#berhampurparkbench

Dictionary meaning of ‘Reminiscence’ denotes “( in plural ) collection, in literary form, of incidents and experiences remembered”. The column ‘Reminiscence of City Life’ can not be authored by a single person, in its nature of pluralism, many have to contribute their remembrance of past life, both significant and not-so-significant at Berhampur. The process will construct an anthology of collective memory about a small town during first seven decades of independent India. I spent my early childhood not at Bhimarao Peta, but at Christian Hospital Road, in front of Kama’s Inn. The place was not so crowded as it is today, rather lonely. There was a row of five small tiled houses rented out. The whole area where Kama’s Inn and the other buildings stands today was empty. My parents hired the cornor house in the row for about 12 years. I believe they were paying a rent of Rs 20 when moved to Bhimarao Peta, where they purchased a house for Rs 12,000 in 1963. When we were living at Christ...

  One of my earliest memories about Gandhi Park dates back to probably summer of 1965. By then, I had just appeared upper primary fifth class annual examination. Those days we had to appear some sort of combined school examination for fifth and seventh class in which the answer papers were evaluated out of school teachers and some students used to fail in the examination to reappear again. Thus, it was a great relief after crossing the first huddle in the early life. The summer holiday was pretty long and on one of the evenings I visited Gandhi Park along with some of my street folks. I remember the park was crowded, many other children from different streets were playing around. Radio broadcast was amplified in a public address system in the first floor of the structure in the middle of the park. I amidst street mates chased one another for a while in the specious varanda surrounding the radio house. In our childhood we seldom visited other places to play as there was ample sp...

  On the occasion of 10 th Session of virtual meet #berhampurparkbench let me share with everyone my take on the initiative. Arjun was the last person I physically met among our friends before lockdown. On 15 th March evening, we both spent a few hours driving through Christian Hospital, Railway Station and Aska Road. By that time I was well aware about the pandemic and explained him about a possible grim future. All you know that soon after retirement in 2015, I am maintaining physical and social distance as a part of my personally designed aging process. I never forecasted a pandemic, but the new norms did not affect me much as I was living isolated and engaged with my creative pursuit on virtual platforms . Arjun telephoned me on 10 th June morning, about 3 months after we met on physical situation. By that time I read that virtual meets are trending-in and WhatsApp introduced group call for 8 participants. I told Arjun that I will make a video call for a lengthy talk. We fix...

Arjun Swain (67), Real Estate Developer, Berhampur 2.    Lingaraj Panda (63), NGO Activist, Bhubaneswar 3.    Pradeep Mahapatra (65), Journalism Coach, Berhampur 4.    Pradipta Mahapatra (66), Chartered Accountant, Bhubaneswar 5.    Promod Patra (66), Retired Railway Employee, Bhubaneswar 6.    Sarat Das (67), Electronics Maintenance Engineer, New Delhi 7. SP Adinarayan (67), Retired Bank Employee and Cultural Activist, Bhubaneswar 8.    Tripati Mishra (66), Poet and Development Activist, Bhubaneswar 9.    Udaya Nayak (67), Documentary Film Maker, Bangaluru

  #berhampurparkbench is a virtual platform reconnecting a group of senior citizen, all around 65 years, who spent their younger days in Berhampur, a small city of 4,50,000 population, situated in the southern coast of Odisha State, India. Gandhi Park, in front of Ramalingam Tank continues to be a favorite evening destination for many in the city. It is not uncommon to identify persons who went there starting from primary school days until late retirement life. #berhampurparkbench empanels about a dozen friends who spent much of their evenings at the park between late 70s and early 90s. Under the cloud of Covid-19 pandemic lockdown-shutdown measures the group re-united through video calls. It uses WhatsApp for group video calls up to 8 participants. The blog chronicles the proceedings of the virtual group. It carries comments, experiences and reminiscences, both in form of text and pictures.