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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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Our favourite Ganesha this year

This one certainly has to be the best one we have seen so far... not the Ganesha, the decoration, of course!! I am talking about the Ganpati at Chembur Station.

The Ganesha himself is rather nice....


.... and the decoration is based on Mumbai roads.....



Of course, not the potholed roads of reality, but the smooth and traffic-less roads we dream will be a reality someday....

But the main attraction here is the Monorail.... which is right now making life for us miserable, with all the roads being dug up, but which will hopefully bring some respite for us when it is finally ready in the distant future....
As of now, the model of this monorail runs smoothly to and fro, thrilling each and every visitor to this Pandal...


Samhith insisted on staying put till the Monorail made a couple of journeys to and fro, leaving only when a huge crowd entered, and the attendant politely asked us to leave!!! But at least now he knows what the monorail will look like!!!

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Location: Chembur, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Comments

  1. UshaSeptember 18, 2010 at 11:28 AM

    I remember the conversation with him about the monorail; this was in an auto on our way back to the building from his music class. And I remember thinking how he is the only person I know in Mumbai who is looking at all the digging positively :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. chitraSeptember 18, 2010 at 3:55 PM

    I am sure Samhith would have liked to stay in pandal for long.. So fascinating it looks. .All these festivals fills the mind with happiness.

    ReplyDelete
  3. MridulaSeptember 18, 2010 at 10:26 PM

    I can see that Samhith would have been fascinated by the monorail!

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousSeptember 18, 2010 at 11:11 PM

    Oh lovely theme!! thats a gorgeous Ganesha!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anuradha ShankarSeptember 19, 2010 at 3:03 PM

    @Usha: Oh yes, i remember that conversation. he is still in favour of all that digging, but cant understand why they cant repair our road too... its much worse now... but he actually understood what the monorail would look like only when he saw it...

    @Chitra: oh yes... he would love to stay there all day long, but so would all the other kids too :) and some of these pandals are quite crowded, so they push us out after a while...

    @Mridula: oh, he's absolutely fascinated... cant wait for it!

    @Patty: oh yes, it certainly was the best one we have seen this year :)

    ReplyDelete

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