Puri Visit: Reloaded “B’day @ Bedlam”

It was preplanned that my parents would come on 4^th September 2004 to celebrate my B’day. Tickets had been bought. Everything was ready but then all cancelled. It came into action exactly after one year with additional plan of tour of Kolkata, Puri, Konark and Bhuvaneshwar (aka Bhubaneswar) and covering four days (1^st to 4^th September). Here is the story of my Puri visit with Mom, Rashmi didi (Elder Sis), Shekhar Bhaiya and Abhilash.

Day1: Kgp: This is a place which I define a Humid – Forrest consists of ruins of 18^th century and hold together by optical wires to prevent collapse.

It was hard but I made them visit each and every stone exist in Kgp in one day. They all fell asleep when climbed the bed. On request for a comment/ remark they just said “(Hindi) Achchha hota ki tera four year course hota.” (Four Years Course would have been better.)

Day2: Kolkata: It was Friday I had a lab class they asked to show them Kolkata. I refused (I am a BAD Boy.). They went Kolkata on their own. ‘Kolkata is not a good place if you are not a Bengali’ describes the best what they said.

Day3&4: Puri, Konark and Bhuvaneshwar: Result of an unplanned journey is pain. However we enjoyed it.

Puri: We had no valid ticket to travel in sleeper class but we climbed in one. Got busted… Paid Rs.350 for five people to TTE without any formality.

3^rd September: We went to all existing temples in Puri. It’s remarkable that you may not find a god/ goddess sculpture into a temple but you will surely find on Pandaa (nothing like Panda. You can say Hindu Monk). No matter what’s their shape, size, sex, language or age is, once you come into their area of influence (varies from 2 meters to 20 meters from their stand point) Pandaa will make you donate at least Rs.21 or above ( depending on their caliber ). You will surely feel looted/ snatched/ humiliated/ hunted/ mentally strained … and many other similar feelings may arise. But for sure you will never feel blessed/ relieved or peace minded. So the peace of lesson we have learnt is Beware of Pandaas.

4^th September: My Birthday … I was greeted, gifted and scrapped (in orkut). We saw Konark Sun Temple (KST) … as I have mentioned in my previous blog Puri Program KST was an embarrassing experience for me because I never see art in it, I always find porn.

‘The scheduled departure from Puri is 10:15 PM on 4^th September by Purushottam Express’ this was the disinformation that we four Educated people were knowing and didn’t bother to have a look on ticket for conformation. (Height of Overconfidence. Isn’t it?) We arrived at platform at 9:30 PM. Train had left the station. ‘Impossible’ was the first word we all spat. But it was true. Departure time was 08:15 PM. How could we do this? … And yes, we were warned there were at least 4 signs:

1. Abhilash had mentioned that at 10:00 PM, train arrives at Bhuvaneshwar. We ignored.

2. Hotel manager had raised his brow when we informed to arrange a taxi at 9:15 PM because Purushottam Express is at 10:15 PM.

3. At 7:45 PM we met a couple running towards Station to catch a train heading to Delhi (Purushottam also goes to Delhi.)

4. We knew it reaches Kharagpur at 4:20 AM and it takes 8 hours to reach Kharagpur from Puri by Purushottam Exp.

Now we were left with no options but wait until its light as there was no train in next 12 hours. Moreover it is a 24 hours journey and we have to sit into overcrowded, dirty, leaky and smelly general class coach. But this time we had some fortune we got one TTE who was ready to allot reserved seats for money. He took Rs.100 per head as his “facilitation – charge” and we had a pleasant journey afterwards.

Now few tips:

1. Never give a single penny (Paisa) to a Pandaa no matter how much he humiliates requests, emotionally blackmails, curses or blesses. He will do these anyway.
2. You can always get a hotel room cheaper and more facilitated than the one you are staying in.
3. If you have long and beautiful hairs don’t go to Puri because you would not shampoo as you wouldn’t ever be able to rinse it off completely and your hairs will start to fall due to hot humid climate.