There are many among us who have acquired some extraordinary skills like producing sounds of musical instruments from the mouth, popping eyeballs from the eye sockets, and walking backward. These skills set them apart from the rest.
Bijay Kumar Goud, a resident of Sumandal village under Beguniapada Block of Ganajm district, is one among those few people who have exceptional talent.
Bijay runs his family by selling vegetables. But in the locality, he is famous for his ability to write Odia words backward as the Urdu language is written. This skill is known as ‘mirror writing’.
Interestingly, if Bijay writes something, people can’t read it unless they hold the writing before a mirror. This way, he can write pages in one go. And they are error-free as well. To watch him writing backward can be an experience of a lifetime. Anyone seeing him writing this way stands rooted to the spot.
“We have seen him writing backward. The ease with which he writes leaves us stunned. We understand his writings when we hold the paper in front of a mirror,” said Abhimanyu Parida, a local resident.
Echoing the same, Laxmi Narayan Goud, Bijay’s neighbor, said, “Besides mirror writing skills, he has spiritual depth.”
Bijay acquired the skill of mirror writing not in a day or two. He said he took a fancy to mirror writing in his childhood days. Reminiscing how it all started, he said once he was in his classroom when a whim to write backward struck his mind and he attempted to write some words. And he did know when it became his favourite pastime. He can write stories, poems, and essays this way conveniently.
“I run a vegetable shop. Whenever I get leisure time, I sit with a pen and papers and start wring something. It has become a passion,” said Bijay.