Enroute to Kolkata

Kolkata is not far now

With Araku and Bastar done, I was kind of open to any direction in India. We could have gone further up to Raipur or start moving west. My father on every call was essentially saying the same thing - "you are closer to Kolkata than Bangalore, why don't you come over".

We decided to start moving towards Kolkata and asked Google maps to navigate towards Bhubaneshwar. I had wanted to take kids to Wonder la this summer and coincidentally there was one in Bhubaneshwar. We crossed the Eastern Ghats again to move towards the coast and regain access to the Chennai-Kolkata highway via Vizianagaram. We ended up 500kms later at the Swosti Chilika lake Resort. Chilika lake is the largest lake in India and I have wanted to see that since the Covid days when I was in Kolkata for a year but could not visit. Another tick mark from a long due list.

Swosti Chilika lake resort is a premium resort and was our most expensive stay throughout at Rs 13000 / night. It was not exorbitant but in this trip I was usually conservative so the amount stood out. As per our ritual, kids and I went swimming in the evening and had a good time. The asian food at the hotel was good and Devasya enjoyed chicken dimsums which is literally his favorite food.

In our previous trips to beaches like Goa, Thailand, Bali we never went on a speed boat together - a request from Devasya which I decided to make sure to fulfil now. So, we went ahead and booked a speed boat for the next morning. At 7:15 AM, excited, we went to the hotel pier for the boat ride. Early morning, speed boat ride was a good way to wake us all up. Not completely unexpected the first stop was an island where again there was a temple constructed in the middle of the lake. Another instance where temples find their way where Indians go. On the way back, the captain of the boat suggested buying some snacks to feed the seagulls. That was good fun as the seagulls are excellent catchers and you can simply throw the snacks up high and they will dive and catch it. We were surprised to learn the sea gulls enjoy eating aalu bondas too. In a previous experience at a ferry from Gateway of India in Mumbai we had fed corn puffs to sea gulls - they seem to enjoy spicy food. The video does not do justice to the effort of sea gulls as they were able to keep up and continue to eat mid air even when the speed boat went full throttle.

Filling up on breakfast we started towards Wonderla. The kids had a blast at the water park and specifically enjoyed the wave pool. I see so much of my reflection in Devasya as he displays his discomforts with these fast rides and tall slides. Like me he grits his teeth and goes through it but sometimes he refuses to and cannot be reasoned with if he has made up his mind. Dhimahi can be reasoned with and she will try to overcome her fear as I noted at the cable car ride.

Jagannath Temple

Post Wonderla we headed towards Jagannath Puri Dham and we had enough time to reach the temple. The simplest way is to park the car in the official car park and then take a buggy ride to the temple. Here we noted a few other KA marked cars and we were happy to see other enthusiasts driving all the way to Puri from Karnataka. Again, here we noted the protocol behavior where some buggies were reserved for such VIPs and we had to wait for the commoner buggy. The temple was crowded and I thought about engaging an agent for a faster darshan - again using the privilege of money if not influence. The dramatisation of the corrupt officers involved was hilarious as they wrote meaningless signature on our palms as if that will act as the code to pass through. The agent took us close enough but could not cut through the final line and we had to join the queue just before the final darshan. The crowd at all such popular deities is immense and the push increases as you near the darshan point. My fear is the kids being crushed or being separated. Taking the agent helped here as he hoisted Devasya on his shoulders and I picked up Dhimahi for safety. Amid the pushing crowd we saw Lord Jagannath and came out. Personally, I feel nothing at such crowded temples as they are definitely not a place for spirituality any more.

There is a cluster of temples outside, and at each temple the pandits try to extort money from devotees. At the Annapurna devi temple the pandit gave me a small metal murti of the goddess and told me the goddess has selected me to be showered with her blessings for a mere Rs 500. I turned back with the murti without giving the money as I said the goddess has already selected me. Of course, he asked for the idol back immediately without any payment. Unfortunately, Shreya fell for this trap at the Hanuman temple where the Pandit extracted Rs 1000 from her for a Gadha (Mace) by saying that will bring prosperity and keep the family safe if she continues to keep the mace in her wallet. I did not know people prayed to Hanuman for wealth - I guess it works in favour of the Pandits at least.

The agent outside asked if we would like to see the morning aarti as well. My response was that we do not have the ticket if one is required. He promptly said - "Yeh Jagannath dham hai, Tirupati nahi jahan paisa deke darshan hota hai". Irony killed itself at that point. I declined anyway as I did not want to tire kids out with another early morning.

We saw the celebrated flag changing ceremony at the temple where a priest climbs to a height of 65 metres unassisted and without any safety equipment and changes the flag. This has been going on for centuries. The old flag and flag pieces brought down are again sold for a price.

We stayed at Sterling Puri for the night. The next morning we headed out to the Sun Temple in Konark.

Sun temple

Going to archaeological sites with kids is a pain. They are not old enough to enjoy the history, culture or science behind it. the Sun Temple at Konark has it all. It is one of the few temples dedicated to the Sun God. The Sun Dod is represented three sides as a young boy, youth a king and then finally as a god in the sancto sanctorum which is sealed. The temple itself is inoperational as it was filled with sand in early 20th century completely by the then British government to prevent it from collapsing. An oft-repeated pattern is noticed across temples in northern India - there were big temple centres which were disfigured and brought to ruins by being ignored during the Islamic period of India. The British government made some efforts to restore while looting the temples in the process. This will be the same with the temples of Khajuraho later as well. From an engineering perspective, the Sun Temple is much more advanced and bigger than temples of Khajuraho. The wheels around the temple act as a sun clock to a good enough precision providing indicative time. The temple also functioned as a lighthouse in erstwhile times. Temples were centres of art and science and anchors of daily life in ancient India reduced solely to religious activity now as per modern dogma of separation of state and religion. There are ongoing efforts to restore the Sun temple from inside as well by draining out the sand slowly from inside and discover the hidden art and culture shut for hundreds of years. Hopefully, that will happen soon.

Another Interesting aspect was that Sun Temple was built by the Ganga dynasty which at its peak with the expanding empire displaced the Kakatiya dynasty from Warangal. The same Kakatiya dynasty we encountered in Bastar and which has an unbroken lineage till now. This kind of serendipitous historical connection has never happened with me before where I visited multiple geographically disconnected places in one go tied together with a single historical thread. And this will not be the last instance on this trip.

I highly recommend visiting the Sun temple if you are in the region. It is worth seeing and exploring.

After this we started towards Kolkata but we could only make it as far as Balasore by 5:30PM and did not want to drive further in the night. 245 km from Kolkata we halted for the night. Next morning given the unexpectedly great National Highways we made it to Kolkata in 3h 30m straight - it was a good and fast run and we reached my family where they were eagerly waiting for us (more for the kids).

We spent 9 days in Kolkata but it gave me time to change the tyres of the car as one tyre had a cut in the sidewall and I did not want to run further with it. I have wanted Michelin tires for a long time but never spent the extra buck as we were mostly driving within the city. This time I took this opportunity to get the Michelin Primacy 4 - another small wish fulfilled. The tires did make an immense difference which I realised post the installation - the extra price is justified.

We reached Kolkata with a lifetime of memories already on 12th April, 10 days after leaving from Bangalore. We left from Kolkata on 21st April resuming the journey.