La Krizolina, a friend from German Wikipedia. In March 2017, when I started writing for 100wikidays challenge in Odia Wikipedia, I saw her id on the Facebook group and sent a request there. From that day, we became friends and then we started our conversations through messengers and I have shared lots of things with her. I have one wish to meet her and it came true when she informed that she is coming to India with her hubby. 

So, we planned to meet at Puri during their 5 days stay. So, on 2nd November 2018, I went from Bhadrak to Puri and Tapas Bhai was also there with me. Since I hadn't gone puri alone, so I called Tapas Bhai to reach there. Around 12.30 pm I reached the bus stand and Tapas Bhai was waiting there. Then we went to the sea beach, where they were staying.

Yes, I forgot to mention about Isabella, one small cute penguin, the member of Wikimedia cuteness association traveling with her. After our 1st meet at Puri sea beach, we went for our Lunch to the nearest restaurant. They love to eat our local foods, so ordered some basic veg thali. 

After our lunch, we went to the sea beach and planned to go to the nearest park, Gandhi Park. At the sea beach, we clicked some photos and then tried to find the way to the park. 

But the park was closed and we found one gate, which was under construction and one closed from Inside and the previous gate was closed by bricks. 

After lots of trials and we walked around 20 to 30 minutes to find the way we all were sweating like hell. So, we drop the plan to go to the park and went to the nearest coffee shop. 

In that coffee shop, we had good conversations and they show their coins. After that, we had to leave because we were running out of time. I had to return home on the same and day and also before time. So, rush to the temple and then we returned back.

It was a great time with them and of course, I love to meet them again and in some time, I would invite them to my home.

Today, i.e. on 2nd November 2018, I went to Puri to meet some of my friends there. After meeting them, I went to the Jagannath Temple. Tapas bhai was there with me, but he didn't go inside. So I went there alone. 

To go inside, now devotees have to go through the Dhadi Darsan (Go By Line) and just went in and then returned quickly. Due to Dhadi Darsan, I couldn't return by the Sindha dwara, the east side of the temple. So, I came out through the southern side of the temple and couldn't bring the Boga from the temple. So, we bought some from outside. 

Then we took some photos of Srimandinara. Previously when we had visited Puri, we left our phone, camera, etc inside the car, but this time we had our mobile phones with us, so captured some beautiful photos. There are lots of photos of Jagannath Temple captured by a number of people, but I had to click some. So clicked some and here are those.

Chakulia Panda (Odia: ଚକୁଳିଆ ପଣ୍ଡା), is not one person, it belongs to one sect who are living in Odisha. They used to walk around villages and recite some religious poems. They never beg from anyone, which people give them, they would accept that. Even they don't stop for anyone.

When I was a child, I used to see them passing by our home and we used to offer them some rice or something. And if you call them to stop, they didn't. Once I did that same mistake, I called one person to stop, but he didn't stop there. So ran to him to give some rice.

After that incident, I asked my parents why he didn't stop. Then they explained to me that they are Chakulia Panda and they are not the beggers to stop. They are representing our ancient culture, from Tretaya Yuga. According to some legends, they are from the family of Lord Parsuram and according to some legends Bhima, the strongest Pandav used to recite poems like this and accepts the things which people offer him. 

They used to carry one handmade beautiful big umbrella which is made up of palm leaf called as Chhatri (Odia: ଛତ୍ରି), one bag to carry the things offered by people and one Kamandalu on their hand. They put marks of white sandalwood on their forehead and on their soldiers. 

Their appearance is similar to the Bamana Abatara or Vamana Avatar from the 10 Avatars of Lord Bishnu. In Bamana Abatara, lord Bishnu defeated Asura Bali. So, they are representing some basic ancient legends.

But why today, I'm saying these things, why I'm sharing those pieces of information. Because nowadays, these people are not taking interest in this field. Why? They are not getting much respect for which they are known, not getting that amount of food to survive in this world. But some are doing this job, just to spread and share that old culture with this new world. 

Today, I saw one video made by Prangya Paramita Pradhan, one storyteller, a filmmaker who used to share stories through the lens of a camera. She documented the whole story from one village, where Chakulia Panda are living.

In that documentary, she captured their life, the story behind their job, the poems they recite, their problems, etc. They are the most ignored sect nowadays. If this thing would go on, then the new generation couldn't see them, couldn't know about them.

I would thank her for making such a beautiful documentary for us, for the world, for the other people who don't know about them. And for those, who are staying outside Odisha and their children never got the chance to see them live. 

Here is the YouTube link to the video. Must watch and Share with other.

Wikidata label-a-thon was 5 days label-a-thon on Wikidata starting from 15th August 2018 to 19th August 2018. With this label-a-thon, we had changed the label to our own language of the items in Wikidata. The items included some Indian topics, like freedom fighters, Sahitya Academy award winners, etc. 

I'm in Bangalore and at the same time, our Odia community is organizing one edit-a-thon as Indian Independence day edit-a-thon from 13th August to 20th August 2018. I'm the moderator, initiators of that edit-a-thon in Odia community, so I've to keep an eye on that as well as had to work on the label-a-thon.

Wikidata is different, it needs a little bit faster internet connection and the speed is terrible in my room, so as per the advice of Tito da I went to the CIS-A2K office. On the 1st day mean on 15th August I did at my room, the net speed wasn't good, but managed to do some. In the night, the net speed became normal and that helped me to do some.

16th August 2018: It was the 2nd day of the label-a-thon and I reached the CIS-A2K office by 12 pm. Tito da wasn't there, Gopala and Tanveer were there in the office. Others were there in the office, but I don't know them.

So, we started working, but I had reached late. So, after some time we went for lunch. It was Thursday and I don't eat non-veg on that day. Gopala eats veg always, so Tanveer had joined us too. So, went to Bhagini, the nearest restaurant to the CIS office. We took the buffet there, which costs 250/- only. Here are some snaps.

It was for Tanveer da

My favorite part: Deserts

After lunch, we returned back to the office and again I started working on the label-a-thon about the Sahitya Academy award winners list. After some time, Tanvee da had left for some meetings. So Gopala, I and Akruti (one member of CIS working for some other projects) were there and after some time, Ananth had joined us.

Previously, Ananth had promised me to teach about some templates and use of Auto Wiki Browser. But my Chromebook is not supporting AWB, so he taught me about JWB (Java Wiki Browser), by which I could detect some mistakes and could edit from one page. 

After that Ananth and Gopala also left for a movie in the evening and I left the office after finishing the list on which I was working. I took the bus from Domlur bus stand to Marathahalli bridge. After facing lots of traffic, I reached my room and wrote the article for the 100wikidays and then check some articles written for our edit-a-thon.

18th August 2018: On 17th, I couldn't go to the office due to some work in my room. It was the 4th day of the label-a-thon and I had to reach before 11 am. But, couldn't get a cab from 10 am to 10.45 am. Somehow got one OLA cab and the traffic was terrible. So, the cab driver changed the route to the office and reached 15 minutes late.

By that time, Tito da had reached. We started working on the label-a-thon quickly. Tito da hadn't eaten anything in breakfast, so he ordered some Samosa from Swiggy. Within 30 minutes, it was delivered. 

Then Gopala and Tanveer da had joined us. Since it was Saturday, the office was off, but there was some meeting on the ground floor. Tanveer da and Gopala also joined us in the label-a-thon. It was to work there.

Then we went to Nandhini for our lunch. I was in that restaurant during Project Tiger Edit-a-thon at Bangalore. So, here are some snaps from the lunch.

After lunch, we back to the office and everybody got busy in the label-a-thon. Till that, I was working on the Sahitya Academy awards list. The list was huge, so it took lots of time and for the south Indian names weren't so easy. Thanks to Tanveer da, he had helped in many cases and he was also working on the same list. Around 8.00 pm, they all left except Tito da and me.

Tito da was holding Tanveer's hand so he couldn't cover his face for the group selfie.

After they left, I had checked our edit-a-thon articles, recent edits on that, etc. And around 9.30 pm, Tito da and I left together for dinner. We went to Tito da's favorite Esplanade, one Bengali restaurant which was 2 kilometers away from the CIS-A2K office. And there we had some good delicious Bengali style food.

19th August 2018: It was the last day of the label-a-thon and there was a meet up of Kannada Wikimedians. I was there on the ground floor and was working in the label-a-thon. There is a separate Blog for the Kannada Wiki Meetup, you can check that blog for more things about this day. Here I'm posting about the Label-a-thon part. 

I had completed the full list of Sahitya Academy award, but a new list updated then, so a little bit skipped by the end of this project. I had completed my 5000 edits in Wikidata and 4000 edits in these 5 days. In the edit count list, I'm at the top.

On the 19th of August in 2018, means today, there was a meetup of Kannada Wikimedians at the CIS-A2K office in Bangalore. The Wikidata label-a-thon was running from 15th to 19th of August and this was the last day. For the Wikidata label-a-thon, I was going to the office and Gopala had asked me to join for the meetup. So I agreed to be there on time.

But due to the cabs, I reached late and joined them. They had discussed lots of things there and I was busy with my work on Wikidata and the project in Odia Wikipedia. But I had to join them in the afternoon for some help in Wikidata label-a-thon. 

Nimaji, the security person had prepared the tea and coffee for us and I prefer tea more than tea, so took one. Their meeting starts with the Wiki Advanced Training in Ranchi. Mallikarjun and Vikas Hegde from their community who joined the WAT described those things which we learned in Ranchi. Then they discussed their achievements, some community works, tasks, etc. 

Around 1.30 pm, we left for the Lunch and did at Nandini, the nearest restaurant to the CIS office. 

The food was Kerala style food and as usual, the taste was awesome, but for me it was spicy. I love all the food and especially the sweetest items they serve.

Then the meeting resumed and I had joined Vinay, one fellow Wikimedian from Mysore for the Wikidata edits help. Some of them had a basic idea and others learned how to edit in Wikidata and Tito dada had described why should we edit in Wikidata. Then before everyone left, I took one group, since I'm not from their community and we took one selfie with them all.

After that, some had left and some stayed with us and we did some edits for the label-a-thon. I had finished the article for the day in Odia Wikipedia as well as in Wikisource. Then we did dinner together at the same restaurant. 

After dinner, everybody left and my cab arrived late, so I say goodbye to everyone and then reach my room and wrote this one. 

Around 11 years back, I went to a new school and there on the very first day, I was interacting with new friends from other schools. And you may notice the attitude of the new joining students in a new school. That thing was happening to me. Since that school is near to my home, that was as normal and old school for me, but other student’s behavior was terrible.

So, the 1st day went like this and on the 2nd day, I saw one girl sitting on the backbench. It was the recess and she was tensed due to some reason may be. I couldn’t ask her about the problem, but that face captured through my mind camera and I asked one of my friends about her, he told her name. She was from the nearby village, where I never went and he described the route to her home too.

Every day, I went to the school and saw that girl sitting exactly on the same bench, the same place and was noticing every situation of her. I don’t know why I was attracted to her. Time was flying as per its rule and one year passed like a blink of my eye. We went to the next class and I became friends with everybody except that girl, but I never miss one class to see her.

In the new class, once the teacher asked us one question and for her, I shifted my bench from the 1st row to the middle to sit near to her. And for that moment I was waiting for the last one year came with that question of the teacher. She didn’t have any idea about that question and I show the answer by writing it on a paper and she answered it smartly.

After the class, she gave me a thankful look and in the recess when I was writing something about her on my diary, she came to me and said “Thank You” in a sweet voice. Before that, I heard her voice, but that day the pitch was too high and the sweetness was out of my expectation. Then we became friends and most of the time, we exchanged our storybooks, notes, etc.

Like this again one year completed and we came more closure to each other. Most of our friends were saying lots of things about us and as usual, we were ignoring them. In the final year, we taught each other and discussed lots of doubts. Our board exam went well and the time came to say goodbye to those old friends, teachers, school and of course to her.

On the farewell day, some friends were happy, some were unhappy, and the girls were crying. That day, we were sitting together and in the meeting, everybody sharing their experiences and some do apologize for the mistakes they did in those three years. I was waiting for the last. Before me, she shared her words and 40% of her speech was about me. Then I went on the stage and I don’t know why I started crying thereafter her speech. Before that, I was not happy but at that moment, tears started fallen down from my eyes. I couldn’t say one word there and I forgot everything on which I had prepared before.

Then one of our favorite teachers came to me and she also came to the stage again. At that moment everybody was in shock and some other also started weeping. Both of them hugged me. That was the 1st time she hugged me. Then I just could say a few words there and they both were standing next to me.

When I returned from the stage, she was holding my hand and all the teachers shared their speech with us. Until the end of the meeting, she was holding my hand. After the end of the meeting, everybody left for home and we were sitting at our usual place.

It was time to say goodbye to everything and had to left with those three-year memories. I didn’t want to left without saying my feelings to her but afraid of losing my best friend. All of her friends from her village had left already, so I wish to give a company to her home. On the way, we were walking silently both were waiting to break the ice.

She started first and asked those words which I wanted to tell her three years back and she scolded me too for not saying those for since long. There was a smile on our face. We reached her home and she started talking about the full day story to her mother in front of me.

More than 8 years passed from that day, but nothing has changed between us. Now, we are also best friends. We couldn’t attend the same college after that, but every day we talk over the mobile. During the vacations, we went out together, we did parties at her home, at my home. She would be my best friend in the future too.