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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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An Interesting Sight



Have you heard of Deballasting? I certainly hadn’t, until we happened to see the process in action……………..




We saw this sight while returning from Elephanta, and were curious about what they were doing.
Thankfully, we have a marine expert at home (my father-in-law), who told us that this process of pumping out the excess water from a ship is called Deballasting. Google yielded a lot more information, and you can check out this link for an explanation for laymen like us.

Anyway, leaving aside the technicality, it looks good, doesn’t it? Every person on the ferry was busy taking photos, and there might be quite a few floating around the internet already! In any case, here are a few more….







Some oil from the tanks seems to have mixed with the water, showing us all these wonderful colours! (I dont think this really counts as an oil spill, since the amount of oil would have been very small, so I could really enjoy the view!)







So, have you seen anything as interesting while on a boat ride?


Location: Apollo Bandar, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

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