BHUBANESWAR, Oct. 2 -- As a grateful nation celebrates the 150th birth anniversary of the 'Mahatma' Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi reverentially, the scintillating thought of the Father of the Nation - The soil of India has a spirit, which is responsible for synthesis of Indic culture- has immense relevance for Odisha.
The 'spirit' of Odisha soil had overwhelmed Gandhi, when at the call of the Mahatma to donate for Tilak Swaraj Fund, famine-hit people of Puri donated an anna (equivalent to 1 paisa then) in large numbers, and an over-awed Mahatma then said, "The famine-stricken skeletons of men and women of Odisha haunt me in my waking hours and in my dreams."
The 'spirit' of Odisha soil that influenced the Mahatma in a big way during his epoc...