ଓଡିଆ ମନର ସ୍ପନ୍ଦନ

Mu gote Odia. Back in school, Odia was my second language, and let me be honest—getting the spellings right was always a challenge. But even then, there were parts of it I loved, like rudhi prayog and the short stories we had in our syllabus. Some of you ICSE folks might remember classics like Type 4 and Mukhagni. Those stories weren’t just tales; they stayed with me, lingering long after the exams. Of course, in class, we were all too mischievous to really listen to the teacher. The beauty of those stories only hit me when I read them alone, just before the exams. I still remember how powerful they felt—how they connected me to something deeper, something rooted in our culture. Now, years later, life has taken me on a different path. I’ve resigned from my job and taking a career break. With this free time, I’ve been reading more. Recently, I read Ghachar Ghochar by Vivek Shanbhag and Sakina’s Kiss. Both were brilliant, but they also made me realize something—why am I not exploring Odia literature? My own language. It feels like I’ve neglected it all these years. I can read and write Odia, sure, but I feel like a child fumbling with basics. Something inside me says it’s time to fix that. I want to dive deep into Odia literature—short stories, novels, anything. I want to make it my personal mission that when I grow old, I’ll have read extensively in my mother tongue. More importantly, I want to make sure the language merely doesn’t fight for survival but rather flourishes in my family, in the next generation. Odia is a treasure trove waiting to be explored. If you know of any great Odia books, stories, or authors—whether in Odia or translated—please share them with me.