Bulu Pattanaik – An emerging star of Orissa

Bulu Pattanaik is not any movie star or any red carpet celebrity but not even less than a young sparkling star of a place which needs Bulu and his services and dedication for his home land Orissa, one of the culturally rich states of India. Bulu Pattanaik at the young age of 26 took the responsibility to change the picture of Orissa and get back that honor which is lost somewhere in the history of this traditional Indian state.

We caught Bulu on orkut and the first thing which caught our attention was the list of testimonials written by Bulu’s fans, friends and followers, about his work on his websites fullorissa and purionline. We decided to honor this hero of Orissa on OrkutHeroes and had an online interview. Take your time to inspire by Bulu Pattanaik the emerging star of Orissa.

Interview taken by Tara:

Bulu, please tell us about your childhood, parents, education etc. In short, your biography.

I am an ordinary person, who always likes to enjoy life in all circumstances. I enjoyed my childhood very much. I have a good number of childhood friends, who are still with me. They are my great assets. My parents are always a source of great inspiration for me. My native place is Puri, the sacred place of India. I am one of strong believers of Lord Jagnath. I am what today it is because of His blessing. I did my schooling from The Convent school of Puri, and then did my Bachelor in Commerce from SCS College Puri.

In the year 2003 I started Purionline.com at Puri, and later in the mid of the year I went to Hyderabad, There I worked for 3 yrs with few web development companies, and from internet I tried to have lots of technical ideas on the web technologies, learn them all by myself. I use to contribute at least 3 hrs a day for Purionline.com to update the site.

Then in the year 2006 I got Puri Online Pvt. Ltd. Registered and www.Purionline.com got its own infrastructure at Hyderabad, I am the CEO of the company. After that in the year 2007 I was the VP of Kanvy Technologies Hyderabad, it’s a web solutions company where we provide solutions to many national and international clients.

Movie on Lord Sri Jagannath. This would basically be the first movie from Orissa to be released through out the world. So at present I am at Orissa working on the same. This year – 2009, I am starting up a new company at Hyderabad, its Kanvy Sutdios, Still I am working on it. Basically Kanvy Studios is an Animation Company; it would also have DFX audio studios in it… We are going to work on Animation movies. So this year we are going to release our first movie, it’s an animated

So that’s in short my biography but other then this I do a lot of other things…

As every child dreams to become something which attracts or interests him, what were your dreams?

Oh! dreams yes true that all of us has dreams.

When I was in 7^th standard, my teachers very often asked me about my ambition in life. Believe me it was  the toughest question that I have ever faced. I heard my friends talking about being an engineer, doctors, professors and so on… and I would just look at their faces, confused about everything, I never knew what an engineer did or a doctor or professor for that matter I was really scared of that question until I was in college, because I was confused, confused about what my ambition should be. People told me that I should have and ambition else I wouldn’t know where I would like to go, and wouldn’t know where I went. However I always had a dream. Just a dream to do and achieve something big. As time passed I realized that I want to do something for my dear state Orissa. Sounds like a very common dream, doesn’t it? Lots of people for sure think or plan to do something for their mother land or for their people.

What’s unique about my dream?

There was something. Most people dream when they sleep. My dream never let me sleep through nights. Today I have only one single dream in my life to see Orissa at a better place, and I just want to contribute to that grandeur. I am confident that I am going to convert this dream of mine into reality.

What are your hobbies, interests and fascinations?

I have some really great friends and whenever I find time I love to spent quality time with them. They are my inspiration and my tear leaders. Whatever I have learn in my life I am extremely used to self learning, so I take great interest in learning whatever I can to keep up with technology and anything that would help my organization to grow further. Orissa as a state fascinates me a lot, each stone each brick each dust

particle has legends associated with it. I love to devour whatever I can, whenever I can. So yes I love to read a lot about Orissa. It’s History; it’s mythology etc whatever is associated with it.

Orissa, the state where you belong, have a rich heritage preserved till now, however it comes in the list of one of the economically backward states of India. What are the reasons of this backwardness and what are the ways to solve the problems related to education and jobs in Orissa? your suggestions?

I do admit with deep regret that Orissa is one of the backward states in India. I don’t dispute. Various reports prove it. The reasons for backwardness are enormous. Of all, I believe slow pace of industrialization is the major one. However, the scenario will change very soon. The state is steadily progressing in all fronts. The state is now the most favored destination for investment. A good number of business tycoons have lined up to start their business in the state. It is a positive indication.

The state is very rich in human resources. Orissa is a land of creative people. And there is no substitution to creative brains. The literacy rate is increasing over the years. More encouragingly, the number of engineering colleges has increased in recent years. The state has now an IIT. I am sure Orissa will create a pool of talented human resources, which will immensely benefit the economic development of the state.

Tell us about your web portals Purionline.com and fullorissa.com. What are the objectives of these websites? And how did you got an idea to start such online services? Is this your full time profession or you do something else as well?

Well one evening in the year 2003 my cousin Rakesh and I were sitting on the Puri sea shore and this Idea of starting something for Puri struck us both quite suddenly, we pulled in some ideas about starting a web portal on Puri.

The very next day we got the domain www.Purionline.com registered from a hosting provider. Our motto was to update this portal everyday and we tried our best to do so. Initially it was a website that provided information about the land of Lord Jagannath – Puri. Eventually I went to Hyderabad and met a huge community of Oriya people living outside of Orissa. I realized how keen people are to know about their home town when they are abroad. I received lots of request from the visitors of Purionline.com requesting me to update the site about Orissa. So Rakesh and I planned and upgraded the website.

By the year 2004 Purionline.com turned into an “Orissa” portal, with lots of information about Orissa. Then we started including content that people needed and asked for. So basically www.Purionline.com had content that its visitors requested. And that is what made the audience love the website.

In 2006 our audience requested to do something about the portals name. The portals name was somewhat specific to Puri, while the website content was about the whole of Orissa. It was such a mismatch. That made me started thinking yeah the name should be something catchy and should at the same time talk about Orissa from the domain name itself. So we got www.fullorissa.com registered. At that time, www.fullorissa.com had the same content as www.Purionline.com I just had the visitors redirected from Purionline to fullorissa.

And now we have the two web sites separated. Purionline has content related to Puri. And Fullorissa has content related to whole of Orissa.

It has about 30 services related to Orissa, starting from news to views to entertainment. We are also the web partner for most of the movies from the Oriya Movie Industry. We have an online community called as the “Oriya Khatti” which is a very similar application to Orkut but fully dedicated to Orissa. It has blogs, video sharing, chatting, forums, photo sharing and other facilities that entertains our users and helps them to stay connected with their Oriya friends and relatives across the globe.

According to Alexa Review fullorissa.com is the highest visited web portal of Orissa.

Initially we just had 40 – 50 views per month in Feb 2003 and by end of 2003 the number of visitors short up to about 2000 – 3000 views per month. Now the number is about a million per month. So that was the route line for the portal.

Any future plans to enhance these portals? You know, there is tough competition and lots of such portals related to Orissa already exist.

This portal definitely has a lot of future plans and I am constantly working on them. It’s a continuous plan. And at the end of the day I just wanted to find Fullorissa.com occupied with each and every possible online service related to Orissa.

And let me say something about the site over here, we never work anything as far as the marketing of the website is concerned. As I believe fullorissa.com is a portal which was really designed based on its visitor’s requirement. So the only marketing strategy about fullorissa.com is complete viral type of marketing… “You visit the site, you love it then you feel like sharing it or referring it to your friends and relatives” And I believe that is how it has come to the current position. So it’s basically the peoples site for Orissa.

What is the most memorable moment for you in the entire journey of making of your web portals and making them a success?

Well about the most memorable day, being very honest its really the toughest question for me to answer as I find lots of them everyday. You just have to believe me onto this. Every day I get hundreds of emails and I read them all personally. People express their happiness, their feelings. They say Fullorissa.com is the proud of Orissa and they are really proud of the portal, they are proud of me.

This is something which gives happiness and ultimate happiness each and everyday… I read there suggestions I reply to most of them. Each of them is a memorable moment for me.

Apart from that, the day when I got to know that fullorissa.com claims to be the number one portal of Orissa as per Alexa reviews well that was really a memorable moment for me. And also the day when I got to know the number of hits has touched about a million per month… so how many of them shall I count???

As everyone knows, achieving success and capturing dreams in life is not easy and one has to face challenges. What kind of challenges came in your way? If, any.

Success is the outcome of challenges. Being a webmaster, I have faced a lot of challenges, the day I took the initiative to provide a complete web portal for Orissa. As widely known, the online culture in Orissa is not so encouraging in comparison to other states. Initially, I found it very difficult to sustain in online business considering the fact the broadband connection is very slow in Orissa. The people are not net-savvy. At the same time, there are already established giants who also cater Orissa. In any case, there is no substitution to hard work. I strongly believe in God and hard work. I worked hard to create an online culture among the people by taking several encouraging steps. For instance, I started Orissa Khatti, the first social networking site for Oriyas. At that time, the response was not encouraging. We kept constant touch with our visitors and sought their feed backs. We worked as per their needs. Now, Orissa Khatti is a major success.

Every one has an idol in their life and while heading towards their decided goal, the person always looks up to his idol. Do you have any such idol in your life, whom you admire?

To be honest, I am a firm believer of God. I believe in myself and God. What I am today is because of God and my own effort.

What according to you is the bottom line or rule for success in life?

The bottom line of success is hard work and honest. I do believe that both honesty and hard work will pay off. And one more thing “Never Give up” that should be the attitude.

If you have to do a thanks giving, which all names will it include and why?

I would like to Thanks my Parents, whose blessings and support throughout the journey helped me to be here.

I would like to thank Rakesh – My cousin for whom we got the idea about Purionline.com and he is the one who is solely responsible for Purionline.com to come to this position. And he is the one who is there with me for the whole journey.

I would like to thank my Brother – Pinku – he is the one who stays with me at Hyderabad, and is fully responsible for maintaining fullorissa.com – he is the one who always says Bhai I am there for you for ever. He is one my heart is always confident. So he has always helped me to be here.

I would like to thanks to all of my friends, who has supported me at every point in my life. Although I have few friends in my life. But as it is said one loyal friend is worth ten thousand relatives. I am glad that I have lot of them. And I count myself in nothing else so happy, as when I find myself with my friends.

Where do you think Bulu Pattanaik will stand after 5 years from today?

I want to be successful in promoting Oriya culture at the international level. As widely known, Orissa is very rich in cultural values. Oriya cultural needs wide recognition. I want to spread Oriya culture and Jagannath cult throughout the world in next five years. And that’s the reason I started Purionline, fullorissa and now the new animated movie on Lord Jagannath and Orissa.

What is your message to many like you who aspire to fulfill their dreams? Would you like to give any message to your near and dear ones?

Yeah off course I have something to say to all the readers of this interview.

Do you really think this guy answering to these questions at this blog is a highly talented, educated, rich guy. Feels good to present him in front of the media whenever there is a chance? Ha ha…

No you are wrong.
He is just a common man, a common person who knows this much that rite at this moment he do not have enough time to have his food through out the day. Just keeping himself busy all the time to fulfill his dream. Could you just guess what his dream is? Oh is it doing something great as he has narrated on the 2^nd answer?

Do u think it’s easy. No absolutely wrong. I would say never. If you say it’s easy then probably you have not yet understood him. You know why?

Because He just has a dream which means converting others dreams into reality.

If I had a dream of getting a dream house or a dream car for me, ha ha it would have been quite easier for me to make them reality. But it is not that.

It is a dream about making lots of people happy in this world. Is it not that big? Yeah its too big for my whole life to make it real. But I just know one thing I have a track and everyday I am working on it.

Today I find students passing out from Engineering colleges, or from professional courses like MBA and all. Do you know there is a common ambition which I can find out with at least 98% of the students passing out. And that is Just to get a good job….

Just to get a good job – and the campus recruitment is the first preference and they keep on preparing themselves for the same. If not then they have a walk in funda ha ha.

So is it something like 98% of our new generations are busy proving themselves to be a good small employee in big companies?

Say me how many of you do have an ambition to provide employment opportunities to hundreds or thousands of people in the near future?

Dreams should be such make lots of people happy.

And my friends happiness can only be achieved by making others happy. Its there for every one of us. But most of us look through the opposite window.

As it is said the morning starts the day? And guys just getup and look ahead I think this is the correct time for you people to think something ahead of your regular job life. This is the morning which is going to decide about your day.

I am not here to interpret into others dreams. I just wanted to make people understand that I find myself lucky today that I never understood the word ambition in my school days. Because don’t know if at all I knew the meaning that day then where would I have been today.

And believe me I am happy today making others happy.

Other Reference Links:-

http://oriyavoice.blogspot.com/2008/08/state-of-online-journalism-in-orissa.html

http://oriyavoice.blogspot.com/2008/04/is-online-journalism-picking-up-in.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuGx0DLA2AI

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