Oriya Odyssey

On 13th Sept, Vinod headed off to Bhubaneswar for official work while I stayed behind to be a good student and attend my classes. Despite this, I was not going to lose out on my chance to visit other parts of Eastern India. I wouldnt miss that for the world!! So on Fri even, I was whisked to the airport to catch my flight to the state capital, Bhubaneswar, fondly known as Temple City of India. Reached on time and was welcomed by Vinod at the airport. We then proceeded to our hotel- the best in the city. Mayfair Lagoon.


For a bit of history about this enthralling city: Being the seat of 'Lord Lingaraj', a form of Lord Shiva, Bhubaneswar is an important Hindu pilgrimage centre. Hundreds of temples dot the landscape of the Old Town, which once boasted more than 2000 temples. Bhubaneswar, in particular hosts the Lingaraj Temple. Lingaraj Temple stands majestically as the largest temple in Bhubaneswar. At 55 metres high, it dominates the landscape with 150 smaller shrines in its spacious courtyard and is surrounded by massive walls lavishly decorated with beautiful sculptures. Beautiful not because they are well maintained...but beautiful because of the ancient look the temple has. Truly an outstanding specimen of Oriyan craftmanship.


Despite the richness of the temple experience, the trip was somehow marred by the fact that people claiming to be priests ask for money to perform poojas or for giving of prashad. I was terribly disturbed by the fact that these people would try and make money in the name of GOD. We stuck to putting our donations in the donation box instead of putting it on the tray belonging to the priests. Who knows if they pocket the money. This seemed to be a trend in all temples that we stopped by during our trip. They chant some prayers, give u the holy water and then ask for more money when you put your donation. Ridiculous people.


Just as we finished our temple visit, it started to pour cats and dogs. With our car down the road we had no choice but to wait under a tent belonging to a shop till our driver drove to where we were.


The city of Bhubaneswar amazed me. For one, it had wide and DECENT roads. The city was colourful and it was an experience of its own because there in Bhub, vehicles compete more with goats and cows for road space more than with PEOPLE like in this city of "JOY".


I will attach a pic of Lingaraj Temple and follow up with more details on my trip in subsequent posts. Dont wanna bore you too much.