An evening in Bhubaneswar

It has been raining and raining. The plan to visit Puri and Konark today was trashed off. Partly because of rains. Partly because none of us (my colleagues in the guest-house and myeslf) got up early enough. I got up a little after one in the afternoon. 😛 A first-timer for me in Bhubaneswar.

Rains make me miss things. Rains make me desire for people who aren’t around. Rains make me miss romance. Somebody listening? When will December come? 🙁

As the rain slowed down in the evening, I decided to go out and stroll in the city roads. By the time I was ready, it had started raining again.

Alright. Enough. I have to go out anyway. So what if it’s raining! Traffic on road must be low. It has been raining since eternity afterall. And it anyway has been a while since I last ran in rain. Let me do it today. Let me run on the roads of Bhuv in rain.

I changed into my running shorts and tee. By the time I was ready, the rain had stopped. WTF!

So you trying to tease my rain-God? I am not going to give up, you wet thing up there. I will change again.

I changed back to jeans and shirt. It didn’t start raining this time. 🙂

There were two places that I wanted to check out. First was the Orissa Book Store (OBS). I pass by this long stretch of a book-shop everyday, as my car takes me to and brings me back from, office. A long green colored hoarding that runs parallel to this building, displaying OBS in bold white fonts, has something special about it. It makes you feel like going inside and smelling the scent that comes from bounded papers.

Once inside, I gave up. I was the only person trying to make my way through shelves of books. Everyone else inside the 1500 square feet wide book-shop was a staff-member. Most fans were off, so were most of the lights. As I would walk towards a particular shelf, someone would switch the closest fan and the closest tube-light on. Since I kept moving from here to there too fast for them to manage the electric circuitry, I was sweating and moving in dark most of the times. I kept moving from here to there, because it took me some time to realize that OBS was just another big college book store. It wasn’t an Oriyan version of Odyssey or Landmark or Crossword. I was too used to encountering sections named as Latest Arrival, Indian Fiction, International Non-fiction etc. At OBS I saw myself rushing through sections like Biology, Sociology, Statistics, Food and Agriculture. It was more like the IIT Library. Before the sweat could kill me, I ran out.

There were two places that I wanted to check out. The first had been a disaster. The second was CCD.

CCDs everywhere are the same. Well almost! Same uniforms, same menu, same mug and the same packets of sugar. As usual, I had my Grande Latte and as usual I slid the two sugar packets into my shirt-pocket, to be consumed later. For an instant I felt I was back at IIT. For an instant I felt at home.

These coffe-shops (or for that matter shopping malls) are the hip places here in Bhuv. Local junta come all dressed up and spend loads of money on items which definitely aren’t served best at CCD. I sometimes feel weird to see everyone so elated just by being at a coffee shop. Five years spent in a metro have left me with these side-effects. 🙂

There were two places that I wanted to check out. I checked out three. While coming back I, ended up saying hi to few Gods and Goddesses in a cute Ram temple on Janpath. I am not sure if I ever went to a temple alone (probably once in IIT), or even asked anyone else to come with me. I usually go if I am dragged along (mostly by the family).

A couple of folks were singing bhajan and I sat down near them, with a straight back and closed eyes, feeling the divine air mixed with the fragrance emanating from myriad orange and white colored flowers and numerous lit diyas. Sitting inside the temple courtyard today, helped me connect to Deoghar. Deoghar, as the name suggests (Dev + Ghar = God + house) is all about a pretty famous shiv temple. That’s where my parents have been living since past few years.

Hmm. A sweet evening. Starting from tomorrow I have three days to get gifts for family and friends. I shall be flying to Mumbai coming Thursday for a company get-together that will go on till Sunday. Mummy and sishter are there and so I should find time, and visit them. And hand over gifts from my first (offical) salary! 🙂 An authentic oriyan sari for mom, and my one and half year old DELLruba for sis will do but I am still not sure what to get for dad. Suggestions anyone?