Diary of Amaresh: A Visit to Puri (29-01-13)

A visit to Puri - City of Jagannath

This was my third visit to the Puri. First was when I was a kid, not much in memories, It must have been a week-long trip (from what I have been told and from what I remember). Second, a few years back with my mom during Rath-Yatra, when one of my cousin posted at PURI (ECR), the Best visit with lot of fun on and with the jovial humongous inviting waves of the Puri beach. But this time it was an unplanned short visit to the city with some of my new-n-special-friends and Surprisingly, I had a completely different experience this time around.

Why Puri..?

In this new-year, we decided to go on a audacious-trip, and destination Puri was selected (since PURI was within the close proximity of 500 Kms from Kolkata, where one can have all the fun, learning & holism under one roof) trip was chalked out for couple of days, dates were finalized & bookings were made accordingly….

Sunrise at Puri Beach..

After reaching PURI, firstly we were suppose to check-in our HOTEL and we have also headed for the same but can’t resist to have a glance of ‘Sunrise at Beach’ and we ran to witness the same just behind. (off-course it was our Hotel’s private beach) Enormity and power of the sea, can only be felt at a Bay of Bengal beach, Arabian Sea has got a different flavor. I’ve been to beaches around Mumbai, and have heard of Ganapatiphule, Goa etc; but none is close to what’s offered at Puri. White long beach with multi storey high waves, what else you can wish for!!

Call by Lord Jagannath..

As decided, next was to visit the Holy Jagannath-Temple. We returned from beach, checked-in our Hotel room and started getting fresh.. (Advice: always take 1-2 hrs in your hand if you are with girls)

Jagannath Temple – A far view It’s advisable to strike a deal with some Panda (or Purohit) before you enter the Temple. Pandas are the persons who guide the devotees through the Temple and associated obligations. However we have ‘Deepika’ with us (being a Oriya she was a bit acquainted with this place). Non-Hindus are strictly prohibited inside the temple, when we were passing through the Singhadwar (Main-Gate), there was a Panda who was striking everybody with stick of Jagannath, amicably hit my back and said, ‘Bhagwan ki Chaddi’.

It’s my personal experience that you must keep at least a dozen of Rs 10 notes. They come handy, when some Panda pulls you towards the small temple under his authority, does his puja forcefully and asks for dakshina. Around the main temple, there are some hundreds of smaller temples and also a wish tree. Since we were waiting for the main gate to open, we visited a few of them, and took some rest sitting at one of the temple, however I found Shilpi & Gouri busy with looking over the archeology of the temple (one must admire their stamina)….

Again we have headed for Garbha-griha, to have the darsan of Lord Jagganath, finally I got the opportunity.. I really wonder how Shilpi, Deepika & Gouri were with me in that massive-crowd…. Then we came-out and had our lunch..

Bay-Watch..

The main beach of Puri! You’ll fall in love with it. Though it’s almost always full of people, it’s so long that you’ll easily find a small place exclusively for you and your friends.

I recalled each minutes of Beach, how we enjoyed bathing, toppling, somersaulting and above all photographing together. We shed our clothes and had a crazy run in to the waters.., Even Shilpi went to wet his feet in the waves crashing on the shore.. (Off-course she was not allowed to do so)..

At the beach there were local people selling “pearls” and “stones” collected from sea at prices of Rs 5-25!! There were camels for giving ride and chairs were available on rent at the rate of Rs 20 per hour to sit and enjoy. We “rented” chairs as the beach was quite dirty.

Two-Hours with divinity, we left the place for journey back to our Hotel.. While returning we kept walking on the waves and tiny seashells….

It’s Shopping Time..

Deepika, Gouri & Ajeet went for some last minute shopping but I prefer to stay with Shilpi..

Let’s call it a ‘HOLY-DAY’..

It would have probably the boring evening, without the call of Gouri to turn’s our room into the ‘Dance-Floor’. Thanks to the DJ’s performing at the rear-Lawn.