Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Konark and Puri (Orissa)

My initial plan of staying here in Bhubaneswar for four days to just relax, ended up in a week staying with a wonderful family, relaxing, enjoying family life and food and seeing a part of India I would otherwise never have gone to – and probably not even read about.

I arrived in Bhubaneswar station after a long and not so comfortable train journey – which was surprising, as my experiences with Indian trains have been rather positive. But ok, what’s a backpacking trip without the odd delayed and dirty train right? Amrita picked me up from the station and took me home where in the course of the evening I met the whole family, a bubbly, happy and fun family that made me feel at home straight away. The children, one boy and one girl aged 14 and 16 respectively were both really good fun and I enjoyed just living the life of a 16 year old (though at times I did feel like I was just getting too old).

During my time in Bhubaneswar – which ended up being over a week, instead of four days – I found that I was eating a lot, relaxing a lot, enjoying family life and actually seeing very much too! I went to see the school that Amrita and Baby Sonu (that’s what I called the boy) go to, which has an amazing campus and is a renowned school. It was a weird feeling being back on a school campus with so many children, rather overwhelming to a certain extent.

The national museum in Bhubaneswar has, amongst others, some great displays of traditional clothing, archaeological artefacts and traditional drawings depicting important religious stories. My story of that day was that I bought the ticket at the museum and got it for the price of an Indian!

Bhubaneswar itself is a very green city, with some beautiful parks, an innumerable amount of temples and a nice market. Since it does not attract the amount of foreign tourists as can be found almost anywhere else in India, it is a really comfortable place to walk around in without being hassled unnecessarily, and that really makes for a nice change. I spent a lot of time just strolling around the market and picking and choosing cloth to have tailored into Aladdin trousers and obviously I bought a ridiculous amount of glittery and colourful bangles.

During my time here I also met the extended family which was also very friendly and hospitable. I had the opportunity to attend a religious ceremony in remembrance of one of the grandfathers that had passed away. The whole family comes together to pray and all the grandfather’s favourite food dishes are prepared, offered to the Gods and blessed and then eaten by the entire family sitting together. Also, anyone else that happens to be at the house (e.g. the driver), will get some food and be asked to come inside to eat – though not at the same time as the rest of the family. The reason behind the ceremony is to remember this family member and to get the feeling that his spirit is still present in the household, quite a nice tradition in my mind.

Cuttack

From Bhubaneswar, we made a half-day trip to Cuttack, the old capital of Orissa. It is quite an interesting city if you will, in that it has the hustle and bustle of a small city, but is surrounded by greenery, two rivers and villages. There are lots of small streets in the centre and some larger ones on the outskirts. Amrita’s friends took us around the city and its surroundings, giving me a great impression of what it’s like. What I found most interesting was the urban/rural mixture of the place that was evident in the manner of the people and the vibe of the city.

Konark

This little village is where one of the most amazing temples stands, the sun temple. It is built like a huge float on wheels – like the carnival floats in Rio – the reason for this being that there is a yearly festival in Puri where these floats are made and paraded through the city to the huge Jagannath Temple. It can be imagined as huge floats of temples being paraded through the streets.

Anyway, the temple in Konark is architecturally stunning and built in such a way that the first rays of sun in the morning light the entrance to the temple, hence the name sun temple. The wheels of the float are chakras and each one tells a different story, for example, one was a depiction of the circular nature of daily life – with a person waking up, washing, eating, working etc. until he went back to bed. The detail of the sculptures, as on almost all temples and many buildings, is insane! Of course there are the odd kama sutra sculptures too and the question arises as to why it is permitted for naked bodies in the most twisted and unnatural positions to be depicted on temples, where they are seen as beautiful, but society as a whole is very conservative and nudity and sex is a huge taboo. This is a question that many seem to wonder, but due to the constrictions in society, it is something that many cannot and would not ask their parents (who knows if they even know). This is something I will try to find out about.

Puri

After seeing the sun temple, we headed to the beach in Puri, a seaside resort town on the east coast of India. It used to be one of the areas often frequented by western hippies, but now it just seemed rather run down and desolate. This feeling was probably enhanced by the fact that it is the monsoon season and it rained quite a lot. We did manage to chill out at the beach for a while though, in what Indians call perfect beach conditions – cloudy, high waves and a chance of rain. Coming from the western world, it is not the ideal beach day, but honestly, it was a great day! Mixing a bit of culture and a bit of beach was the perfect combination, and the company was great too!