A weekly market(Haata) on every Wednesday from 12noon to 5pm.Local fresh products are available in the market.Mostly the tribal people go there for country liquor and to watch and put money on cockfights.
THE
UNFORGETTABLE BANGIRIPOSHI
Our long cherished dream of seeing Bangriposhi and the foot
hills of Simlipal, the glorious Kingdom of PurnaChandra Bhanj became a reality,
when we boarded the 12921 bound express on the 3rd of October 2014.
My wife, sister and my travel happy elder brother made a nice foursome and had
visited many beautiful places in the past together. Our train reached in time
and taking a little break in the mango orchard, we proceeded to Kalabadia. We had
no hotel reservation as there are no hotels in that locality. On the way to
Pandhda our eyes were fed with the scenic beauties of nature in the form of
lush green paddy field some turning to golden yellow, the silently flowing
river Katra and a few humps and bumps here and there made our spine
straight.
When we reached Kendmundi, the time was already up for going
to attend the nature’s call near a small pond full of Lily flowers. So, we four along with our auto driver
relieved ourselves in the open air as the sun was setting down behind the
Simlipal hills. We were surprised to see one old man of 85years riding a bike
with a young lady on the rear seat. Later on we came to know that the lady was
his 4th wife. There at the village Pandhda after few ‘chokuli pitha’,
mudhi and aludam we slept on the floor. The snoring of our elder brother was
frightening at night, except him none could sleep.
Next morning at 5 am, we were inside our Bajaj Auto on way to
Simlipal hills, another breathtaking place in India. A Bisoi Dhaba is the only
place which boasts of a lavatory fitted with a commode in the district of
Mayurbhanj. The auto stopped there and we relieved our self after a cup of steaming
hot tea from a road side Dhaba. The commode charges were added to the price of
tea. Our elder brother took some freshly fried local fish. The beauty of
Bangriposhi hills is simply fascinating and breathe taking. From our auto we
could see the bared mountains due to deforestation by the wood mafias of nearby
state Bengal. The golden yellow paddy fields all around us were simply
magnificent. The river Budhabalanga with its pebbled bed and crystal clear
water was following us wherever we went in Mayurbhanj. Our driver, a Mayurbhanj
tribal boy “Bitun” was not so fluent in Odiya but took us to some very
interesting places there including Simla Siva temple. We were lucky to be in a
place where the Queen of Baripada passed her urine during 18th
century while on her way to Khiching. A nice monument was built by the local
people as a respect for her majesty and a reminder to the tourist as the
pleasure of open air toilet. From there we went straight to see the tiger
enclosure where a female royal Bengal Tiger called Khaire once lived, as there
are no more real tigers in the forests of Odisha. For tourist dummy tigers are
shown from a distance. Next morning, our auto driver took us along the Katra
River to the Bhim Kund water fall. The roads all through this mountainous
country ran like a black and brown serpent with plenty of pot holes. There was
no traffic jam, no blowing of horns, and no overtaking of vehicles. The long
journey was a sheer pleasure for all of us and it did tire us a lot except our
elder brother.
We first reached the Bangriposhi Haat and had a sumptuous
lunch in a road side Dhaba. From there, we went to our village Pandhda to
stretch ourselves a bit and enjoy the fresh air scented with the fragrance of
some wild flowers. In the afternoon, our
driver took us for a village ride and showed us a few important places of
Mayurbhanj like Panisole, Dhangidisole, Bhalulata, Baghjhampa and Bahadaguda.
One among those places was on a hill top, where a huge stone is being worshiped
as a ‘Linga’ by the local people. The work was still going on and once it is
completed, people say that would be the ‘Tenth Wonder of the World’. Indeed, it
looked like that to us, because the stone seemed to be touching the sky
overhead. We also had a good view of the Kendumundi village, popularly called
‘Mundi ‘.
The night at Bangriposhi with the huge blue moon at its full
glory was simply amazing. The warm air and the buzzing of mosquito songs forced
us to retire to our string bed covered with stinking mosquito nets.
We couldn’t believe how fast those two days passed away. Now,
time to return home and be with ground realities of life. Bye, bye Bangriposhi.
Thanks for giving us so much pleasure. We would come back with more of our
relatives from Delhi,Dubai and USA next time.
sanjoysatpathy
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