Delhi to Orisa

PART 1: Delhi to Orisa
Again a start, A new start. This time Life ( and my company too) gave me an opportunity to let me spend my time to explore the Eastern part of India. It was rain of marriages.. and one of my friend- Utkalika(nick name Ut) - a resident of Utkal( old name of orisa), is one of the lucky ones. Her invitation gave me a chance to make my plans to start visiting towards eastern part of my motherland.

Route MAP:
start on 7th night from Delhi... reach PURI on 09th morning at 6 AM... will go to konark and will come back to Puri... on 9th night, travel to Jharsuguda.
Before you read further.... I want to read a old phrase ...

INSAAN banaataa hai, KHUDAA dikhaata hai.( means human make their plan BUT god show them the TRUTH)

My trip starts with the shopping which I did for Ut's marriage - A trouser, which had an important role in this SAGA. As per starting of distance from a point, I started my journey on 7th night, with my Bag on back and Cam on shoulder. I reached NDLS station to board Purshottam express. Since, it was a long journey(33 hours, as per railway TIME TABLE) so I started talking with fellow passengers. I had a policeman's family and a banker in my coach. The whole night and next day was gone with chatting with them and playing with kids. Sadhana Singh- the kid was one of them because of which I just lost the count of hours. They left the train at "ChandPura" and I was all alone in my compartment. I enquired about the train timing with attendant and he gave me a weired smile. I came to the gate and asked the same question with another passanger and he gave me an answer that crashed the first phase of my plan (remembered my LINES right) He told me that train will stay overnight in Tata Nagar as there was some naxalite issue in that area. He told me that now train will reach puri only after 2 PM.
On Tata Nagar platform, I came down from my train with my luggage. It was a complete torture from God. Rain from top along with cold breeze was testing my resistance. I sat near fire to fight with that climate. I ordered my dinner from a nearby shop and started eating. Suddenly a boy scared from a dog came and hit me. I hushed the dog and calmed the boy. After that, I turned at my bag and saw that whole DAL was spilled over it. I unzipped it and found that my black trouser was half yellow from bottom end. I washed it and kept it near fire so that it can dry till morning. But Revenge of god has just started. I don’t know how my trousers went so near to fire that they catch fire and by the time we kept that apart, there are only 1.5 legs out of 2, left in it. Truelly speaking, I felt a drop of water in my eyes for the sudden death of my trouser.
I spent my night with those 3 people, my bag and that trouser. At 6, train started from there and reached Puri at 3PM. I deposited my luggage in cloak room and went out for Puri darshan. I went to puri beach and famous Puri temple. clicked pics, ate prasad, bought a new shirt and Jeans (as I have to change my whole dress for UT's marriage bcoz of last night in(ac)cident). I had my dinner from puri, boarded at my train at 9PM and went to sleep. Next morning, i was in Jharsuguda at 6AM. I was at my destination, I called Ut's brother and asked him the way to hotel. As soon as I entered in the room, met with Bidya's ( Groom of utkalika) friend.
As soon as we got freshed, we made a plan to visit Hirakud dam, one of the largest man made reserviour in Asia. We hired a cab and headed towards Shaakambari temple and then to Hirakud dam. Authorities of Dam has constructed a tall building so that tourist can take a good view of the Dam. The view from that Dam was awesome. From that tower, it was like you are standing on a shore and can see endless water in your front. Only difference was there are certain land spots(upper part of drowned mountains in dam's water) here which are nowhere present in Sea. We are back from there at around 3 to Ut's house.
It was totally a new kind of marriage for me. Rituals were kind of same but execution was totally different, starting from HALDI-SNAAN to Devi Pooja. Baraat arrived at hotel at 4 and got refreshed and started at 6. I always loved the dance of a BARAAT as it’s the only place for a non-talented dancers to show his/her talent to whole world. Be it the snake dance, Bhangra aur dance on a filmy tune( Here, I saw people dancing on Oriya songs too ;-) ). It was an AWESOME experience. As soon as the BARAAT entered in the UT's premises. I get the hold of my camera and started clicking the photos of all occasions. Ut in colourful lehangaa( a traditional dress) and saris was looking so pretty. She has changed 5 Saris in one day to attend different rituals. A new ritual means a NEW sari!!
It was a funny night as I saw that why people in rural India doesn't have BACK problem as they have to greet everyone by touching their feet which acts as a GOOD exercise for them and they stay HEALTHY in return. On that day, I think Ut touched almost 500+ people feet to take blessings. She is a NUT as she was smiling throughout the marriage while Bidya was looking so TENSE all way(Don't know why??). Utkalika was so excited in giving poses to me , Sach and the photographer( I think she had drunk the whole bottle of BOOST energy drink ;-) ). In between, The priests of bride and groom side started arguing over performing a ritual. Somehow people manage to calm them down and finally marriage got over at 1 AM. I went to sleep as final see off of utkalika was scheduled for 3AM. I went to Bed and by the time, I opened my eyes, it was 7 AM. Utkalika was gone and I thanked GOD for saving me from that teary scene of see-off of a girl from her native.

My first leg of journey gets over with a 1.5 leg trouser, loads of pics, lots of sweets, new friends and Puri Darshan.

Sometimes, you smile on the pain which you got in journey. In the real time, you curse yourself for not doing the same thing again. But after a month when you think about the incident, you laugh and think about to do the same in planned manner. I was thinking the same for my overnight stay in TATANAGAR stay, except my trouser thing!!

Fun is a thing which you can never compare. To know more about my fun in my journey… read on my next blog about my return journey. This is not the end of journey as my next plan was to move towards Delhi via Agra with Sachu! And important point to note that my old companion MY LUCK is still UPSET with ME!