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Odisha Part 2 - Puri: The Experience of Jagannath

The temple of Jagannath at Puri is one of the four most important temples across India. Sometimes called the Char Dham – Badrinath in the north, Rameswaram in the South, Dwarka in the west, and Puri in the east – these temples mark four corners of our country, and each of these temples has a connection to Adi Shankara. He is said to have travelled to each of them, thus marking a sacred geography of India, long before the country actually existed. Among these 4 temples, 3 are dedicated to Lord Vishnu, while only Rameswaram is dedicated to Lord Shiva, though the lingam there is said to have been installed by Rama. Further, Shankara set up Mutts at 3 of these sites (or very close to these sites, like at Badrinath, where the mutt is at Joshimutt), while the mutt in the south is at Sringeri in Karnataka, quite a distance away from Rameswaram. Coming back to the topic, I have visited Rameswaram most often, Badrinath during my childhood, and Dwaraka a few times, but Puri had stayed out of re...
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A short break from the routine…


School closed for the year, and has begun again, bringing with it the prospect of changes and something new. The vacation in between was too short to be considered a real vacation, for it was just a week long. But we made the most of it, packing into the short week a few days of relaxation in a pleasant place far away from the madding crowd, as well as a couple of days as part of the crowd, visiting relatives galore and eating like there was no tomorrow!

You can look forward to reams of writing about my vacation, as well as lots of photos, for I used up 2GB of memory clicking away to glory! However, the beginning of the new term has ensured that I have little time to write, so it will take some time to put down all that I want to.

Let me begin by telling all of you where I went for the vacation. Our first stop was Delhi, where I have hordes of relatives, whom I haven’t visited for over 10 years! After spending half a day rushing from one house to another, we managed to reach Old Delhi station in time to catch the Ranikhet express to Kathgodam. From there, we hired a car for the three and a half hour journey to Binsar, or rather more accurately, the Club Mahindra Valley Resort at Binsar, where we spent 5 days in bliss, enjoying the serenity and visiting just a couple of places. Our return journey brought us back to Delhi, this time to the house of a cousin, where we spent the day chatting and catching up, while Samhith got to know his cousins, who look and behave incredibly like him! We also caught up with another cousin who joined us there, and it was a riot with 5 kids between the ages of 6 and 8 let loose, having the time of their lives! Dropping all other plans, we let the kids enjoy themselves, and rushed directly to the station to catch our train back, bringing a memorable vacation to a close.

While I collate the thoughts I jotted down during my trip into a semblance of order, take a look at the slideshow of my photographs….. or for a more leisurely stroll, go to the album. 



Comments

  1. AnonymousApril 7, 2010 at 12:04 PM

    Itz good to know you had good time on a 'short vacation'

    Some of the photos really awesome.

    Keep up, good going

    Jay :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. MridulaApril 7, 2010 at 4:11 PM

    Good to hear about your vacation. Waiting for the pictures.

    ReplyDelete
  3. lotus ladyApril 8, 2010 at 8:18 AM

    clicking away to glory it is, wow how many pictures :)Wow, you guys are going to lots of cool places, we should do such trips together sometimes.

    padma.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anuradha ShankarApril 9, 2010 at 1:34 PM

    @Jay: thanks....

    @Mridula: thanks....see the pics on picasa meanwhile...

    @Padma: thanks... would love to do it together..... but times wouldnt match, at least right now..... lets see how things go.....

    ReplyDelete

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