From Canada With Love: Daughter Of The Soil Launches Digital Campaign To Promote Odia Language

Bhubaneswar: Mother tongue helps one stay connected to one’s culture and roots. And this Bhubaneswar-born girl’s love for her soil has inspired her to launch an Instagram campaign to promote Odia script and numericals.

Azkia Aarif, who studied Odia till Class 4 in the Capital City and moved to Canada, is on a mission through her ‘63daysofodiatype’ to help promote Odia alphabets and numbers through illustrations and designs.

Toronto-based Aarif, who is a graphic designer by profession, said that many people are not even aware that Odia is a language and identify Odisha for only for Puri and ‘Pakhala’.

“Odia as a language is not known to many people outside Odisha. People have confusion between Odia and Odissi. A campaign is needed to make people aware that Odia has the most richest vocabulary,” said Aarif.

On digital media, we see different fonts of English vocabulary and I hope after this campaign, we will be able to see different kinds of Odia fonts too.

The 63-day campaign has been launched taking 53 Odia alphabets and 10 numbers, and Aarif appealed people to express their mood of interpretation of the Odia letters and numbers- one alphabet or number each day.

Artists from across the country have participated in the campaign. “The campaign will attract a lot of people and help them know details about Odia culture and alphabets,” said a participant, Ripsa Rani Nayak of Bhubaneswar.

Another participant and Bangalore-based Harsha Vardhan Behura said, “The campaign will help people know different aspects of the Odia alphabets or numbers and they can explore further.”