aged girl about ten places away in the row in front of me. She was a live wire, shouting, dancing, jumping up and down, climbing onto a chair and gesticulating to the players and the audience with equal abandon. For a moment I closed my eyes and imagined her in Buenous Aires, or Moscow, Seoul or Los Angeles. She was everywhere in spirit, in the cup of overflowing joy and excitement. I was filled with immense happiness that in Bhubaneswar, a little-known corner of India, Hockey was being celebrated in its most pristine form over endless cheer and joie de vivre. Hockey lovers all over the world, whether in a small hamlet in Argentina, or in a city home in Canberra of Austarlia or in a warm living room of a snowy Hepburn in Saskatchewan of Canada, must be seeing Bhubaneswar in all her regal splendour while watching their country playing against other Hockey greats. Bhubaneswar has become a household name in at least sixteen hockey loving countries, thanks to the leadership of a shy, soft-spoken Chief Minister and his band of dedicated officials who have made this possible. And my heart swells with pride at this magnificent transformation of my little princess into a splendidly elegant queen!
Chak De Bhubaneswar! Jai Ho India!
Viewers Comments