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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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Book Review : India A to Z, An Alphabetical Tour of Incredible India



A for Aadhar, B for Bazaar, C for Cricket, D for Dabbawala… and so on… goes this version of the alphabet – a very identifiably Indian version. India A to Z: An alphabetical tour of Incredible India, compiled by Veena Sheshadri and Vidya Mani, for Puffin Books, with illustrations by Sony Bhaskaran and cartoons by Greystroke manages to put forth a huge amount of information, combining it with a good dose of humour and titbits of fun facts.


It is impossible to compress India into 160 pages and 26 alphabets. But the team has done a wonderful job in putting it together. All the usual, popular, typically Indian things are there, but so are bits and pieces of the less known ones.

B, for example, covers not just Beaches, Bazaars, and Bollywood, but also the Bhopal Gas Tragedy; M, among Monuments and Monsoon, also lists the Metros and Mythical Monsters; R talks of Religion and Railways, but also the Rupee and the Rajasaurus; and my favourite is X which tells us of the X Avatars of Vishnu and Xuanzang.

The information is short, with multiple illustrations or cartoons on every page. The writing is wonderful, and the editing excellent, because it comes through, not as terse and educational, but concise, informative and engaging.


The target audience is obviously children, and here, they have tapped a booming market. Among the masses of huge encyclopaedias which aim to cover just about anything and everything, the size of the book itself is inviting. The only negative of the size is that there are so many things which are not included, but then, I don’t think it is possible to squeeze India into a book at all! The idea is to engage with young and emerging readers, and encourage them to explore more of India by themselves. This is a cause I heartily concur with, and feel that the book is well placed to do just that!

This book was sent to me for review by Penguin India. The views expressed are my own.





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