Window Seat | Mrinal Chatterjee
|12.3.23
City
of Museums
The history of Cuttack in Odisha goes back to more
than 1000 years. One of the oldest city in the country, Cuttack is situated at
the apex of the delta formed by the rivers Mahanadi and Kathjodi.
It was established in nine hundred eighty nine A.D. by
Raja Nrupa Keshari of Keshari Dynasty. Since then it flourished as the capital
city- of different rulers for more than nine century. Hindu Kings ruled it. So
did the Mughals, the Marathas and the British.
After Odisha became a separate state in 1936 after a
long struggle (it was the first state to be formed on linguistic basis in
India), Cuttack remained as the capital of modern Odisha till 1947.
Subsequently, the capital was shifted to the temple city of Bhubaneswar in
1948.
Cuttack is one among the few cities in the country
which has as many public museums, besides private collections. Nine prominent
public museums are: Odisha Maritime Museum, Odisha High Court Museum (recently
refurbished and renamed as Justice Museum), Odisha Printing Museum, Madhusudan
Museum, Netaji Birth Place Museum, Swaraj Ashram, Anand Bhawan Museum and Skill
Museum. A Police Museum was also established here. Each museum is unique in its
own way. Unfortunately, not many know about these museums and therefore, foot
fall to these museums are low. There has not been any noticeable effort to
promote these museums to gain traction. There has been official apathy in some
cases. The Police Museum has almost been defunct because of this.
Recently Raja Parija, a trained historian and an
administrative officer has written a book titled “Cuttack: the City of
Museums”. It describes the journey of museum movement in the country since 1814
and in Odisha since 1904. Raja Parija has been writing books on Cuttack and this
is his third book on Cuttack, after ‘The Silver Splendour of Millennium City’
and ‘Netaji was born here’.
Museums help to
preserve and promote our cultural heritage by collecting and preserving the
artefacts and other articles. It is said people without the knowledge of their
past history and culture is like a tree without roots. Parents, teachers and
members of civil society organisations and the government must come together to
promote the museums and also the museum culture.
Walk for Blood
Soma Basu, my student and one time colleague at the Dhenkanal campus of IIMC, presently working abroad as a journalist told me about Kiran Verma who has been campaigning for blood donation across India and would be passing through Dhenkanal in a few days.
 |
| Kiran Verma |
Kiran started his 21,000 km walk to raise awareness about blood donation on 28 December 2021. He has covered (on foot) more than 11500 kms so far travelling through remote districts of Kerala, Puducherry, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Goa, Maharashtra, Daman & Diu, Gujarat, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and parts of Odisha (Ganjam, Puri, Khordha, Cuttack, Nayagarh, Gajapati, Rayagada, Koraput).
He quit his corporate job
to take on the mission, created an application 'Simply Blood' (which can be
used to trace blood donors nearby) which was a blessing to thousands during the
pandemic.
The
service of Simply Blood is available through the website, a mobile app, and
WhatsApp.
According to him, 15 million units
of blood are required in India every year, while only 10 million units are
available.
He blames the shortage on our social attitude where we failed to grow blood donation as a culture.
Digital Payment
Recently I had been to Thiruvarur in Tamil Nadu, known
for the 9th century Arulmighu Shri Thiyagaraja temple. Legend has it
that the Thiyagaraja (Somaskanda) image here was created and worshipped by Lord
Vishnu himself. At over 30 acres, the temple complex is one of largest in South
India. The temple has four gogurams (gateway towers). History has it that it
was built during Chola dynasty. Later expansions were made by Vijaynagar rulers
of Sangama dynasty, the Salukya and Tuluva Dynasty.
I found an interesting way of offering
donations here. One can pay by scanning the QR code. I guess all temples and
religious institutions should adopt this method: safe, transparent and quick.
Tailpiece: Women’s Day
An
emotional message on the occasion of Women’s Day:
Mein
ek Beti hu,
Mein
ek Behen hu,
Mein
ek Biwi hu,
Mein
ek Ma bhi hu......
Par
khabardar jo kisi ne Aunty bola toh.
(I
am a daughter, I am a sister, I am a wife, I am also a mother, but nobody
dares to call me an aunty.
(Courtesy:
Social Media)
++
May read online here:
https://www.prameyanews.com/post/window-seat-city-of-museums
This column is also published every Sunday in Gangtok based English daily Sikkim Express.
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