Tour of 'City of Joy'

It was one another feather in our cap. Yes. We made it. When one of our friends told us that he is about to move to Bhubaneshwar for one of his projects, we vaguely thought that our next plan should be to Puri, which is close to Bhubaneshwar. It was left as such until, in some wild thought me and KP decided to take a break from our monotonous work and go for a longer trip. Our normal weekend trips were just within calling limits usually in our two wheelers. We started talking big… Of taking the Air route this time.

We also contemplated on other ‘to visit’ places and immediately Calcutta came into picture as TRR has got himself settled there as a family man. Also was a fact that Calcutta was nearby Bhubaneswar. On a casual chat with TRR one fine day at office hours, I got a surprise that he liked the plan very much and told that he along with his wife would also join us in our Mission to Puri. He had to ask for necessary permissions and approvals from his better half as expected. The next day he had given us an OK from his side. All this happened in the second week of July whilst our plan was for the second week of Aug.

Yet another time, I took the lead in iterinary preparations and as expected the plan came out very well. KP had insisted that one way should be flight at all costs and the other way can be a rail trip provided it was A/C. I too agreed. Based on expectations from KP and TRR, and considering the fact that TRR was already married, and his comments or pleedings that everything has to be decent and not the regular type of unplanned outings we bachelors used to do, I came up with the below iterinary.

We took advantage of the Independence Day holiday which fell on Wednesday. Hence, a Monday – Tuesday ‘Off Duty’ would give us 5 days at a stretch. Even before any iterinary was put on paper or rather email server space, I had applied leave for the 2 days to get the advantage of ‘first apply, first sanctioned’ basis.

Leave Chennai by Air on the evening of Saturday, 11th Aug
Reach Calcutta on Saturday late evening
Roam around Calcutta on Sunday, 12th Aug
Travel by train to Bhubaneshwar on the night of 12th Aug
Reach Bhubaneshwar on 13th Aug morning
Visit Puri, Konark on 13th Aug
Roam around Bhubaneshwar on 14th Aug
Leave to Chennai by train on the night of 14th Aug
Reach Chennai by evening of 15th Aug
Rest on 15th Aug night
Back to work with full JOSH on 16th Aug

I had actually a practice of proposing 2 plans and deciding on one of them. As usual I planned for a Plan B which was anyways going to be rejected. The budget for the above plan was Rs. 7500/- per ticket. However, the actuals overshot by about a 1000 ruppees whereas I had been optimistic about making the actuals to be lower by the same amount it overshot. Huh. Better financial planning needs to be performed, it seems.

TRR, a guy who expects everything well planned beforehand, kept asking at every log on into gtalk about the status of ticket reservations. On one hand, I casually rejected him saying I never knew what I was going to do next day, and he was asking to reserve train tickets for the next month’s plan??? On the other hand, I silently went into IRCTC.com and found out that there were no births available in 3rd AC for our return trip from Bhubaneshwar to Chennai. Out of curiosity, I checked 2nd AC, and to my surprise, there were exactly 2 births available. We needed just 2 tickets as it was only for me and KP to come back to Chennai and that TRR and his wife would board a train back to Calcutta the same night. I jokingly told TRR that we would have to cancel our plan as there were no train tickets available but he insisted that I book the 2 tickets in 2nd AC for the return. I immediately thought that I should not allow this plan to get spoilt and hence immediately booked the 2 tickets for our return back from Bhubaneshwar. Then, I also booked the 4 tickets from Calcutta to Bhubaneshwar in Sleeper class, as it was just a night’s journey and AC was not necessary. Immediately, the same day, TRR had booked return tickets for himself and his wife for 14th Aug from Bhubaneshwar to Calcutta. Thanks to internet booking services, between 10.30 am and 11.15 am we had booked most of the tickets.

The booking informations were passed on to KP and I had asked him to book the Air tickets to Calcutta to then start planning the stay and other stuffs. 2 days later, KP had also booked the Air tickets in Indigo and sent me the electronic tickets. Inspite of all these bookings, I am sure no one was confident of making this trip. Every one was skeptical that this plan would get cancelled at any moment. Infact, TRR even believed it when we called him up from Chennai airport and said ‘Sorry, KP has an important assignment and hence the plan has been indefinitely put off.’ This skepticism was not with TRR alone. KP used to call me some days afterwards and ask, ‘Are we still keeping the plan?’ or ‘Are we going really?’ I was also in the same lines. I never told anybody in my family that we had planned for such a tour, just fearing it would get cancelled at any moment. I had told my mom just a couple of days before we actually left for Calcutta. Infact, my dad knew it only on the day of my journey.

In the meanwhile during the first week of August, TRR had booked for a cab to roam around inside Calcutta and Nanda in Bhubaneshwar agreed to book us a decent accommodation in the town and a cab for us for the 2 days that we planned there.

The D Day arrived. I started on my bike after my regular weekend lunch with my parents. I pulled out some money from the ‘cash tree’, the ATM enroute to KPs house where I was scheduled to park my bike and take an auto for the airport. As planned, I parked my bike and KP was ready by then. He had bought a couple of books, “Ratham” by Sujatha and “The Financial Expert” by R K Narayan from the Odyssey to keep us busy during the journeys. I had told him to buy a pack of sweets for TRR’s family and he did it. He does it what is told to him to be done. We set off on our dream tour at 3 PM, 11th August 2007 from his house searching for an auto to go to airport.

We were pretty earlier at the airport, at 3.30 pm for the flight schedule at 4.55 pm. The flight was good and on time which I did not expect. As promised, TRR came down to Nethaji Subash Chandra Bose airport at Calcutta where we landed some minutes past 7 pm. We took a taxi and undertook a long journey to Garia, where TRR lived. At first sight, Calcutta looked nice and appealing to us but for the road condition due to the recent rains. It was rather funny when I was told that you need to pay 200% of what the meter in the Taxi was showing!!! I still don't understand what it will cost for the taxi drivers to recaliborate the digital meters for the actual fares. Anyways, before we could rag our dear friend after a long time, the Taxi turned into ‘Shanthikunja apartments’ near Garia station.

A warm welcome from TRRs in laws and within a few minutes we were comfortably watching the third and final test match at The Oval. After sometime, we had dinner and went out for a walk to get a feel of Calcutta. We had some light tea in the dark and returned back home only to find the power cut. They had rather a good concept of running the generator for the whole colony wherein you get to run a fan and one single lamp per house for a meager Rs. 100/- per month. Bad news was that this was only upto 11 pm in the night and if the power does not come by then, you would have to sweat out the night praying for the God of electricity and only cursing the communist governments. The power cut was a blessing in disguise for us as we decided to go to the roof top and enjoy some good breeze. With my N70m giving beautiful hits of Ilayaraja and the slight breeze coupled with the slightest drizzle gave us a taste of heaven in the city of Joy. Talking about our college days added ecstacy to the taste of heaven. Even after the power had come, we still did not move down back to room and enjoyed those moments to the core.

A good night sleep was inspired by the most cherished moments at the roof top. We had a good plan for the next day visiting most important places of Calcutta. We woke up at dawn and got ready for a good day. TRR’s wife prepared us a good breakfast before we got ourself into the Tata indica to live Calcutta. Our start to the trip was a temple as expected, the Dakshineshwar temple where the goddess Kali is in ‘Ugra roopa’. Fortunately, we only had a side darshan of her’s and I think it was good because, if only we should have had a straight darshan, we would have got scrared. The side darshan of the Ugra Kali is still in my face with a Blood red tongue. I was just carried away as I saw the Ganges flowing with all its force. It was called the Hoogly in Calcutta. Neverthless, whatever name you call it, she demanded respect. I was so eager to go and sprinkle some water on myself as it was the first time in my life that I met the sacred river. It was divine but for the colour of the water. I still believe that any amount of pollution or what ever you call cannot bring down the divinity of Mother Ganga. Sprinkling that water made me purer by a few carats.

We had immediately taken the ferry service between Dakshineshwar temple and the Belur math, the Universal Headquarters of Ramakrishna Mission founded by Swami Vivekananda. The main building is a universal temple where Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa sat with his astounding patience and tejas. On the left of the main temple, closer to the banks of the Ganga where the buildings which were constructed in memory of Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, his better half, Shrimathi Sharada Devi, the Universal mother as proclaimed by Shri Ramakrishna himself and the youth of the century Shri Vivekananda. The buildings were constructed where their holy bodies were set off to fire when they were liberated.

It was drizzling throughout when we were in Belur Math and this added flavour to the location. I felt so good when I was standing just on the wall off the bank of Ganga Matha, hearing the rain and the gush of the river with full splendor. A heavy drizzle along with winds pushing off our umbrellas, drove us to cover. Or else, I would not have come back from such a holy place!!! NO exaggerations here. We had taken the ferry back to Dakshineshwar and I feel that the charge for the ferry service is just damn cheap. I don't know how the ferry wallas manage to make ends meet with such poor costings. They charge Rs. 7/- per head for a 20~25 mins motorized ferry. If it were in the south, we would have atleast paid Rs. 30/- per head. Some one ought to teach the communists on costing techniques.

We had some raw fruits while we got back to our cabs and headed to Vidya Sagar Sethu and then on to the other end of the city for a lunch in Komala’s. Inbetween, we stopped at one of the KC Das shops to get Rassogollas back to Chennai. We got half a dozen boxes and by then our stomach started calling our attention. We waited for some 10~15 mins in Komala’s before we started our lunch. A decent so called tamilian styled lunch and we were again on our foot to get to see more of Calcutta, more of sight seeing. Somehow, I was so very keen to get into Eden Gardens and have a look at the Mecca of present day Cricket. I still remember when Tony Greg spoke before the Toss of one of the World Cup matches. More than a lakh of people can watch the match which is possible nowhere in the world. No where, no sport. Inspite of all of our well wishers saying that we will not be permitted, we wanted to do it somehow… And there stood a watchman at one of the gates waiting to get some money. He demanded Rs.100/- and we gladly agreed. All four of us ran down the car and stealthly entered the Mecca!!! We were asked to be silent and we took some stills of this beauty. Just 5 mins and we were escorted back by the watchman. We were happy and thanked the watchman and left to Victoria memorial.

Victoria Memorial was very nice. Infact, this was the house of all antiques. Lots of Bengali girls alongside kept us interested in roaming around. We took some photographs in front of the memorial and spent some leisurely time. KP wanted to eat Pani Poori and hence we set out on a search for a Calcutta chat centre. We had found out one, but unfortunately the Poori was more than the size that can enter your mouth in one go. We had some good tea and started our closing lap of Calcutta. We went to a Ramar kovil and Murugan kovil in one part of Calcutta where tamils lived. It was so nice to bid adieu to Calcutta with a visit to Murugan kovil. ‘Vendiyathu unarulae, arulvathun kadanaeyam, un arulalae un thazh vanangitten…’ says Skandha Guru Kavacham. I felt as if HE was waiting for me to come and meet him in Calcutta.

We went back home straight to have a short break to freshen ourselves up and to leave for our train at the night. Thanks to TRRs inlaws for serving us dinner for the night. By then, it started raining hard and we hired a taxi to drop us to the railway station. It was raining inside the station too, courtesy maintenance of the roof of the station. Our train was from 22nd platform, the last platform in Howrah station. All of us were tired and hence went straight to our birth. KP and I had exchanged our side upper births to some others for a more comfortable Upper Birth. I woke up to the calls of TRR yelling Bhubaneshwar station was already there.

At 6 am in the morning, we were not able to spot a tea stall in the vicinity!!! We had to wait for 10~15 mins before our pickup service from the hotel turned up. Before even we could sit comfortably, we reached the hotel. Huh. If only we would have known the location of the hotel, we would have reached the hotel by walk within the time we had waited there. And the plan was to kick the day off at 8 am sharp. Nanda, who was constantly on touch in mobile till now, promised to show up along with the taxi at 8 am. We had our breakfast at a local restaurant and set out to the holy trip of Puri by around 8.45 am. Unfortunately, Nanda was not able to join us in this trip due to official commitments. He was kind enough to arrange us all the facilities before going to attend to his commitments.

Puri! We were at this holy place of Uttar Jagannathar at close to 10 am. Just to recollect, Madhya Jagannathar is in Thirumazhisai, in the outskirts of Chennai; Dakshina Jagannathar is in Thiruppulaani, near Rameshwaram. I had visited either of the Jagannathars earlier and this trip to Puri would ensure that I had sought the blessings of all the three Jagannathars!!! Our taxi driver had warned us not to take cameras and mobile phones as they were very strict in the temple there. As soon as we got out of the cab, we were surrounded by lots of purohits who promised us a comfortable darshan. But, we went very close to the temple and got hold of an old prohit who asked just Rs.11/- for guiding us a darshan.

There were 3 deities in the sanctum sanctorum. The one in the extreme right was the Jagannathar, the Krishna Avatar. The one in the centre was Shubadra and the one at the extreme left was the Balarama Avatar. They called him Boleram. There is also another belief that the extreme right one is Bramha, the Jagannathar; the centre one was Vishnu, the Shubadra and the extreme left one was Maheshwar or the Shankar Baghwan or Lord Shiva. The Holy trinity was present in the 3 idols. We went close to the idols when someone caught me and said some slokas on shiva and started demanding huge money. As we had been warned earlier, we were mentally prepared for such a circumstance and hence we escaped with just a small amount. From there on we walked for atleast 20~30 mins to ‘Govardhana Giri Mutt’ established by Shri Adi Shankaracharya, my guru. Puri Mutt was established by Shri Adi Shankaracharya as the Mutt in the east. It was a small mutt when compared to Kanchi or Sringeri. There was one sanctum for Adi Shankaracharya and one sanctum for Shri Arthanareeshwarar, We also spent some relaxing moments in the Golden Beach of Puri taking photographs and getting some fresh breeze.

Then we decided to leave to Konark, which was around 40 km from Puri. We planned to have our lunch in Konark itself. Even though the food was good in the restaurant, the very fact that the restaurants main item in sales was non veg., reduced my interests in lunch. After the completion of luch, we went to the Sun temple at Konark where the deity is missing due to reasons unknown. The temple has since been taken over by the Archeological department of India. We took a lot of photographs in this place and after some time decided to go back to the room and did so. We were back in the hotel by around 6 pm in the evening and were very much glued to the TV sets as the fnal test match started going better and better. We had invited Nanda for a dinner with us and he had come for that.

We had a good dinner at the Dakshin’s and a good sweet pan in one of the road side shops. Then Nanda left for his place and we all went to bed. The next day was not as exiting as the previous two days as we had to roam around Bhubaneshwar. We had been to Lingaraj temple, Dauligiri, Kandagiri, Udayagiri in the forenoon session and had lunch at ISKCON. We came back to our hotel for resting a couple of hours and in the evening we had come back to the darshan of Shri Krishna in ISKCON. We also had gone to Ram Mandir after that. Some more time was available for us before we could call off and hence we went to the Mega Mart Mall wanting to do some window shopping. I ended up getting some toys for my nephew and we were in our rooms by 7 PM in the evening.

We checked out at around 7.15 pm from the hotel. We left our baggages in the reception and went to a nearby restaurant called ‘Tangerine’. Even though this restaurant was not as the ‘Tangerine’ in Chennai, the food was good. Once our dinner was done, we understood that we had very few moments for TRR and Co. to catch the train and hence took an auto to the railway station. Even a walk would have brought us to the station in a couple of minutes. Neverthless, we reached the station well ahead of time in an auto. TRR bid farewell first as their train was 1 hour earlier than ours. I was damn tired and hence went straight to my sleeper in 2nd AC and entered a deep slumber.

Our trip had been successfully completed when I reached home in whole at around 6:30 pm on 15th Aug. It’s always so good to get a stong tea from mom after a tired, successful, ever memorable, well planned and well executed trip. Thanks to KP for the company. Thanks to TRR and his inlaws for making our stay and trip pleasant and comfortable in Calcutta. Special Thanks to Nanda for making all the arrangements from hotel booking to cab booking and making our trip memorable. Thanks God!!! For making everything happen as it had to.