(The author is travelling Bhubaneswar to cover the FIH Men's Champions Trophy Hockey Tournament)
Though in the eastern part of India, never before today had I been reminded of Malgudi Days - the TV serial based on RK Narayan's short stories. And a visit to Shree Jagannath Temple in Puri rounded off a satisfying day two here in Odisha.
Those low-lying thatched roofs with a door that asks you to bow before entering is a sight, and when you see a row of such dwellings, it's delightful. Hope I could describe it in words, but it's difficult.
I didn't want to wake up early after working overtime following India's rare win over Netherlands on Tuesday. After all, I proved the lucky mascot for the team as my first day at the tournament reversed India's two consecutive defeats into their first win. So an extra hour in bed was not unjustified.
Still, I, somewhat reluctantly, put up an alarm for 7:30 a.m., knowing without doubt that I will snooze it off. That's precisely what happened, but I somehow pulled myself up at 8:45 am to meet the promise I made to the gang from UK.
A few friends from the UK, who had come all the way to support the Indian team, invited me to join them for a visit to the Konark Temple and Puri the Wednesday, which also happened to be a rest day in the tournament.
The invitation was tempting, and I took it, carefully drawing up my plan for the stories to be filed later in the day (actually deep into the evening).
Baldev Singh Kalsi, a veteran spectator of 11 Worlds Cups and 11 Olympics, was the eldest member of that gang from England, led actually by their Finnish friend Vicky Moga. And as it turned out, I was the well-looked-after guest of a memorable trip.
It began as per Indian norm, a delay of two hours from our scheduled departure.
The van we booked refused to ply and in the eleventh hour a replacement was hired, which arrived after another hour's delay. But Punjabis are Punjabis. "Koi ni," (no worries) said Jaswinder, lovingly called Lali and the one of the two non-UK members of the party. Lali, a manager in the Punjab and Sind Bank, runs a hockey academy in Sangrur, Punjab.
Plaha Bhaji (Bhupinder Plaha) was actually a bit annoyed with the unexpected delay but chose not to show it. And the rest of the gang accepted it as nothing unusual in India.
Finally, at 12 noon, nine of us were on board a van for pilgrimage cum beach tour.
When middle-aged men are on a dream bachelor trip, it's hard to keep the non-veg jokes away. And that's how the trip begin - with pure non-vegeterian laughter.
We never realised when the 70km journey ended 100 metres away from the Konark Mandir, the temple of the Surya Dev (Sun God). While I had read about what to expect in the temple's ancient architecture, my friends from UK and Punjab felt like being introduced to Kamasutra depicted in the craft engraved on the temple's walls.
They had a good laugh about it, while I used my DSLR to good effect, rounding off the exit with the energising coconut water.
The beach was the perfect stopover after a divine cum orgasmic sightings at the Konark Temple. Sand slipping beneath your feet as the waves retrieved brought a smile to everybody's face as mobile cameras went into an overdrive, followed by amateur sand art by Raja Namdhari, who honoured his friends from UK by embossing their names on the beach.
The boys (actually men) then rubbed sand off their feet to put their shoes back on and boarded the van. Next destination: the holy Jagannath Temple.
With most of us wearing caps, the priest at the temple refused us entry, asking us to remove our headgears. As we did so, a few refused to go in with conditions applied. Leaving the decision to them, we did as advised by the priest and set our foot inside the holy shrine.
One of the most visited temples of Hindu religion, the shrine belongs to lord Jagannath, Subhadra and Balaram (Krishna's elder brother). The contracted priest took us around the temple, introducing us to the various gods and the monument erected by Vishwakarma, the divine architect of Hindu religion.
Darshan (sighting) of the three divine idols brought our pilgrimage to an end as the priest tapped us with a holy stick before bidding us good bye.
The Punjabi gang came out of the holy shrine, thanking the Gods for their blessings, and started searching for the theka (the wine shop).
Chak de India!
(Do come back to read what the author came across on Day 3)
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