The SEA and the SANDS

Packed my bags and all set for the journey to my favorite place. I could feel the thrill of the seeing the sea and the temples again after a long year and a half gap.

Puri has always been my fascination, since my childhood. Probably it being my Mom’s birth place, has somehow found its way into my heart. In spite of the news and warnings by everybody about the heavy rains I decided I have to make the journey this year as well.

So I began the journey with my family from Rourkela via Puri – Hatia Express and though it was raining heavily all through out the journey we were surprised to find a sunny weather awaiting us in our destination. We reached around 9:30 AM and checked in a hotel near the shore. The balcony with the view of the sea, the sound of the waves hitting the shores, what more can one asks for.

Puri as a town hits you with all the warmth it has. It’s a small town lying in the Coastal area of Orissa, easily accessible by train or road from the Capital of the state. Crowded market place, devotees with tears in their eyes, sweet shops spreading the aroma of the delicious preparations and between all this stands the Jagannath Temple – a massive 12th Century creation. Looking at the structure makes you feel like it’s telling a story from that time. The whole area has different temples of various Hindu God and Goddesses each uniquely built and survived the tides of time to awe all the visitors till date and tell a story of its own. I finished roaming around in the temple premises and then thought of visiting the other temples and places in and around the town.
Each temple in the town speaks a story of its own and if I start writing everything here then it will be a massive article. The places are really near to each other so it doesn’t take much time to wrap up everything and returning to the hotel. After a hearty meal and a nice afternoon nap, it was time for visiting the shore.

Dusk was settling in and the shore was becoming crowded by each minute that passed on. The waves were rough in the evening owing to the Full Moon day and the overcast skies. One never knows how time passes when you are near a shore, probably you are so engrossed on the waves coming to the shore and returning back and looking at people holding each other whenever a huge wave tries to uproot their feet from the ground. After the sun has set across the horizon, I took a long walk along the shore. As it was a full moon, the reflection of the moon on the water was ethereal in everyway. It felt like the moon was floating in the water and will reach you whenever the waves came towards me. Small boats and ships at the horizon looked like dots of civilization that existed inside the dark sea. So the time flew off and it was time for dinner and what’s best when you are a hard core non vegetarian and are near the sea, Sea food! So we found a hotel which specialized in all such delicacies and had a fill to last for the whole night and also the day after that. Then a sleep filled with dreams of the sea, sand and the moon.

Next day, early morning and we were off to the place where the river Bhargavi, a branch of the Mahanadi meets the Bay of Bengal. The clear water of the river flows peacefully into the sea and ends its journey. You can see two different colors of the water, one clear and peaceful and the other sandy, salty and rough. The confluence of the river and the sea is the beauty which cannot be described by mere words. From there we went back to the main town and just roamed about for a while and then came back to pack our stuff and bid adieu, with the promise that we will be back next year and will spend some quality time with the sea and the sands.