Odisha and Odias lack the recognition they deserve

[akpani]

Dear Friends
If we go through the history the language Odia and the existence of the Utkal or Kalinga regime is very very old as compared to many other regions of India. The food of Odisha is something what we can really boast of (dalma, santula, besara, dahi baigana, chingudi jhola .... lot more). The same can be said of the sweets of Odisha also (rasagolla, chhenapoda, chhena jhili, chhena tadia, kheera etc). I am an Odia staying in Rajasthan. To my utter surprise hardly anybody outside Odisha is aware of culture, food, traditions of Odisha. All that non odia knows about Odisha is that it is a state consisting of only tribals and most of the people are below poverty line. Though we are proud of our tribal population but always being recognised as a poor and begging state is not at all acceptable. That is because we Odias like stay within our shell and publicise little about our strengths to the outside world. So better late than never. Let us vow to make the outside world aware of the true picture of Odisha so that we regain some of our lost respect and recognition which we really deserve for.

[SUSIL BHANJA]

DEAR SIR,
Kindly suggest some preliminary steps to bring recognition for ODISHA.
What should we do for it?
Most of the youth of Odisha are unemployed(job less).They are unable to control their own life .So who will think for the recognition of ODISHA?

[akpani]

Here the responsibility lies mostly with Odiyas staying outside Odisha. The common perception is that Eastern India is mostly represented by Bengal and wherever there is a similarity in food and culture between Bengal and Odisha everybody in India thinks it is basically Bengal origin. However in many cases it is not so (Go through my post of Rasagolla Origin under food section). A few lists:
Sweets: How many non odiyas know about any odiya sweet?
Food: How many non odiyas know about any odiya dish?
Culture: I don't think non Odiyas know any festival of Odisha other than Rathyatra. Even in many print and electronic media last year Ahmedabad's Rathyatra got more coverage than Puri Rathyatra!!!!
Tourism: Konark is not the only tourist spot.
History: Odisha's history is much older than many indian states. Because of some similarity of languages other indians and Bengalis also think that Odia is a sister language of Bengali. Actually you will be glad to know that Odia language is a little bit older than Bengali language and Odia script was developed much before than that of many other present scripts.
The problem is we Odias don't want to highlight about our culture, language, history, food to others. We were neglected during 200 years of British rule and we are being neglected now also.
Some beginning steps:
Share with your non odia colleagues and neighbours during appropriate gossip times.
Invite them to some festivals that you may be celebrating
From time to time prepare different Odia dishes and sweets and share with non Odias.
I have long list in my mind and ideas. Let me stop here

[bparimanik]

Sir time to regroup ourselves together and do something for our state..... People behave as lazy as they have a job then why to worry for the state.... Please we have do something otherwise one day will come when no one will hear abt our state Orissa.