We found them at every traffic crossing, smart young men and women wearing white Stetsons and white gloves. You could not possibly miss them, their dusky faces smiling as they waved the cars onward, one after the other. They were Bhubaneswar’s traffic police culled from among the fittest members of the Police force. They controlled the traffic flow smartly and in keeping with their image, they added a swashbuckling touch to the city: modern day rhinestone cowboys and cowgirls.
The reason why Bhubaneswar, the capital city of Odisha is Smart city number one is not difficult to spot at all. Tree-lined avenues make up the heart of the city. Residents tell me that traffic jams do not exist here. To prove this point, we left for the venues of different events with exactly fifteen minutes to spare, and arrived pretty close to the dot.
Bhubaneswar is a charming combination of the historical and the modern. It used to be Kalinga, the site of Emperor Ashoka’s greatest battle. After seeing the terrible toll that the war had taken on human lives, the emperor was sickened to the heart and renounced war altogether. He became a missionary for the peaceful religion of Buddhism, sending his own children Mahendra and Sanghamitra to Ceylon with the message of peace. That’s how the legend goes. Buddhism claims to have transformed a once bloodthirsty and vengeful emperor into the most powerful mouthpiece of Buddhism. Ashoka’s kingdom stretched from the present day boundaries of Assam in the east to Baluchistan in the west, from Pamir Knot in Afghanistan in the north to Southern India excluding Tamil Nadu and Kerala. It must have been a pretty impressive empire, not just kingdom, and the boundaries show a great deal of real estate.
Today’s Bhubaneswar preserves temples dating from the 9th, 10th and 11th century AD, as well as some UNESCO protected world heritage temples. Textile shops selling native silks at very reasonable prices offer typical Odia designs which have now become fashionable items for women who want to look good without throwing over conservatism. The city itself has a quiet elegance which is refreshingly different from Delhi’s garish loudness.
Bhubaneswar’s denizens love to read, and it wasn’t difficult to put a crowd together for an evening of poetry. We sat under leafy trees and dim streetlight and exchanged verses while sipping lemon tea. No one was in a rush to catch trains or buses home. That evening we were hosted by the Walking Book Fairs duo, Satabdi and Akshaya. The two friends had decided to follow their dream of having a book shack, and began by stacking a van full of books to travel from place to place calling themselves Walking Book Fairs. The idea is very popular amongst the younger members of the society. Its informality and eclectic nature attracts young poets and musicians. Our evening of impromptu music and poetry led to the kind of interaction that ignites creativity.
The other side of the city was the literati who came to fill up a hall at the Gopinath Mohanty Memorial Lecture. The great Odia writer, Gopinath Mohanty, was a government official posted to the Kondh regions and other tribal areas. He was quite different from his predecessors, and was more interested in protecting the tribal people against mistreatment. He served the people from his heart, learning their language and beginning to live like one of them.
They in turn called him elder brother. Gopinath Mohanty was the first Odia writer to be awarded the Jnanpith award. His books are rich chronicles on the lives and cultures of the forest dwellers, Odisha’s ethnic inhabitants. Odia literature and world literature are indebted to Gopinath Mohanty for the literary work he has produced on Odisha’s tribal population.
Odisha should be close to our hearts because its governor is none other than veteran Naga politician, Dr S.C. Jamir. At 80-plus he still cuts an imposing figure at the Raj Bhavan, even while he solicitously enquired after my mother’s health. He displayed keen intelligence in his exchanges with the Odia academicians and professional members. As he rendered his wise and well thought out answers, I felt a surge of pride that the Naga who was occupying the highest seat of honour in the state was doing it so sagaciously. It reflected so well on our Naga community.
I like the signs that show why Bhubaneswar made it to number one in the Smart city list. One was in prioritising those things that are worthwhile: the art and literature of its society, and focusing on providing a healthy environment of clean water, electricity and reasonably priced shops. Life is slower in Bhubaneswar in a good sense. The level of road noise was very low, compared to many other Indian cities, consequently stress levels were at a minimum. Houses were tastefully arranged but not ostentatious. The difference between rich and poor was not drastic. I have tried to put my finger on an obvious reason for its success, and one clear conclusion I could get was that this was a community that placed quality of life above chasing money. And that in itself is reason enough.
