When I look ahead to 2023, many emotions come flooding by. As a species, we are perhaps the only one that thinks of the future, a time that is not now. And we live in hope. That sense of hope, the idea that there is something to look forward to, is what keeps us going as individuals and as a collective.
In that context, I want to reflect on Odisha, the State that has given me life, identity, and the launch pad. I want to believe that the best time for my State is yet to come, and the impending new year will bring us closer to that idea. Growing up as a child in the tribal districts of the State, I never felt inadequate.
That I had less, never occurred to me. It is only when I took wings, I went away, that comparisons unfolded with the world outside. I started to realise, where my land stands, in comparison to others. It did not ever bring me despair, far less, humiliation. To me, this land was unlike any land. Yet, all around me, there were gnawing realities. These had to do with identity, recognition and acting out a coveted future with a deep sense of urgency.
The three are interconnected ideas. A people’s identity is very important. Who are we, is not an easy question to answer. Yet, anyone who claims a place in history must begin by answering this question. Only when we can do it with credibility and conviction, that the recognition follows. While the sense of identity is within us, recognition comes from outside. It is what the world confers on us. In a connected world such as ours, what others think of us, matters.
We need to strive for their attention. The inability to garner it makes us irrelevant in the larger scheme of things. The idea of recognition, in part, is about the past but mostly, it is about the future. True recognition is about possibilities, not the past. However much we obsess with our past, it's trapping of glory, the world has only so much interest in it. The world cares only if it sees that there is a runaway ahead of us. But recognition itself does not deliver the future.
It requires us to put our stake on the ground, and move from the point of departure without looking back. And in doing so, the escape velocity is important. Seldom in the history of a people, a time comes when we get the opportunity to hold up our identity, demand the recognition we deserve and take bold steps forward.
As we step into the New Year, I ask each one of us to understand that we stand in the confluence of the three ideas. Odisha’s time is now. We are blessed to be where we stand today. Every Odia is destiny’s child who must see the larger purpose of our being and help Odisha to become a moniker of composite human development.