This blog, to start with, is dedicated to one of the greatest ever Oriya composer and singer, Akshya Mohanty. Khoka Bhai, as he is popularly known, had a unique local flavor to almost all his songs. Not merely in the form of music, but also in the form of lyrics. His songs had this unique story telling capabilities, depicting places, events, festivities, people, families, values, society, and above all idiosyncrasies. All the above items featured in his songs extensively, as if each song is inspired from and brings into life one of these characters. I really cannot stop myself from drawing a parallel to R.K.Narayan and his Malgudi Days, for Khoka Bhai does the more difficult of task of giving life to his non-fictional city and characters through the medium of songs.
I always wanted to write a blog on one of Khoka Bhai songs, but it was never so compelling until I came across this particular one, “Raja Jhia Sange, Kari Thili Bhaba hai, Bhubaneswara ra hata re” ( Fell in love with the rich man’s daughter at the market place of Bhubaneswar). My Oriya friends would relate to it much betterJ, and certainly no marks to them for guessing the two cities in play. Cuttack has been the oldest city of the Orissa, and the commercial and administrative capital for nearly two centuries in the pre-independence era. It was only in 1964, that Bhubaneswar came into being the administrative capital, and the educated elites were the first to migrate from Cuttack to Bhubaneswar. Ever since, Bhubaneswar without the burden of heritage has continued to attract such educated pro-western elites not only from Cuttack, but from all over Orissa. Cuttack, at the same time, has owned up the burden of its heritage and continued to give away from its huge repository of rich Oriya culture. A statistical validation of this comes from the fact that, while Cuttack managed to produce numerous geniuses in the field of Oriya art and literature, Bhubaneswar has only made strides in its quest for westernization during the same period. Thus, was formed the classical Marxian hierarchy of classes, with Bhubaneswar playing the role of big bourgeois city and Cuttack the insignificant proletariat.
Numerous Khoka Bhai songs have revolved around Cuttack and its people, but this one particularly brings into fore the prevalent Marxian hierarchy and according to me makes the best possible satire, then and now. What makes it more beautiful, is that it takes the help of a mini love story to bring out the intricate inter-city class dynamics.
So the protagonist (like many of my friends from Cuttack) makes these trips to the Bhubaneswar (market places, temples, etc…..especially places highly frequented by young females and with a high probability of finding a female partner) and one fine day does come across his dream girl in the market place. And thus began the very transient affair with the rich man’s daughter. The transient nature of the affair is evident from the fact that it started in Bhubaneswar and lasted only till Telengapentha (located exactly midway of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack). Of course the love story graduated beyond the market place and moved to parks and temples. It even travelled beyond the city limits of Bhubaneswar, but unfortunately could never get close to Cuttack. The protagonist claims to be dumped midway by the young lady; midway is only a metaphor for the distance covered in love was hardly anything.
To begin with, the lady’s valuation of the man was nothing less than a gem. Subsequently, rationalization prevailed and SWOT analysis revealed that the man from Cuttack was nothing less than a Casanova. According to the theory, the Casanova takes the ultimate responsibility for the failure of any relationship. And it was no different for this man either, for he was accused of not being worthy of love. As per the lady, Casanova is a certain medical condition of the lower class, and it runs in the veins of all the youths of Cuttack. And our hero being from Cuttack, and no other fault of his, shares this medical condition which does not make him eligible for being in love with a “Rajdhani girl”.
Not an unusual situation for men though (being dumped and at the same time being accused of it), but what really complicates the situation for this gentleman is the underlying class dynamics of the two societies. Borrowing from a colloquial concept of ‘’political economy of love”, the city based political behavior is not surprising. Neither the initial assessment of the lady is incorrect, nor is the final judgment correct. They are nothing but merely love instincts superimposed on the real class structure. Many years later, I myself grew up in the city of Bhubaneswar and would witness such politico-economical love behaviors in plenty in schools, colleges and workplaces. Akshya Mohanty was clearly a man ahead of his times in his music and thought, and his songs would, still nevertheless cut across the entire Oriya civilization.
I always wanted to write a blog on one of Khoka Bhai songs, but it was never so compelling until I came across this particular one, “Raja Jhia Sange, Kari Thili Bhaba hai, Bhubaneswara ra hata re” ( Fell in love with the rich man’s daughter at the market place of Bhubaneswar). My Oriya friends would relate to it much betterJ, and certainly no marks to them for guessing the two cities in play. Cuttack has been the oldest city of the Orissa, and the commercial and administrative capital for nearly two centuries in the pre-independence era. It was only in 1964, that Bhubaneswar came into being the administrative capital, and the educated elites were the first to migrate from Cuttack to Bhubaneswar. Ever since, Bhubaneswar without the burden of heritage has continued to attract such educated pro-western elites not only from Cuttack, but from all over Orissa. Cuttack, at the same time, has owned up the burden of its heritage and continued to give away from its huge repository of rich Oriya culture. A statistical validation of this comes from the fact that, while Cuttack managed to produce numerous geniuses in the field of Oriya art and literature, Bhubaneswar has only made strides in its quest for westernization during the same period. Thus, was formed the classical Marxian hierarchy of classes, with Bhubaneswar playing the role of big bourgeois city and Cuttack the insignificant proletariat.
Numerous Khoka Bhai songs have revolved around Cuttack and its people, but this one particularly brings into fore the prevalent Marxian hierarchy and according to me makes the best possible satire, then and now. What makes it more beautiful, is that it takes the help of a mini love story to bring out the intricate inter-city class dynamics.
So the protagonist (like many of my friends from Cuttack) makes these trips to the Bhubaneswar (market places, temples, etc…..especially places highly frequented by young females and with a high probability of finding a female partner) and one fine day does come across his dream girl in the market place. And thus began the very transient affair with the rich man’s daughter. The transient nature of the affair is evident from the fact that it started in Bhubaneswar and lasted only till Telengapentha (located exactly midway of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack). Of course the love story graduated beyond the market place and moved to parks and temples. It even travelled beyond the city limits of Bhubaneswar, but unfortunately could never get close to Cuttack. The protagonist claims to be dumped midway by the young lady; midway is only a metaphor for the distance covered in love was hardly anything.
To begin with, the lady’s valuation of the man was nothing less than a gem. Subsequently, rationalization prevailed and SWOT analysis revealed that the man from Cuttack was nothing less than a Casanova. According to the theory, the Casanova takes the ultimate responsibility for the failure of any relationship. And it was no different for this man either, for he was accused of not being worthy of love. As per the lady, Casanova is a certain medical condition of the lower class, and it runs in the veins of all the youths of Cuttack. And our hero being from Cuttack, and no other fault of his, shares this medical condition which does not make him eligible for being in love with a “Rajdhani girl”.
Not an unusual situation for men though (being dumped and at the same time being accused of it), but what really complicates the situation for this gentleman is the underlying class dynamics of the two societies. Borrowing from a colloquial concept of ‘’political economy of love”, the city based political behavior is not surprising. Neither the initial assessment of the lady is incorrect, nor is the final judgment correct. They are nothing but merely love instincts superimposed on the real class structure. Many years later, I myself grew up in the city of Bhubaneswar and would witness such politico-economical love behaviors in plenty in schools, colleges and workplaces. Akshya Mohanty was clearly a man ahead of his times in his music and thought, and his songs would, still nevertheless cut across the entire Oriya civilization.
