By Shrey Siddharth
Sumit Panda, an emerging lyricist, and poet from Odisha spoke about his experience while creating the song “Jitijiba Odisha”, dedicating the track to the frontline workers and the people of Odisha during this ongoing pandemic. The song aims at lifting the spirits of all the people affected, highlighting ideas of never giving up and supporting the frontline workers for their relentless efforts.
Sumit opened up about his inspirations to create this song. He said, “This song was made with the purpose to give moral support to people. Last year I had written a few poems on this pandemic situation and how we’re stuck in this trap. I had come across songs such as ‘Teri Mitti’ and ‘Muskurayega India’ last year, and I was fascinated by Gulzar’s poetry ‘Hum Nikal Padein’. My own experience of living through the lockdown in the past 1.5 years and observing those who are helping our society in these tough times acted as an inspiration. Circumstance, society, and social media, these 3 aspects have given the power to me to write this song”
Sumit briefed about a few concepts he had in his mind while creating this song and getting them altogether. He said, “Time and tide wait for none. But it’s very necessary to be patient in these testing times. You won’t get the 5 minutes of this interview back, no matter what.”
“Even if we can’t stand with the frontline workers physically, we sure can give them moral support. In Ramayana, the contribution of a squirrel while building the Rama Setu was also counted and the 3 lines of their back remind us about it. Therefore, every little contribution is significant, be it a musician making songs, a poet writing poems, a street cleaner removing the dirt from the road, or the doctors, nurses, and health workers serving the victims, and the policemen patrolling the city.” He further added about extending support to the corona warriors in the song.
He went on to explain how different writing this song was from his previous works in terms of the feel and the entire narrative. He said, “Most of the songs I’ve written are situation-based, about the characters of the protagonist or the heroines. I need to delve into the character to write. But for this song, it’s about the ideas I want to convey to the people of Odisha or for that matter to the entire world.”
Sumit had a heartwarming message for the valiant frontline workers. He said, “Sitting back at home and speaking about frontline workers, I don’t think it does any justice to what they’re doing because their belief enlightens our belief, we get strength looking up to them. Even if we’re invisible to them, they must know that we’re with them, cooperate with them and we support them. Words cannot explain how valuable their contribution is.”
“I hope this pandemic ends very soon and I want to see people smile for real. I doubt if people could get back to how life used to be after normalizing with this new normal.”, he further added, addressing the people of Odisha.
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