Ganesh Prasad Barik, better known as Byangakabi Sriman Gaba, is a banker by day and poet by night. Known for writing satirical poetry, Ganesh has to his credit more than 200 poems and has already performed at more than 1,000 live and television shows.
Born to Laxman and Kanchanlata Barik, Ganesh’s first introduction to poetry was listening to his mother chanting hymns. “I used to see my mother chant hymns from mythological books like Baidehisa Bilasa and those written by Kabi Samrat Upendra Bhanj, Fakir Mohan Senapati and others. Listening to her, my elder sister too would chant the same hymns. While children my age needed to be told stories or kept engaged in some activity to make them eat their food, I would listen to my mother sing and finish eating,” says Ganesh.
It goes without saying that Ganesh’s mother played a major role in inspiring him. A curious child, he would often ask his mother about the songs she used to sing. “She would say that she learnt them from my grandmother. I would constantly come up with such questions and then once she said that there are a few people who wrote these songs and we call them poets,” says Ganesh, who is from Puri district.
From then on, Ganesh started dreaming of becoming a poet. “I would often dream of writing poems, which others would recite. I wanted to be popular as a poet. I wrote my first poem when I was in class VI and earned accolades from both my teachers and others in our village,” he says.
Ganesh’s first poem was about a conflict in his village. Gradually, he started writing poems that would revolve around incidents and controversies. A few years later he wrote a poem titled Hasidia (everyone should laugh) on the importance of laughter in one’s life. This immediately brought him into the limelight. “When I attended a poetry conference for the first time and heard other poets recite, I realised that even I could write like them. However, I also noticed that such events were attended mostly by poets and were held indoors,” he says.
Soon, Ganesh realised that there are hundreds who write poems but only a few are satirists. “I was popular in school because of my sense of humour. So, I decided to focus on writing satirical poems,” he says. His popularity as a satirist grew and he went on to become famous for his poem that was based on a gangrape incident in Pipili in 2012. “It was a major crime. I recited that poem at the Rajdhani Book Festival 2012 held at Janata Maidan, Bhubaneswar. The poem was appreciated by popular satirists like Satyanash and Kulangar,” he recollects.
“They rechristened me Gaba. Ga stands for Ganesh while Ba comes from Barik. And now I am more popular as Byangakabi Sriman Gaba,” adds Ganesh, who soon started receiving offers for both live performances and television shows. “My first television show was aired on Nakshatra TV. My next show, titled Full Politics, was a satirical show revolving around political figures and their work,” he says.
Besides being part of Odia comedy shows like Kabali to Yes Minister, a show he co-hosted with satirist Odisha Gyana Hota, Ganesh has also done more than a 1,000 live stand-up comedy shows, including in West Bengal and Chhattisgarh.
“Currently, my programme Kathare Satia Kamare Gaba is being aired on a popular Odia television channel,” says Ganesh, who has also been felicitated by different organisations of the state. Ask him how he chooses the subjects of his poems, and Ganesh replies, “I always keep myself updated about the current political situation in the country and other important incidents that take place every day.”
BRATATI BARAL, OP