Orissa Diary

My ideas about Orissa, the state on the east coast of India was restricted to only two things- it is one of the poorest states of India, economically, after Bihar, and that it is frequented by cyclones.
Thankfully, this trip had lots to offer to clarify my pre meditated notions about the place. I had an opportunity to visit this beautiful state through an NGO called SRISTI, we were 70 travelers, from different parts of India, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerela etc. and from varied backgrounds, professors, farmers and their families, students. So, this medley group set out in the first week of May for Bhubneshwar.
The train journey, fun as usual, nothing is more exciting than traveling by the ‘Sleeper Class’ in India! And especially for someone like me who loves to talk! I had a good chance to polish my Gujarati, and learn Oriya during the 2 day journey.

7th May
We reached Bhubhneshwar on the 7th and I took off for Konark with a friend (My first biking trip!). And here began the ‘journey of shattering myths’! The road from Bhubhneshwar to Konark (Around a distance of 100 kms) is one of the most picturesque in the world. The roads are lined with lush parrot green fields of rice, canals, and mud houses with the traditional tribal paintings in white on them. Oh, and the wind…it is mind ‘blowing’!! (I lost my favorite blue satin scarf to it!)We took many stops on the way (I should thank Sayan, my friend for being extremely patient with me as I made him stop from a speed of 80 suddenly so that I could collect some cashew fruits from the road or collect these lovely lavender colored flowers!) since I had decided to follow Lao Tzu this time and his famous quote,

“ A good travel is never in a hurry to arrive at the destination’
We reached Pipali at noon which is famous for its handicraft named ‘Chandua’, umbrellas made of multi hued clothes and adorned with glasswork. I shopped (Am a compulsive shopaholic) and then we set off again towards the Sun Temple. Konark was supposed to be a port town in the earlier times built by King Narsimhan in the 11th century (I hope I got that right!) and had a huge magnet inserted on the top of the temple so that the enemy ships got destroyed on the shore as they were powerfully attracted to it and lost control. Apparently, invaders took the magnet away, but the temple has still lots to offer in terms of architecture and sculptures. I was amazed by the ingenuity of it, the idea of it being on a chariot with horses and flanked by giant wheels is a must see!

Next stop was the famous Marine Drive (Bears some resemblance to the one in Mumbai!) at a distance of some kilometers from the temple. It is this stretch of road that leads to the beach, and the beach called Chandrabhanu is perfect, not too crowded, not commercialized, ideal to take a long walk…

I made by way back to the railway station after this to take my train to Koraput, a district, south of Orissa, supposedly the place where rice farming took birth. The train journey this time was rather interesting; I shared the compartment with a management professor from Bhubhneswar, a senior government servant from Delhi, an Ayurveda practitioner from a village near Bangalore, and an old ‘Kaka’ from Junagadh. I can say that I had one of the best debates on every issue from India’s stand on Pakistan, the Naxal movement, the possibility of a Third World War and what not! And of course also got tips about how to have a glowing skin from Vaidya Sridharji, our Ayurveda practitioner, and why I should take up classical dancing because I had the eyes of a classical dancer! (One of the best compliments I’ve ever got!)

8th May
We reached Koraput on 8th morning, and went to the government quarters at Pottangi, a town in Koraput, and the day wore on without us venturing out too much. The highlight was the arrival of my professor in the evening and of course, my first taste of a proper Oriya meal, rice, dal, and potatoes in gravy, all served in a plate made out of leaves. For the next 7 days, our standard lunch and dinner consisted of this without any change in the recipe. 9th morning or the D-Day (Since the purpose for which I had come to this place officially commenced today) I woke up at 4am (Extremely disturbing phenomena which was restricted only to Orissa, sleeping at 12 and instantly up without an alarm at 4!) and went on the morning hunt (Hunt for water, and a place where I could take a bath, I call it a place, since there were no bathrooms most of the time)

(To be continued – my eventful week traveling on foot in the tribal areas of Koraput and the quick trip to Bastar, the ‘Selva Judum’ district)

Okay, blame it on my muses! I really didn’t have the inclination somehow combined with lack of time to write the sequel to this! But then, fortunately for me and all my blog visitors (God! Do I sound pompous or what!) the North West Monsoon hit Chennai and well, the rains got me back to my writing desk, or should I say got the laptop back on my lap!!

So, let me take you back again to Orissa, and test my memory to see if I remember everything from the trip that I made 6 months ago! Okay, getting back to 9th morning, I finished my ablutions in time to help prepare the cook of a nearby dhaba from where our breakfast was supposed to come to prepare puris. That itself was an experience since I am not used to handling white flour, but thankfully, the cook there was sympathetic and let me experiment a bit before I could get a knack of preparing the puris! Our “Shodhyatra” began sharp at 9am from a temple dedicated to the river Ganges in Pottangi.

The concept of Shodhyatra is unique, its purpose is to find and document traditional knowledge. Innovation is something that is not restricted to furnished and well equipped laboratories, but can happen under the thatched roof of a villager whose income is less that a dollar a day. Our purpose was also to find out about the traditional methods used by them which were collectively owned and passed from generation to generation by word of mouth, much like our folklores.
Getting back to the temple where the official inauguration of the yatra happened, we had a couple if government officials like the Block Development Officer, and others presiding over it. One thing I realized at that time was how my knowledge of Civics (Which I prided myself on, being an Arts student) was actually minimal. I didn’t even know how states are divided into blocks, and the different hierarchies that exist in the bureaucratic system. (Believe it or not, but am reading up my 10th grade CBSE Civics textbook again to know all about it!) Oh, and one more important discovery I made during this session was that Biotique products are genuinely herbal! I had applied this biotique sunscreen and apparently because of the fruit content, I was attracting a lot of fruit flies! (To test this finding, I got 3 more people to apply it, and well, my hypothesis was proved right!)
We proceeded from the temple to the Champa Khanda High School, 2-3 kilometers on foot. (I forgot to mention above that during the Shodhyatra, we are supposed to walk to every village which amounts to an average of 20kms of walking a day. The purpose being again to observe the farming practices and interact more with people we meet on the way and spread the message about innovations) Here we met some students who had documented various locally available plants and their uses. The uses can range from medicinal to agro based and miscellaneous.
But, the interesting aspect of traditional methods is that the usage would sometimes seem absolutely disconnected with the disease. For example, the remedy for a sprain in the leg was a decoction of ‘Brajkholi’ plant (local name) and sesame seed oil boiled and put behind the ears! This way, we visited a couple of more villages around, to document various uses of local flora and fauna.

Everywhere we went; we were treated with respect and made to feel at home. The welcome was of course very exciting with the traditional dance ‘dhemsa’ being performed wherever we went and I had a good time dancing with them, hands on the waist of the next dancer and so on, making a long chain of around 25 women and dancing till you actually reach the village.In one of the villages, impulsive that I am, I asked a lady that I wanted to wear the sari in their style (It is tied at the shoulders and looks very beautiful) and gladly the women there let me in one of their houses. None of the houses in that particular village had electricity and were mostly composed of a large room and maybe, another small extension of it which acted as the kitchen. Sanitation facilities were of course is normally available only in the house of one or two people in the village.

Another interesting aspect of the yatra is the part where we honor what we refer to as ‘Shatayus’ or men or women who have crossed the 100 years mark in terms of their age. It was amazing to see them living such healthy long lives and how spiritedly they came to receive the award. Our day ended with rest and dinner at Semiliguda village, where our stay arrangements were made at a local school. I slept on the roof of one of the classrooms with the starry sky above!

10th May
Day 2 of the Shodhyatra began at 4am for me. I located a hand pump, then went in search of buckets, and finally the toughest part came where I had to go around the nearby houses requesting the people if I could use their bathroom to take a bath! (Oddest request I’ve ever made!) In every village, thankfully, every woman I spoke to willingly agreed (I spoke broken Oriya and used hand gestures to convey what I needed). In this particular home, the bathroom turned out to be a small area outside the house, covered on 3 sides with bushes and on the 4th side, a jute bag acting as a makeshift door! It was an experience indeed to be bathing there, under the sky! Having done that, our group of yatris proceeded to the next village where we were holding a recipe competition, a unique one since the recipe had to be not only innovative, but also most nutritious.

The recipe contests were one of my favorites during the yatra since I am a foodie and enjoy trying out new cuisines all the time. In this part of Orissa, the tribals use a lot of ragi, rice and locally growing herbs and vegetables (Many of them unidentifiable!). This was also special since I got to taste the famous rice alcohol that they make!! From here, we moved to our next destination, Gunthaguda village to give the ideas and solutions we had to their problems in farming, animal husbandry, etc. Nothing much eventful happened on our way to Malimarla, the next village where our night halt was planned.

To be continued!Okay, blame it on my muses! I really didn’t have the inclination somehow combined with lack of time to write the sequel to this! But then, fortunately for me and all my blog visitors (God! Do I sound pompous or what!) the North West Monsoon hit Chennai and well, the rains got me back to my writing desk, or should I say got the laptop back on my lap!!

9th May
So, let me take you back again to Orissa, and test my memory to see if I remember everything from the trip that I made 6 months ago! Okay, getting back to 9th morning, I finished my ablutions in time to help prepare the cook of a nearby dhaba from where our breakfast was supposed to come to prepare puris. That itself was an experience since I am not used to handling white flour, but thankfully, the cook there was sympathetic and let me experiment a bit before I could get a knack of preparing the puris! Our “Shodhyatra” began sharp at 9am from a temple dedicated to the river Ganges in Pottangi.

The concept of Shodhyatra is unique, its purpose is to find and document traditional knowledge. Innovation is something that is not restricted to furnished and well equipped laboratories, but can happen under the thatched roof of a villager whose income is less that a dollar a day. Our purpose was also to find out about the traditional methods used by them which were collectively owned and passed from generation to generation by word of mouth, much like our folklores.
Getting back to the temple where the official inauguration of the yatra happened, we had a couple if government officials like the Block Development Officer, and others presiding over it. One thing I realized at that time was how my knowledge of Civics (Which I prided myself on, being an Arts student) was actually minimal. I didn’t even know how states are divided into blocks, and the different hierarchies that exist in the bureaucratic system. (Believe it or not, but am reading up my 10th grade CBSE Civics textbook again to know all about it!) Oh, and one more important discovery I made during this session was that Biotique products are genuinely herbal! I had applied this biotique sunscreen and apparently because of the fruit content, I was attracting a lot of fruit flies! (To test this finding, I got 3 more people to apply it, and well, my hypothesis was proved right!)
We proceeded from the temple to the Champa Khanda High School, 2-3 kilometers on foot. (I forgot to mention above that during the Shodhyatra, we are supposed to walk to every village which amounts to an average of 20kms of walking a day. The purpose being again to observe the farming practices and interact more with people we meet on the way and spread the message about innovations) Here we met some students who had documented various locally available plants and their uses. The uses can range from medicinal to agro based and miscellaneous.
But, the interesting aspect of traditional methods is that the usage would sometimes seem absolutely disconnected with the disease. For example, the remedy for a sprain in the leg was a decoction of ‘Brajkholi’ plant (local name) and sesame seed oil boiled and put behind the ears! This way, we visited a couple of more villages around, to document various uses of local flora and fauna.

Everywhere we went; we were treated with respect and made to feel at home. The welcome was of course very exciting with the traditional dance ‘dhemsa’ being performed wherever we went and I had a good time dancing with them, hands on the waist of the next dancer and so on, making a long chain of around 25 women and dancing till you actually reach the village.In one of the villages, impulsive that I am, I asked a lady that I wanted to wear the sari in their style (It is tied at the shoulders and looks very beautiful) and gladly the women there let me in one of their houses. None of the houses in that particular village had electricity and were mostly composed of a large room and maybe, another small extension of it which acted as the kitchen. Sanitation facilities were of course is normally available only in the house of one or two people in the village.

Another interesting aspect of the yatra is the part where we honor what we refer to as ‘Shatayus’ or men or women who have crossed the 100 years mark in terms of their age. It was amazing to see them living such healthy long lives and how spiritedly they came to receive the award. Our day ended with rest and dinner at Semiliguda village, where our stay arrangements were made at a local school. I slept on the roof of one of the classrooms with the starry sky above!

10th May
Day 2 of the Shodhyatra began at 4am for me. I located a hand pump, then went in search of buckets, and finally the toughest part came where I had to go around the nearby houses requesting the people if I could use their bathroom to take a bath! (Oddest request I’ve ever made!) In every village, thankfully, every woman I spoke to willingly agreed (I spoke broken Oriya and used hand gestures to convey what I needed). In this particular home, the bathroom turned out to be a small area outside the house, covered on 3 sides with bushes and on the 4th side, a jute bag acting as a makeshift door! It was an experience indeed to be bathing there, under the sky! Having done that, our group of yatris proceeded to the next village where we were holding a recipe competition, a unique one since the recipe had to be not only innovative, but also most nutritious.

The recipe contests were one of my favorites during the yatra since I am a foodie and enjoy trying out new cuisines all the time. In this part of Orissa, the tribals use a lot of ragi, rice and locally growing herbs and vegetables (Many of them unidentifiable!). This was also special since I got to taste the famous rice alcohol that they make!! From here, we moved to our next destination, Gunthaguda village to give the ideas and solutions we had to their problems in farming, animal husbandry, etc. Nothing much eventful happened on our way to Malimarla, the next village where our night halt was planned.

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