Bhubaneshwar

As a place Bhubaneswar is special to me in any  ways. One it was the place where I got the first major break in my career, also my first daughter was born when I was working here. Again at certain times in my career, the city had proved to be the turning point in my life. This is a place where I spent 4 years of my life.  giving me a personal bond with the place.

   Personal nostalgia apart there is a lot about the capital city of Orissa where I spent 1 year. The city derives it’s name from one of the names of Lord Shiva Tribhuvaneshwara meaning Lord of the 3 worlds . True to it’s name Bhubaneswar is a Saivite center in contrast to Vaishnavite dominated Puri .The other name of the city is Ekamra, referring to the tree with one mango under which Lord Shiva meditated.  It became the capital city in the 60’s taking over from it’s bustling neighboring city of Cuttack which is still the commercial capital of Orissa. The city is divided into two halves the new planned city on the lines of Chandigarh and the older quarter of the city which contains most of the temples that have given it the nickname of Temple City of India .

The Temple City

Bhubaneswar is often called as India’s temple city and is said to be home to around 1000 temples dating back to ancient and medieval Orissa. The older part of Bhubaneswar is dotted with most of these temples, and the biggest and most famous of them all is the Lingaraja Temple. This temple is said to have been built by Yayati Kesari and dates to the 10th century. Located over an area of 25,000 sq ft, the temple is marked by it’s huge tower soaring to 180 feet and which is elaborately carved with various sculptures. The huge tower can be seen from any place in the city and is a dominant feature of it’s sky line. Right next to the Temple is the Bindusagar lake which is believed to contain drops of every holy river in India.  The temple is built in typical Kalinga style architecture, with the main temple, the Bhoga Mandap, Yajna Sala and the Natya Shala. The Shiva Linga is a swayambhu Linga, and one of the temples where both Vishnu and Shiva are worshipped as Harihara.

An interesting temple in Bhubaneswar is the Raja Rani temple. The temple is unique in that it’s the only temple in India not dedicated to any God or Goddess. The sculptures are quite exquisitely carved and contain many erotic carvings.

The Parasurameswara temple is a complex of around 20 small temples and is dedicated to Lord Shiva. This 7th century temple has sculpture of amorous couples, lions, elephants and birds.

The Mukteswara temple is another ancient 10th Century temple dedicated to Lord Shiva, the torana or the gateway is worth a watch, her for it's fusion of Buddhist and Hindu styles of Architecture. While built in the standard Kalinga style, the Jaganmohana here is built in a rectangular pattern here. . One can find carvings based on the Panchatantra out here.Next to the Mukteswara Temple is the Kedareswara temple, another temple dedicated to Lord Shiva, again famous for it's sculptures of women, animals, birds.

Nandan Kanan

A must visit place in Bhubaneswar. This is a natural zoo located around 20 km from the city. Its also a popular picnic spot for the city people. The animals here are located in a natural environment and you have a good collection of animals,birds and reptiles. The zoo has an excellent collection of white tigers, gharials and rare birds. A rope way across the lake takes you to a huge botanical garden. Adjoining the zoo is the Chandaka sanctuary which houses a large number of wild elephants. However you have to be careful when traveling in this sanctuary, as these elephants can be dangerous at times.

KhandaGiria  UdayaGiri

These are twin hills located around 7 km from Bhubaneswar. They are famous for their cave temples containing Jain and Buddhist sculptures. Most of the ancient rulers of Orissa were patrons of Jainism and Buddhism and many temples in Orissa, have strong influences of both. These caves contain many inscriptions about King Kharavela one of the greatest rulers of Orissa. His empire extended from Magadha in the North to Madurai in South. Many of these caves were believed to have been built by him. The largest cave is the Rani Gumpha or the Queen’s cave, while the Hathi Gumpa or elephant’s cave contains the only rock cut inscription in India describing the deeds of Kharavela. One more cave on Khandagiri hill contains sculptures of all 24 Jain thirthanakaras carved on a single rock.

Down town Bhubaneswar contains all the office buildings, banks, shops, travel agents, restaurants etc. The market in Unit III is like Karol Bagh where you can haggle and get really good stuff. Shoppers can go for the famous silver filigree work, the wonderful embroidery of the Sambalpuri sarees are some things you can pick up here. Bhubaneswar also has many restaurants offering different types of cuisine. I would also suggest to check out the tribal art works available here, some of the finest in India, and you get it at a reasonable price. Also the Pattachitra paintings which are exquisite works of art.      If you are a foodie, you would love Bhubaneshwar's  gastronomic delights, right from its pitha,Cuttack mixture, Cuttack Chaat. The city also has some of the best Rosgulla's you could ever find, especially the Pahalla Rosgulla, and that you find at Biklananda Kar's. Also check out the Chhenna poda, a kind of sweet cake, famous in Odisha.

            The city is also an educational center in Orissa. It contains Xavier Inst of Mgt, XIM one of the top mgt institutes in the country. The University College of Engineering and the Kalinga Inst of Industrial Technology are one of the top 100 engineering colleges in India. It also has the Utkal University and the Orissa University of Agriculture and Tech . The city is also home to many research institutes like Institute of Physics and Regional Research Laboratory . Due to it’s non polluted atmosphere , the Orissa Govt is developing this into an IT hub with Mahindra Satyam, Infosys, TCS already setting up shop there, and an InfoCity with a host of other local city based IT firms. 

                                 Bhubaneswar is a city which is in perennial festival mode. Apart from the by now famous Ratha Yatra and Durga Puja, the city has other interesting festivals also. One of them is Boita Bandhan which celebrates Orissa’s ancient maritime history. Many people release paper boats lighted with candles and lamps into Bindusagar Lake to mark the occasion. The city also celebrates festivals like Saraswathi Puja and Vishwakarma Puja in a major way. At the end of every January, there is an Adivasi Mela held in the city, to commemorate Orissa’s tribal culture. And we have the Raja festival which is somewhat similar to Teej in Rajasthan.

 
  

                          

Ramblings of a Cricket Lover

June 25,1983- A day that will live in the history of Indian cricket forever. A day that will never be forgotten by any true cricket lover. The day when the underdogs India under Kapil Dev's captaincy, stunned the  mighty West Indians led by Clive Lloyd to  lift the World Cup at  cricket's most hallowed ground, Lords.

It  was also a date that  turned yours truly into a die hard cricket fan. I  was just a callow 14 yr old, on that epic night, but most importantly, it was the first time ever i heard every single delivery of that match on radio( we still did not have TV).  Quite often, i would see some of my friends listening intently to the cricket commentary, but could not really understand one word of it. When my friends would discuss the score with me, it was all Greek and latin, i could not make any sense of what 'b'  or 'c' meant, what was meant by 'st', and what did B-M-R-W exactly mean? Post the World Cup, i started my full fledged  journey as a cricket fan, listening to the entire India-Pakistan series and India-West Indies series on radio, and slowly making out what those little alphabets on the score sheet meant. That was the time, i also started to browse through Sportstar and loved the wonderful descriptions of the matches there. India got thrashed 3-0  in 1983 by the Windies,and the World cup euphoria was gone now.  It did not diminish my interest in cricket one bit though. For the first time we managed to get a TV in our home, and was watching the series of ODI matches between India-Australia. My friends, my uncle's friends, some of our family friends dropped in and soon our home became a mini stadium.

We began to follow the 1984-85 series between India and England even more closer. We cheered when India won comprehensively at Bombay, but  were downbeat when we lost the Test in Delhi, which seemed to be heading for a draw. We went into outrage, when Kapil Dev was dropped for the Kolkata Test, and for quite some time, Sunil  Gavaskar was public enemy No 1, among Indian fans. We watched helplessly on Pongal 1985, when Graeme Fowler and Mike Gatting ground the Indian bowling into dust at Chepauk,some one called Neil Foster, skittled out the Indian line up. But at the same time we cheered  the emergence of a new talent called Azharuddin, who with 3 consecutive 100's at Kolkata,Chennai and  Kanpur, captured every Indian cricket lover's heart with his  graceful strokeplay.  When  India won the World Championship of Cricket  in Melbourne in 85 under the captaincy of Sunil Gavaskar, in a sense it was a redemption for him, we cheered all over. When India  skittled out Pakistan for 87, who were chasing a meagre total of 125 at Sharjah, my joy knew no bounds. However that was the only time i guess I could watch India prevail over Pakistan at Sharjah.

The World Championship of Cricket  was also a revelation to me, as for the first time, i saw Channel Nine's telecast, the duck icon, the digital scoreboards, the colored clothing, the white ball, it  was a new experience, having been used to Doordarshan's  stodgy old telecast, with boring commentators, cameras that seemed to point everywhere but the action, manual scoreboards. It was a whole new world altogether. By now  i was a hard core cricket lover, I had an old copy of Wisden, which i read again and again umpteen times, and also older copies of Sportstar. I would discuss with friends about Richards, Botham, Roberts,Marshall, Lilee, Thomson, though never really got much of a chance to see the legends in action, barring Richards and Botham. The journey continued with its series of heartbreaks and joys.  I  was glued to the radio, along with my friends when Kapil hit the winning runs at Lords in 1986 against England, as we created history winning there for the first time,  most of us just teens of 16-18 years jumping around hugging each other. We had a double delight, when India won the series 2-0 in England,1986.  And yet tempered with it was that image of Javed Miandad hitting a last ball 6 against Chetan Sharma at Sharjah, for  quite some time, we could never seem to defeat Pakistan. They just seemed to win matches they were about to lose, Salim Malik, Manzoor Elahi, Wasim Akram  some one or other would come up with a blinder and steal the show. And of course watching the entire Tied test in Chennai,1986 live on TV, which had Dean Jones playing  a superhuman innings, Kapil Dev with a swashbuckler that averted the follow on, and then of course the Indian chase.

Cricket was my passion, and like any crazy fan, i went to any length to watch the action. Huddling with a crowd at the TV shops, watching the action, bunking classes to go to the public library that had a TV, dropping in at my friends home without any invite( not that they minded it though caught up as they were in the action). And yes when India won a match, would read every newspaper  available in the public library, just to relive that feeling again. The 1987  World Cup, first time it was being held jointly by India and Pakistan, and what memories.  India's last ball defeat to Australia at Chennai was heartbreaking, but we gave it back in Diwali just on Diwali eve.  Pakistan's  last over win against West Indies, Viv Richards look of disappointment, Steve Waugh's  brilliant final over vs New Zealand at Indore.  I whooped with joy when the Aussies shocked Pakistan at Lahore, but  it  was a joy short lived, when England dumped us out of the World Cup too. I still watched the final between England and Australia, with Oz winning the title, and which in a way sparked the resurgence of Australia.

The 90's and cable TV  bought a revolution in the way we watched cricket, off with DD's stuffy coverage and boring commentary. It  was the era of Star Sports,their brilliant coverage of the 92 World Cup. It was the decade when S.Africa came back into the international scene, and we got to see Donald, Kirsten,Hudson,Cronje, McMillan at their best. The 90's  was the time, when Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Saurav Ganguly began to emerge on the scene. It had one of the most unforgettable moments, when Prasad castled Aamir Sohail  at Bangalore in the 96 World Cup QF, and asked him to take a hike. That one single moment, wiped out all the humiliation I endured watching India losing to Pakistan regularly. I was in a hotel lobby, cheering when Rajesh Chauhan hit that six of Saqlain Mushtaq in the ODI at Karachi, making us whoop it out. It  was of course the time when we were the tigers at home, thanks to the dust bowl pitches, but pretty much lambs abroad. It was a depressing experience to watch  most of our batsmen, do the hop,step and jump when confronted with some quality fast bowling, except for Sachin Tendulkar and later on Rahul Dravid.  And yes speaking of 90's can never forget sitting up till late night, watching Sachin's Desert Storm vs Australia at Sharjah. And of course Anil Kumble's 10 out of 10 at Delhi in 1999.

But even the most ardent cricket lover, at some time faces a point, when he or she feels its worth it, to follow the game. The first such time it occurred for me was in 1999-2000, we were knocked out of the World Cup in 1999, and then the tour of Australia  was a disaster as we were thrashed horribly. Add to it,the match fixing scandal, made us lose our faith in the game itself. Was it worth it, I had wondered?  And then Eden 2001, happened, we were thrashed in the 1st Test in Mumbai by Australia, and in Kolkata i was anticipating another thrashing, and maybe another 3-0 rout by the Aussies. But then VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid together produced that magic partnership when India was asked to follow on, and then Harbhajan Singh, spins out the Aussies, and we come back from following on to win a Test, we were destined to lose. That to me was the turning point of  Indian cricket.

2001-2011,  to me was the best ever decade for Indian cricket, ever since I started watching the game.  The  historic Test and ODI series victory over Pakistan in Pakistan in 2004, the way we held Steve Waugh's Aussies to a creditable 1-1 result in the Test series when all other teams travelling to Australia were regularly thrashed, our wins abroad at Headingley, Johannesburg, Perth,Kingston, Durban, Adelaide,Colombo,  the T20 World Cup win in 2007, the CB series final win in 2008, the Big 4 -Sachin, Rahul,Laxman and Ganguly's superb innings, emergence of Yuvraj, Zaheer,Dhoni, Harbhajan, it  surely  was one of the best decades for me. Of course with the highs there were the inevitable lows too, getting knocked out of the first round in 2007 World Cup, the 4-0 thrashing in S.Africa in 2006, the ugly Greg Chappel-Saurav Ganguly controversy, getting bowled out for just 100 to gift a Test to England in 2006. But then that is life, a series of ups and lows, heartbreak and joy, agony and ecstasy.