My first visit to Odisha(then Orissa) was after marriage in july 2011. I did not get a chance to explore or roam about the area much. I stayed confined to the house, as was expected of newly-wed daughter-in-law- I donot have regrets, for I got to spend time with the new family.My second trip was more fruitful. My husband took me out to almost every other day during evenings. We also went on a trip to Puri, Konark and Dhauli. On the way to Puri, we went to Raghurajpur, which is famous for "Talpata chitra'' and "pata chitra'' or paintings on palm leaves and paintings on cloth. Drawing is made by carving on the palm leaves and is painted. I will get to the details in a short while.
We started from Bhubaneshwar at approximately 8.00 a.m. The scenic beauty after crossing Bhubaneswar is just awesome. It is a feast to the eyes. We had break fast at Pipli, which falls on the way to Puri. I can vouch for one thing - you can get amazing food at mind boggling low prices in Odisha, that keeps one wondering how the people manage to survive by selling their food products at such low prices. We had Poori and dalma, accompanied by Raabdi, at a roadside hotel. Food is abundantly available in Orissa, that you feel that the people live to eat and not the other way round. You find food items heaped to form small hills in the roadside shops. After breakfast, we took a detour to Raghurajpur, which I mentioned earlier. I was of the opinion that my trip to Puri was a religious one. But surprisingly, it turned out to be art tour.
Raghurajpur - is a very small but beautiful village, with a lake(it might be a canal too; I am not sure) on the way, bordered with coconut trees and lush greenary all around. It is developed as a heritage crafts village by INTACH. It is famous for patta chitra. The pattachitra paintings are made over a piece of cloth known as Patta or a dried palm leaf, which is first painted with a mixture of chalk and gum. On that drawing of gods and goddesses, scenes from Indian epics, of animals etc are made. The outline of the drawing is distinct and is made in black. Bright naturally derived colors are used in the painting. The paintings are available for sale and exhibition .They are usually sold to foreigners at a price which is double the price quoted to Indians. After a little bargaining, we can strike a deal. Apart from these main products, we can also find other crafts like, toys made out of coconut fibre, stone carving, face masks made out of paper, paintings on glass bottles, shaven coconuts etc.
We spent a lot more of time than we planned in Raghurajpur and so reached Puri around one o clock. Since the Puri Jagannath temple closes by 2.00 p.m, we straightaway went there, instead of going to the hotel.
Puri- Puri Jagannath temple is considered as one of the four "dhams", besides Badrinath, Dwaraka, and Rameswaram. It is felt that these four places have to be visited at least once in ones life time.The main deities are Jagannath, his sister Subhadra and brother Balabadra. The road opposite to the temple is nearly 200 meters wide, to accomodate the Ratha(chariot) yatra of the main deities. It is called the bada dhanda. The temple was crowded, mostly by widows, who were easy to spot in white sarees. The time I visited the temple was during the Karthika month and a little before the panchuka. It seems that this is the favorite time of the year when most widows travel to puri to pray to Lord Jagannath. I need to find out the story behind this from my mother-in-law.One thing that I noticed in this beatiful place( I mean Orissa), which also disappoints me is that nothing is organised here. The people do not follow the required etiquette and you will find no wall without the stains of paan spit. And in the temple people almost would walk over you. No queue system is followed. There is a lot of pushing and pulling in the main temple, that you always need to keep your vigil over your purse and jewellery. The temple prohibits carrying any kind of leather products inside the temple. Waist belts, bags, mobile phones, etc are to be handed over at a counter at the entrance of the temple. My husband was aware of this. So we had left ours in the car. We waited for some ten minutes in the main temple, for darshan. Some kind of pooja was going on with doors closed, and hence we waited patiently for the main deity darshan. And when the doors did open, people pushed over each other to get darshan and almost everyone lifted up their hands praising Jagannath, thereby, seizing any little chance left to get the darshan.I started feeling suffocated in the crowd, so we managed to walk out from there. From there, we went to the anand bazaar. This is the place in the temple where you get the Prasad. Prasad is not one item, but one square meals, complete with sweets. And may be due to the crowd, cleanliness seemed to have been compromised. Since, my husband and I were not very hungry from the heavy breakfast, we did not have the meals, instead, we had Raabdi and some milk peda.
 |
| Mayfair hotel, Puri |
We checked into the Mayfair hotel around 3.00 p.m. After a quick wash, we had late lunch at the hotel. The ambience of the hotel was awesome. We had the view of the sea and the beach from the hotel and the beach was just outside the hotel. After lunch, we strolled the beach. Puri beach is the cleanest beach that I have ever seen. The sand was soft, and I loved walking bare foot on it and also tried to do some sand art :-).We were lucky to experience the sand art in making by Mr. Sudharshan Pattnaik, to bring awareness to save the endangered olive ridley turtles. The water is so clean and transparent, unlike in other beaches that you can see the sand beneath. We enjoyed the sunset lounging on the beach. After the sunset, we walked back into the hotel and spent a lovely breezy evening at the poolside.We enjoyed our tea, viewing the beach and listening the waves from our room balcony. We decided then that, we will be early birds to catch the warmth from the first ray of the sun, on the beach. It seems ages since, we woke up to see the sunrise.
 | ||
Sunset at puri beach
|
good one :-)
ReplyDelete