Trip to Jagannath temple

So I left with my family on 3’rd march for our maiden trip to Jagannath puri, the coastal temple city in the eastern state of Orissa.
The train journey was comfortable. We went to kanpur first and then took the bhubneshwar rajdhani from thereon. It was some 19 hours journey and once we reached bhubneshwar, we took cab to puri. It is a nice small town abuzz with activity around the seashore. Next day morning we got ready and left for the temple.
The temple attracts lot of crowd right from the first ray of light in the morning. Here is a mythological logic about the temple diety. It is said that there are four major Dhams of lord Krishna, these are:-
1) Badrinath in north: The lord did his Tap (puja) here; hence people do puja and yoga sadhna here.
2) Rameshwaram in south: Here the lord took bath; hence people who go there offer Ganga water to the lord for Abbhhishek.
3) Jagannath in East: The lord had his meal here; hence here people offer food to lord and there are bhog done 7 times in the whole day.
4) Dwarka in West: Here the lord lived as king; hence is worshipped here as a king.

As you come near to the temple area you will start seeing the endless number of Pandaas. These are the scum of earth who I don’t know how and why have been given the right to maintain the temple. These shall harass you to the last piece of cloth on your body. My father was pretty cool; he gave money as when there were people haggling for it. He didn’t mind spending. But I lost my temper once, had a confrontation and would have certainly hit that one man had my father not intervened, after that of course all of them together might have took me down and all but whatever. The experience got spoiled for me for sure anyways. My family though was quite enjoying the Darshans. My mother wanted to visit this place since very long and was visibly elated to be there finally.
There are three idols in the temple: Lord Krishna, His sister Subhadra, and elder brother Balbhadra. The idols are made new after every 12 years. Whole temple area does have a great aura around itself.
After visiting the temple we came to our hotel. And now the fun part begins. There was vast Bay of Bengal right in front and nothing else to do. I changed the clothes and ran straight to the beach. First wave, second wave, waves after waves and there was sand all over me. What the FUCK!!! It wasn’t supposed to be like this. There is only water in the sea, where does the damn sand came from . Came back to the room. Changed the clothes, cleaned the clothes ( my mom thrashed me and asked me to do it myself). It was an AC room and given the high humidity in Puri, the clothes refused to dry up even. In the evening there was somewhat less heat (we are in May u see!!) and the seabeach also came to life. There were people all around. Hawkers selling eatables, some fisherman selling pearls and stuff, horses and camels for rides, crying kids, yelling aunties, and the damn gorgeous Bengali girl(almost 80% tourists are Bengalis in puri, and she was one among the millions). We thoroughly enjoyed the great sea breeze and had a bit of adventure while camel riding (I am a rajasthani, but it took me 25 years of age and travel to another end of the country for camel riding).
Next day we went for the trip to all the nearby places for sightseeing. Rest of the places didn’t deserve much of mention except for the Konark temple. This is a great temple folks. Truly reflecting on the great architectural skills of our country and the depth in philosophy and social structure. The temple is of lord Sun. The structure is made like there is a big cart holding the temple on it. The idol used to be hanging in air as it was suspended by the magnet at top and earth’s pull from down!! Mother Fucker Britishers took the idol with them for their museum and destroyed a lot of temple building. Even after that whatever is left is damn good too!! The wheels of the cart structure are made such that with the shadow made by the sun during the day, one can accurately calculate the time in the day to the last minute. There is also interesting story the guide told us there. Actually there are art carvings on the stone building of the temple all around it. According to the historians, there was the bloodiest battle of Kalinga that took place here during the time of King Ashoka in 250 BC. What it led to was that the whole area was cleared of men. There were almost no men left in the region. That was the era when there was lesbianism in the society there. This is depicted in the carvings on the temple. Can you imagine there were Lesbians in India 2000 years ago!!!

Anyways came back to hotel room after long day trip to nearby places. We covered almost all the worth visiting sites. Took a nice bath and then dinner…it is time to bed now .

Next day we were supposed to leave puri and reach bhubneshwar. We were to leave at 8 am around. I thought of one final dual with the might sea. Got up early at 4 am, got fresh and changed clothes and rushed towards the sea shore. The sun was to be slightly seen at the other side of the horizon and it appeared to be a big big orange coming out from the ocean. There was amazing sea breeze blowing and giant waves hurling towards the shore. Sat for sometime at the shore but soon got interested enough to get wet!! Stepped down towards the sea front and took waves after waves head on. The cool sea breeze and moist sand beneath the feet made the experience feel like heaven!!! But as is the irony, some or the other thing always goes wrong, there was this one big wave that came out of nowhere, caught me simple dumbfounded, it rose so high and came with lot of force, it took my specs with it. Yes I am almost 6 feet high and was standing on the shore, not even at the water desk, and there was this huge wave that spoiled the mood. I was having sand all over me and poor me, I lost quite a bit of my sight as well . Came back to my hotel room and got big time thrashing from dad and this time even mom as well. But seriously speaking I liked it. I was 10 year old again and enjoyed every moment of my mischief and goof up and later of my scolding!!!

Came to bhubneshwar later in the day and caught our train back the next day early morning. Mostly insignificant stuff, just stayed in the hotel again ( bhubneshwar has bad temperature this time of the year by the way :( ), watched Rajpal Yadav’s ‘main meri patni aur who’, nice romantic comedy movie :).