It is as stunning as amazing to see an engineer sitting with a begging bowl on the Bada Danda (Grand Road) to meet his daily need.
Although his qualification is yet to be verified, the person claiming to be pass-out from the Central Institute Plastic Engineering and Technology (CIPET) was found on Bada Danda near Marchikot Square.
But it is still a mystery as to what prompted such a qualified person to choose the way of alms seeking than a high salarised job. However, the person has revealed to have served in Milton Company in Bombay for a couple of years before quitting and choosing a footpath to meet his daily living.
After some incidents, which he did not elaborate to have happy in the multinational company, he quit the job and finding no way of survival due to death of his parents, he chose to begging, he said.
The person was identified as one Girija Shankar Mishra of Niladri Bihar in Bhubaneswar. He said his parents were dead and his father was a Deputy Superintendent of Police. He has also brothers and sisters who are living in Bhubaneswar, said Mishra.
The matter came to the fore when police interrogated Mishra on the charge of a scuffle with a rickshaw puller. Mishra allegedly injured the rickshaw-puller following money theft charge slapped against him from another beggar, who was sitting near the Collector’s office. After an FIR was lodged by Mishra in English at the Town PS, his qualification came to light.
Mishra said he had passed diploma in plastic engineering in 1991 from Bhubaneswar CIPET and he had crossed the age limit to join a job. He is happy with begging on the holy Bada Danda.