Barpali is a small town located in the Bargarh district of western Odisha. It happens to be the Birth place of all time great Oriya poet swabhaba kabi Gangadhar Meher. Over the time it thrived as a centre for the production of Sambalpuri ikat handloom fabrics. Over here life moves at a snail pace as it has got largely an agricultural economy. But in modern times of digital technology as well here
is someone who brought this insignificant town to the limelight trough his blog writings. Writings of E.Kiran Mohan are mostly about the life and culture of Western Odisha otherwise known as Koshal Anchala. He had developed and managing a well equipped web blog by the title:
https://barpalidays.blogspot.com/p/ekiran-mohan.html
where he had published all of his works. Though born to a Telugu family, but he writes about the life, culture and the art of Oriyas among whom he is leading a serene life. He is just a Graduate of Commerce but his style of writing makes the readers spellbound. He is the first person in the Western Odisha to write topics in English about Koshali culture and publish them in the internet. This vulture of culture got numerous topics on Koshali culture to his credit. Be it Nuakhai, Sital Sasthi of Barpali, Pua Juintia, Bhat khuani, Ekusia, Basi Pakhal, Chaul Bara, Kakharu Badi and so on. Ever since its launching in July 2011 his blog www.barpalidays.blogspot.in has garnered 55,705+ page views in a span of three years. This blog has got so much traffic despite the fact that its content is narrowly restricted to the Koshali culture and that too when Koshali people are not internet savvy. It is largely because the rate of English literates in this region are insignificant. He had written the topics on the life of Manabodha Rana [click here]- Born to Earth, Karna Meher [click here]- Innovating kusa craft, Gadadhar Bariha [click here]- Lone living dancer of Sabda Nritya, Dasarathi Seth [click here] - 1-2-3-Statue. The profile of Hadu Haripal - The Gentleman Ricksaw walla of Barpali is worth a read. It is not that E.Kiran Mohan writes just about the successful persons, but have worked extensively on the deprived and the destitute of his territory. Be it the story of Blind Meher’s family where all the siblings are blind. The sad life story of handicapped girl Tulsi Meher and the boy Saurav Mishra would melt the heart of any one. Each of them got the financial help from the readers of this blog. While Tulsi Meher got a second hand tricycle from a gentleman of New Delhi. Saurav Mishra got a draft from an elderly lady of Pune to meet the educational expenses for a whole year. On the other hand the Blind Mehers Family got twice the grocery for a whole month from Nadia of Paris. And one anonymous Oriya girl working in USA sent US $ 200 to take care of the food for Sana Sahu the lone helpless woman of Barpali after browsing his blog. You ought to find a dose of innocence in his style of writing which would make you fall in love with this virtual town of Barpali. He able to showcase verbally the rural atmosphere where the school going kids trouble his family while stealing the berries from his backyard in the story titled “Chal bo chal jhadama buro”. On the post titled “Bhow bhow” he able to narrate about the pranks of the two dogs his family is rearing. It is the heart worming story of inter personal relation between human beings and the canines. On the other hand “Kecho Soup” is the most heartwarming true story which tells how this writer rescued a turtle and rehabilitated it in a nearby pond. It tells how a common man could protect the nature and the environment surrounding him without hampering his daily schedule of work. Whereas “Harvest the crop only when it matures” is a true humanitarian story where this writer had forwarded Rupees Five to an unknown unemployed youth on the streets of New Delhi and for the next four years he was chasing that youth to recover this paltry money. Based on this story, LIC of India came up with a beautiful TV advertising for its insurance product Jeevan Anand. Here they have picturised how two friends fight for Five Rupees - "Radhika ko bus mei ghumane keliye panch rupiya mene diyatha". This add is telecasted during the prime time in the news channels. The note worthy out of all would be “ikat tour of Barpali by a French Lady” and “a bua” which shows the true picture of the much hyped India Tourism. These topics tells the plight of the foreigners which they encounter while visiting the remote rural India. His works have been published by many prestigious institutions be it Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, The New Indian Express, The Women’s Era or RNIS News Paper. Through his blog many foreign tourists keep pouring to this ikat hub every now and then. E.Kiran Mohan fondly known as Kiran Babu at Barpali is the un-official ambassador for all these helpless foreign ikat tourists as because our weavers are ignorant of the foreign language English. He hails from a fundamentally strong and highly sociable family for which he had been bestowed upon with such skill in English literature. He is the son of the renowned pediatrician of western Odisha i.e. Dr.E.R.Rao (MD) of Barpali. It is his love and commitment for the place where he live brought such a ripple and so much charm to this historic town called Barpali. Definitely another Malgudi Days is on the making by the name of Barpalidays. The writer E.Kiran Mohan could be reached at :
WhatsApp # +918249314972
[email protected]
E KIRAN MOHAN
C\o. Dr.E.R.Rao(MD)
Main Road, Barpali-768029
Dist-Bargarh, Odisa, India
