We ended up in these cities only because they were the most convenient in terms of time and distance for us to break journey on the way to Kolkata (which itself was only on our radar because of its central importance in getting to Sikkim).
Much to our surprise we ended up enjoying and learning quite a lot about both the cities.
Vijayawada- in my mind, Vjw is now inextricably linked with the Krishna. Ani had recently read about the Krishna in his social sciences reader while studying about the Eastern Ghats. We had both gazed at a map to figure out where the river has its source and its mouth... However this was in a geographical map with no mention of cities. Our conversation literally went like, "ok, so it starts somewhere in the middle of this peninsula here, and goes pretty much straight to the right and then starts to dip down and meets the sea about an inch from the nose"
Until I opened up a political map and stared at it for a while, after reaching Vjw, I didn't realise that this city was on the banks of that river.
The Krishna was, quite simply, thrilling to watch. The recent rains had swelled the river to induce the powers that be to release water from the barrage and the resulting flow was thunderous and awe-inspiring.
There are also caves in Vjw. These were started in the 6th or 7th century AD, in use till the 16th century and then abandoned.
Puddles of water collected in small depressions in the rock formed excellent models for teaching the life cycle of mosquitoes.
We thought we would drop by a Durga temple on the way back because it looked nice from a distance. Little did we know that it was one of the most famous temples of that region and, it being the time of Durga Puja, was crammed with people. This temple has adopted the Tirupati model in that there are tickets, endless lines based on how much your ticket costs to view the diety from various angles, tickets for Prasad collection and even tickets for the head shaving business.
Hapless saps that we were, we got into some random line, agreed to some bossy woman who wanted us to buy Rs. 300 tickets, then many many minutes later,realised we were in the wrong line, fought our way back to the beginning of the line, told the security personnel there that we no longer wanted to see any goddess and wanted to leave. Upon which, one of the guards took pity on us, let us in through a side gate and we were among the first to enter the altar and see the goddess. We got a piece of coconut for our troubles and that thrilled Durga no end who then spent many happy minutes shredding coconut chips with her fingernails and teeth. Truly, we are indeed descended from monkeys... Cute ones, but monkeys nonetheless.
Before I move to our adventures in Bhubaneswar, I just make special mention of a place called Sarovar Mess in Vjw- positively the best food I've eaten in a long time. It's very no-frills. It looks like someone converted my Ajji's Chidambaram house in its original avatar into a hotel- it's got that early 1900s look to it, from its wall colours to the grills on the windows to the verandah outside. It also serves food like I think my Ajji might have cooked- amazing! RS. 80 for a full meal per person,
Bhubaneswar- truly mind-boggling that this is the capital city of any place. It's got open drains, a sleepy demeanor and an unmistakable sense that everything in it is because the government has forced it to take it.
However our hotel Vintage Villa had some excellent rooms and great food.
Bhub has a couple of rivers: Daya and Mahanadi. Daya is less-known now, but many centuries ago, by its peaceful and green banks, was the place where Ashoka finally put down his weapons, regretted the bloodshed he had caused and then converted to Buddhism.
Today, that spot is memorialized by a Shanti Stupa, a Buddhist structure built by the Japanese sometime in the 70s in order to re-stimulate Buddhism in India!Bhub has a famous temple called Lingaraj, but contrary to its name, doesn't actually have a Shiva in it. It's supposed to be a Hari-Hara temple, in that from the center of the Shivalinga, emerges some sort of a symbol related to Vishnu, but I forget which symbol.
Lingaraj temple has a dozen priests who grab ahold of one as soon as one enters the temple premises and cannot be shaken off. They give you a long tour of the temple filled with many many facts (mostly in comparison to Jagannath Puri... all their statements are like: Puri bhagwan is the younger brother, our Lingaraj is the older brother; the Puri temple was built in the 13th century; out temple was built in the 11th century.... and so on and on and on, endlessly).
Being the saps we are, we were inveigled into purchasing a quarter kg of temple prasadam which we then carted around with us for the rest of our journey. In some ways, it was a good thing: it served as a quick source of munchies when the kids were hungry or when any of us wanted a late night snack.
Most surprisingly, an unplanned visit to the IRCTC website some time during the temple visit showed that there were 3 tatkal tickets available for the next day from Kolkata to Siliguri and in a truly exemplary fashion of rapid clicking, we managed to bag those tickets.
We got in time to Kolk for that train by taking an overnight bus from Bhub to Kolkata, which had unexpectedly broad sleeping berths, and thus, despite only getting 3 berths for the four of us, we felt quite refreshed to tackle the penultimate phase of our journey.
Goodbye Bhub! Goodby Vjw! You are both surprisingly interesting and beautiful. I would have never ever visited you as a holiday destination, so I'm glad I got to visit you by accident.
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