Researching and collecting newspapers and magazines in multiple languages from India and abroad is a passion of Rajkishore Sarangi, an Associate Engineer in the Construction department. Born in Kishore Nagar of Angul district, and residing currently in Bhubaneswar for his jib, Rajkishore has been collecting and archiving these periodicals and publications for the last 20 years.
“During the pre-independence period, Odisha used to produce more than 50 types of newspapers and 75 types of literary magazines. If we do not keep a record of it, then future generations will have no idea of it. So far through my research and collection, I have been able to track more than 3,000 newspapers in Odia. Out of that I have already collected and stored 1,850 types of newspapers. These include 240 types of daily newspapers, 640 types of weekly, 460 types of fortnightly and 570 types of monthly newspapers.”
Not only newspapers, but Rajkishore also has a collection of literary magazines produced across India. Out of 3,500 types of multilingual literary magazines produced outside Odisha, Rajkishore has preserved 1810 types of magazines with himself. These collections also include 70 types of literary magazines produced outside of Odisha. Similarly, he has collected 288 types of children’s magazines and 250 types of spiritual magazines out of 690 and 520 magazines respectively.
Over the years, Rajkishore has collected numerous magazines and souvenirs related to topics such as health, education, science, agriculture, business, law, women, labour, comics, criticism, different religion and tribes.
Odisha has no special museum for magazines except the Dasarathi Patnaik library in Nayagarh. On that note, I aim at producing a book on such magazines along with developing an independent museum. Hence, I am continuously working towards it and also seeking support from people. As we know, the events of today are the history of tomorrow. Thus, what we archive today will be precious wealth for the next generation.
We wish success to Rajkishore for his unique and noble thought.
