My travels: Day 9 (Apr-20) : Lord Jagannath

We took a boat ride early in the morning on Chilka lake and went to a temple island (Kalijai) early in the morning. The ride was okay and I was trying hard to take a pic of a flying bird. I was not really successful. But just check out the pics. the temple was nothing great, but the route behind it certainly was. We actually saw nesting ground of large water birds with adult cormorants and herons feeding their young!!! Trees in that small area were full with birds and the place had become white with bird’s you know what. I got a few cool pics. Well, talk about luck!

Okay, I'm not a religious fellow. Nor do I agree to the fact that only Hindus are allowed to see Lord Jagannath. But taking all in to consideration, the temple is just AWESOME!!! Never have I seen such intricate carvings to last for 800 years! The idols are at least twice the life size.

We had planned not to do any Pooja, but by his grace, we entered at the right time to witness one of the greatest functions of the temple. A guy climbs up approx 150 ft temple to change the flag up there. This is done every evening irrespective of the weather. Even if there is cyclone!! What skill! Who says rock climbing is only done on mountains!

We entered the core temple to see the lords Jagannath and his brother Balabhadra(Shankar) & sister Subhadra(Brahma). We were asked to tell the lord what we wanted in our brains that wish is supposed to completed. First, I asked for admission to IIT. Then other things. After a just moment or two there, I said "I don't want anything" I don't know how it came to me, but somehow it filled my heart with content and great pleasure. A pleasure so great, that even forgot my existence for a moment or two.

Jagannath is the place where the lord is supposed to have been eating, hence, the Prasad here is an entire meal. What taste!! Simple rice but What a taste! The rice is cooked daily in the temple and the Prasad is called ओभोड़ा (aa - bho - dla) the dla part is bit tricky for non-north-Indian Hindi speaking people. So as I was saying, above 4 tonnes of food is cooked in huge containers and then served.

When we went back to our hotel, we saw a lot of lights on the beach. We went there to see a dance sequence for an Oriya movie being shot. It was interesting to see the hero and heroines going through the same steps again and again till the director and choreographer were satisfied.