East India Trip - Weddings.. Weddings

The following post is a work of an idle Software Engineer and the thoughts it expresses are not meant to hurt the sentiments of any particular religion or its custom. The thoughts expressed are those of the author whose silly blog it is...

Like the Tiger population in India one more species is facing the danger of extinction - My Bachelor friends! When we were celebrating on the last new year's eve just 3 or 4 amongst us were married. But this year the ratio has been inverted!!! Today only 3 or 4 of us still remain! (and a couple of them already planned to jump the ship in the near future!) Something has to be done and done quickly! Something like "Save Bachelors... Save the Nation" or "Happily Single forever" or "Singly Superb" campaigns have to be adopted by the govt! Else I don't know what will happen on next new year's eve!

The list of the ship jumpers is a long one! To name a few:

Abul (Jan 2009)
Amit Garg (Dec 2009)
Vikrant (Dec 2009)
Riyaz (Feb 2009)
Rakesh (Feb 2009)
Premanandhan (Nov 2009)
Amit Ranjan Sahu (Dec 2009)

Soon to be wed :
and our own Varun Paramala in March 2010!
Roopesh (in Feb 2010)
Bala (March 2010)
Rahul Ruikar (though he is not revealing it.. I am sure something's really cooking)

Anyways, these marriages always give me one thing to cheer about. An excuse to travel and see new places! So when Amit Ranjan Sahu was getting married on Dec 11 2009 in his home town in Orissa, I packed my bag for my first trip to the Eastern part of India!

Including the weekend and 3 days leave, I had 5 days for my Orissa Trip. My plan was to attend Amit's marriage, visit Bhubaneshwar, Puri and Konark and then start my return journey on Sunday night.

I boarded the Bhubaneshwar (BBS) Rajadhani on 9th December from New Delhi Railway station and reached BBS the next evening at 6:00 pm. From BBS, I boarded the Raipur Express and got down at Amit's home town Anugul at 10 PM. Since he was not allowed to go out of house (Marriage Restrictions) he called and informed me about the arrangements he had already done for my stay. I reached the hotel in Anugul without any problem. Had a good night's sleep and was ready to attend the marriage on 11th!

Amit Ranjan Sahu

Amit with friends Debashis and Binoy

Amit's elder brother

The marriage ceremony

After the marriage, I left to BBS with Amit's friends Binoy and Debashis. They told me that from BBS, I can catch the Puri Passenger instead of going to Puri by Bus. Throughout the journey, they gave me good company (except Binoy's occassional chat with his fiancée over the phone) and left only after the train left to Puri.

I reached Puri around midnight and took an Auto to the hotel where my stay for the next 2 days was already booked by another friend Subrat. Thanks to Subrat's father who arranged the room in one of the best hotels in Puri beach area for me!

Next morning I got up early and went to the reception to check my options for the sight seeing. They suggested me to take the Orissa Tourism Department Corporation's day trips. One to Satapada which will take me to Satapada from where I can enjoy the boat ride in the Chilika Lake (India's largest fresh water lake) and see the dolphin's! On the way I would be covering some temples. Another sight seeing option was Bhubaneshwar, Konark, Puri sight seeing. However I had missed that bus by 10 min. So for that day I decided to go to Satpada.

A usual sight in Orissa - ponds, palm and coconut trees and greenery everywhere!

A nice place to stay if you want to explore Satapada (Chilika's one of three sides)

Dolphin! Dolphin!!

Our next stop = Rajahans Island

Shells to fry

Prawn fry for 100/-

Now its Return to Puri

An Evening in Puri beach

On sunday morning I woke up early (very early actually) The Bhubaneswar-Konark-Puri sightseeing starts at at 6:30 AM and I wanted to spend some time on Puri beach and see the sunrise. I kept my luggage in the manager's room and checcked out my room at 5:30 AM and left to the beach. However it was almost 6:30 when the sun finally decided to pop up over the horizon!

It was 6:30 and my guide was calling for me from his office. I was really sad and angry with the Sun for rising so late! I knew i am going to miss a lot of beautiful sunrise shots!

Last shots before running to my waiting bus!

Our first stop was this temple which I skipped (not because i dont like it.. it was still early morning and I saw the above sights nearby)

Our second stop.

The Konark temple - the sun temple. The sun temple has many names and has so many stories to tell (which i am sure you can gather from the google) Anyways, it was really a wonderful experience to be there and see its marvelous architecture!

Pipili - famous for these...

Our next stop was Kalinga shanti stupa where Sharukh (oops!) Ashoka the great, is said to have given up war and threws away his sword and follows Budha.

Next on the list was the Lingaraja mandir where (unfortunately) Cameras were not allowed. Also in the list were the usual footwear, belts, mobile pouches or anything thats made of leather! Upon hearing this, I decided to stay in the bus and wait for the others. On seeing this, our guide told me that I can shoot the pictures of the temple from a platform outside the temple. (this is built for non hindus and foreigners and others like me who hate going to any place where camer's aren't allowed) I was happy and we both went there and got these shots.

Two more places were left to cover and it was almost lunch time. We went to the caves first. These caves - khandagiri and udayagiri are located on 2 hills and are of historical and religious importance. Udayagiri meaning Sunrise Hill, has 18 caves while Khandagiri has 15 caves. (and we had only 30 minutes!!)

Our last stop was NandanKanan Zoo. A zoo famous for its white tigers and other inmates such as lions, leopards, himalayan bear, chimpanze, and a lot of birds. We had our lunch in the restraunt in the zoo and started our tour. We went to the tiger and lion safari which was a waste of time (15 min) After that our guide took us to show the animals and birds one by one. (we could have done this earlier itself) But i must say.. this is really one of the best zoos i've ever been till now!

Pradeep

By 4:30 the trip was coming to an end we started our return to Puri. We reached Puri at 6:30 and I went to see the jagandha mandir (atleast from outside) with my new friend Pradeep Karan Nayak. Around 7 I realized that I dont have a printout of my e-ticket. We searched whole market area but couldnt find a browsing centre. At last we decided to go to the station and check there. The station also didnt help us in any way. It was getting late and we still had to have our dinner. Finally we saw a travel agent and luckily he had the net and printer! Thank god! I was saved!!! (but later i was shocked to see that through out the entire return journey the TTE never came to our compartment!)

When my trip in eastern India was coming to an end, one thing was clear to me. Orissa and my state Kerala (though I consider all states as mine) have so much in common. The coastal line, water bodies, climate, people, coconut trees, the greenary and most importantly the food! (May be i am judging the whole state seeing only Bhubaneswar and Puri. So what.. i'll change my opionion when I see the rest.)

I called and thanked all my friends and my new friends for their hospitality and love. I am sure I'll be seeing them soon back in Orissa or somewhere else! Now, I am not so sad that one more Bachelor friend is less. I am happy I got many new friends and a sister who will always make delicious Oriya dishes for me whenever I visit the Amits! ;-)