Angul, You mean a lot to me. Review on Angul

Yes, Angul means a lot to me. I do not belong to Angul. I belong to Kesol, a tiny little village in the Kendrapara District ( previously Cuttack District ) of Orissa. My village Kesol is a very beautiful village, having a history of its own. Angul is in the geographical centre of Orissa, and was meant to be the State Capital. It was the Khasmahal area surrounded by many small princely States. This is precisely the reason, why my mother-in-law, the late Smt. Malati Choudhury chose Angul to be her centre of activities. From here she organised and directed the Praja Andolan Movement, to fight against the imperial exploitative activities of the princely States. The Raja of Angul, Somnath Deb, fought against the British. There was one soldier named Anu, who fought against the British forces. He was killed. He had started the revolt, meaning 'Gol'. Somnath Deb named the area as Anu-Gol. Hence the name 'Angul'. Some call it Anugul. Some still prefer to call it Anugol. Angul is the centre of educational activities. There is a Teacher Training College, a Police Training College, and a Forest Rangers Training School. It was the pioneer in Gandhi's Basic Education. Angul is a District now. A Jagannath Mandir has been constructed here. At Nalco Nagar, a few kilometers from Angul is the National Aluminium Company's Smelter Plant. There is the Bajiraut Chhatravas, where I presently live as its Executive President, was established in 1946 by my late mother-in-law and my late father-in-law Shri Nabakrushna Choudhuri, Gandhian Thinker and Scholar and former Chief Minister of Orissa. My wife Krishna is the President of the Bajiraut Chhatravas, which caters to the educational needs of 180 needy children. Half of them are girls. We organise cultural activities, music and dance programmes. Only on 27 January this year, we had staged the Dance-Drama 'Pausa Lakshmi' in which 60 children in the age range of 5 - 22 participated. 'Pausa Lakshm'i was composed by a famous Poet of Angul, the late Shri Radhamohan Garnaik. It is here in 1958 that I met Krishna, and we were tied in wedlock in July that year. Angul becomes very cold in winter and very hot in summer. It is situated on the Cuttack - Sambalpur Highway. There is a Railway Station since the last couple of years. From here you can go to Ahmedabad, Delhi and other places falling on the routes. From the next month you can also go to Bombay from here. You get good luxury buses to Calcutta, Baripada, Paradeep, Bargarh, Sambalpur, Jharsuguda and Raipur. There was a State Resource Centre for Adult Education established here in 1978 under the auspices of the Government of India.I was its founder-Director. There is the Utkal Navajeevan Mandal, established by my late parents-in-law. The Mandal works in the inaccessible tribal areas, to which even some Government Officials had not gone. What a pity ! About 50 kilometers away is Tikarpara, where Mahanadi has its narrowest breadth. Tikarpara is also the Research Station for Crocodiles. Because we do not toe the Government line we are always in wants. We are proud to say that we are apolitical. We stand boldly and say '' Ekla Chalore'' , the famous song from Tagore's Geetanjali. So, we are here, working with discipline, dedication and devotion, because we firmly believe that the 3Ds are essential for Development.