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Odisha Part 6: The Yogini Temple of Hirapur

I fell in love with this temple the first time I set eyes on it. Back in 2017 , I had been excited to see yet another Yogini temple, when I visited Puri. The resort I was staying at (and writing for), had arranged for a car and driver to take me around. The driver was happy to take me to most of the places I wanted to go, but when it came to Hirapur, he was appalled. He knew of the temple, but had never been there. It was a tantric temple, one not visited by women, and certainly not women travelling alone. He tried to convince me not to go, but my stubbornness and persistence paid off, and he reluctantly agreed when I told him that if he didn’t take me, I would find another driver who would. All along the way, he kept going on about the sinister things that happened at the temple, the tantric rituals that were performed at night…. An Odisha brahmin who took his religious duties very seriously, to the extent of stopping the car to perform the sandhyavandam when he deemed it time, he...
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Faces in the Crowd - Children at Work

We saw these boys on the way to Wayanad, but this scene could have been anywhere in India.



Two boys, hard at work, cleaning a pump, outside a garage. Its always sad to see young children in rags, working, at an age when they should be at school, or playing. Its worse when they are right outside a college, to which, in all possibility, people pay lakhs to get their kids into, and then the said kids waste away their time learning little if nothing, throwing away their parents' hard earned money in frivolous pursuits. Could there be a higher contrast?

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Comments

  1. IndraniSeptember 15, 2013 at 1:09 PM

    Hmmm... tough life!
    Nicely framed.

    ReplyDelete
  2. MridulaSeptember 15, 2013 at 2:14 PM

    Life anywhere you go it roughly remains the same :(

    ReplyDelete
  3. kebhariSeptember 16, 2013 at 2:18 PM

    Children worked life is very dangerous.

    ReplyDelete
  4. ChitraxeeSeptember 16, 2013 at 2:57 PM

    We invite you to Aviva's #BloggerContest. To read our T&C and participate, click on http://bit.ly/134qouZ !

    ReplyDelete
  5. Nomad Travel InsuranceSeptember 17, 2013 at 9:59 AM

    Thanks for sharing your one of a kind adventure. :)

    ReplyDelete

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