Bhubaneswar: Visiting the old city heritage just a day after the hustling Kartik Poornima, participants of the 47th Ekamra Walks, had a unique experience of the traditions and culture post the holy Kartik month in the old Bhubaneswar. They were also given brief understanding of the Kartik Poornima and chhadakhai rituals, while travelling through heritage by-lanes and picturesque parikrama of holy Bindusagar lake.
A total of 25 heritage enthusiasts including children, elders and professionals took the tour today and visited the heritage sites such as temples of Mukteswar, Parsurameswar, Kotitirtheswar, Ananta Vasudev, Bindusagar lake, old dharamsala, Lingaraj, Chitrakarini, Sari, Mohini and Vaital temple and ended the trip after visiting the unique medicinal plant garden, Ekamra Van, which has over 220 varieties of medicinal plants. An Indian army officer P C Pusti and his wife Jayanti from Chhattisgarh, who have shifted to Bhubaneswar less than two months ago, described the walk as a memorable experience for lifetime and appreciated the initiative. A father-son duo of Biswajit and Divyansh Das Gupta who were participating in the heritage walk for the first time, were quite awestruck and elated with the unique experience in the heritage trails of old Bhubaneswar area.
Shovan Das, a retired banker from the city who participated in today’s walk said, “As diabetic patient my doctor has advised me to take daily morning walk, which was becoming monotonous with every passing day. But that morning walk can be so musical and colourful that I didn’t know till I took to the Ekamra heritage walk today. It’s truly a very memorable walk for me and frankly I didn’t have much knowledge about such rich heritage and culture along the streets of old city though I am a native of Bhubaneswar for quite many years. I am very much thankful to the Ekamra Walk organizers for facilitating such an intimate experience of our rich heritage in the city.”
Another city-resident Raghunath Prusty echoed similar experience while describing overall cultural ambience of the heritage tour very enriching and expressed delight at knowing about the significance of each of the heritage sites, architecture and culture as well as rituals cum traditions associated with it.
A joint venture of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation, Bhubaneswar Development Authority and Odisha Tourism has so far attracted more than 2,300 visitors from over 23 nations. DeTour Odisha is the curator and the tour managers of the heritage walk.
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