TOURISTS ATTRACTIONS

PURI ATTRECTION:

People with different motives visit Puri, some with religious attitude and others for personal pleasures. Fifty to sixty years back some sophisticated Bengalis used to come to down to Puri to be away from a dust busy city life of Calcutta. Even many of their famous Bengali films were shot at Puri but not anymore. Many preferred to stay at BNR hotel and others Puri hotel. Those days boarding or lodging at BNR hotel was a status symbol. There was a Chinese hotel where people from Cuttack and Bhubaneswar used to go to enjoy a week end dinner or to entertain friends and relatives. That was really a good one with real Chinese touch in food as well as on the walls. For years together Puri appeared as if it was meant for Bengali people. The sebayat and Pandas of Jaganath Temple could talk more fluently in Bengali than in Odiya. Now coming to the Puri’s tourist attraction the motives have changed with time.

Majority says they travel for the Jaganath darsan but there is a hidden agenda behind that religious motive. Some go there to enjoy some ‘drugs’ which are abundantly available plus the freshly prepared crabs and lobsters at the famous hotels as well at the sea beach make shift stalls at an affordable price. Some for the Nimapada sweets and the Puri rubdi& Rossabali even though they are all diabetic. Another group goes to watch panoramic view of the Bay of Bengal with a chilled beer in hand. Some used to travel all the way from nearby towns to watch young Bengali girls but that number has been reduced drastically in recent years. The so called religious minded pilgrims and devotees are more interested in the “Mahaprasad” and Darsan of the deities inside the temple and few to watch stealthily some exciting stone statues of the ladies on the temple walls.

Round the year the weather is salutary and humid, even you need not like to cover yourself with any cloths to escape from winter chill. Some ‘devotee’ while on return journey goes to Konark with a different purpose and on way back home gulps few of the Nimapada sweets.Few modern youths,business men and high government officials bring ‘Mahaprasad’ to impress  their devoted wife.

After the Nabakalebara the roads have improved so also the road blocks due to frequent road accidents but nothing has changed at real Puri,same garbage,water logging, narrow roads,bulls and beggars on roads.The travel time by road may vary depending on your luck.

Best of luck friends-Happy “Darsan”

Sanjoy Kumar Satpathy