Cuttack -The Silver City

Cuttack - The Silver City. Some of my Odiya friends might know that a Odiya movie is released on this name, as I found from the big movie hoardings in cuttack and Bhubaneshwar. I was able to read the English tag - ''The Silver City'', and got to know the name of the movie, which was in Odiya, from my husband.But I am not going to explain about the movie- for I understand Odiya only sparsely.Even if I manage to watch the movie, without sub-titles, I am not sure, if I could be able to make much of it.

Cuttack is the home city of my husband and hence, we had been to visit my in-laws. I like the city, with its historic and rustic combo look. Its seems to be a perfect blend of the urban and rustic virtues. People seem to still retain the traditional human values, at the same time adopting the urban culture. The roads are wide sans heavy traffic, though many roads are dusty, they are bordered by greenery. The city is an island, though is connected to Bhubaneshwer by roads and bridges. So anywhere you go, you end up crossing at least one water-body, which makes it all more beautiful. It has two main rivers - the Mahanadi and the Kathjodi.

Almost every alternate evening, my husband took me out to roam about the city. We had mouth watering Dahi vada, aloo dum and aloo chop. My husband informed me that Cuttack is famous for dahi vada, aloo dum, especially Raghu's dahi vada aloo dum. It seems that Raghu has been selling it for more that four decades. He was around since the time my father-in-law was a boy. Now he is a old man, who sits in a corner overlooking the business, while his sons handle the shop. Many a time we failed to get dahi vada aloo dum, for we had reached a little late and the whole stock was sold off. If that be the case, we used to have paani poori in the market place. Then there is this very tasty Narula Kulfi. I had it whenever I did not have cold. May be due to change in climate, I caught cold every alternate day. The dahi vada aloo dum is so filling that, if I had it in the evening, I had to skip dinner. I liked the aloo chop as well.

Sunset from the naraj

Note the barrage in the middle

Kathjodi - view from the bridge

As I mentioned earlier, there are two main rivers flowing in Cuttack. One day my husband took me to the "naraj''. It is the place where there is a  barrage. The view of sunset from there is breath taking. Since, it is a secluded place and is not safe, we did not spend much time there. Rather, we went on a ride on the adjoining bridge. The bridge is bulit over the Kathjodi. We stopped mid way on the bridge and enjoyed the view from there. 

Cuttack is called the Silver City, for a reason. It is famous for a fine art work, whose main raw material is silver.Heard of filigree work? - it is an craft where thin wire of silver is used to create motifs, which are made to delicate jewellery, show pieces etc. There is a wide choice of jewellery made with the white metal to choose from - ranging from ear hangings, neck laces, anklets, toe rings, rings etc. Statues( I am not sure if I can call them statues - since they are made with wire), of Gods and Goddesses are also available. I was really fascinated by the Kalpa- Vruksh made with silver, and decorated with precious stones and enamel. The price you pay will include the price of silver in weight and the making charges. The making charges, for some exquisite and intricate work, sometimes would be so high that, the price of silver would look peanuts. But it seems worthwhile, looking at the craftsmanship. Due to lack of patronage, this craft is slowly fading out. So I made my contribution, by purchasing a pair of anklets. In my previous visit to Cuttack, I had purchased ear hangings. I got few other pieces of jewellery as gifts.

Anklets

Ear-hangings

Ear-hangings(notice the thin wire, which is interlaced)

Kada(bangle)

Toe rings

Toe rings

Toe rings

I bought a beautiful handloom cotton saree from the Orissa Art Emporium. Since it involved so much manual skill to make that saree, it was expensive, the price almost comparable to a pure silk saree. The shop had good collection of ethnic wear - sarees and salwar sets, in cotton and silk. Silk is called paatu here. Though there were many exclusive sarees, which seemed to be one of a kind, I could not buy them due to the high price.

May be, next time, I will buy one more saree, one more craft work in silver, manage to look around the Barbati palace, visit the place of birth of Subhash chandra bose, watch a match in the Barbati stadium. Looking forward to the next visit.