A man in orrissa has been living on a
tree for the last 50 years after quarrelling with his wife.
Gayadhar Parida,
83, a resident of Kuligoan village, left home after he had a quarrel with his wife around 50 years ago. “We quarreled over a tiny issue and that is why he left me and promised not to live with me and return home till his death. I forced him to come back, but he refused all the time”. His wife said.
Since that day, Parida has been living in a makeshift shed on a tree, located half a kilometer from his house. The shed is five feet above the ground.
Parida claims that this experience has left to his spiritual growth. Ï had come to stay in the
garden after disturbances with my wife. But after some
days, I felt spiritualism had developed within my body”.
According to Parida, he has often spent days and nights on the tree without any food, coming down only to take water from a pond. While Parida accepts food offered to him by family members, no amount of coaxing has convinced him to leave his “Tree house “and live in a conventional home with his family.
Villagers claim that he has neither attended the wedding ceremony of his son, nor his grand daughter’s. He is also said to have braved all hardships and continued to stay in the garden despite the massive cyclone of 1999, which left thousand dead and devastated large parts of the state.