Bhubaneswar: For the participants of the 28th Ekamra Walks, it seemed, rains never came as a hurdle today, as 28 participants braved the June pre-monsoon showers and continued their walk with umbrellas on.
Yes! The first rain-soaked, monsoon heritage walk of the year, was completed today in Old Bhubaneswar area on the auspicious occasion of Rath Yatra day.
Santosh Kumar Malick lecturer in history, Nayagarh Autonomous College and former research scholar from Centre for Aesthetics Studies, JNU, was one of the participants, who attended the walk for the second time. “I enjoyed the rains during the heritage walk as it brings a different experience for the visitor. The walk should continue during the monsoon season and I hope it would not be an issue for the participants,’’ he said.
It can be mentioned here that the monsoon season has become another major USP for tourism promotion in states like Kerala and Goa, where, the tourists are offered packages to promote monsoon tourism.
Ajit Kumar Tripathy, senior Vice-President of Axis Bank, during the walk, posted in his Facebook update on Parsurameswar “Enjoying Ekamra Walks with my childhood friend and official guide Satyaswarup. This beautiful 7th Century Parsurameswar Temple situated in our own Temple City Bhubaneswar. They say this is the one among only four surviving temples in India of 7th Century AD. You know most temples in India are mostly of 10th or 11th Century AD.’’
Today the visitors also included students from different institutions, senior official of Central Public Works Department and residential artists currently working in the city. They visited Mukteswar, Parsurameswar, Swarna Jaleswar, Kotirtheswar, Bindu Sagar, Ananta Vasudev, Old Dharmasala, Lingaraj Temple, Chitrakarini, Sari Temple, Mohini Temple, medicinal plant garden Ekamra Van and saw a beautiful Odissi recital at Art Vision, the institute established by noted Odissi and Chhow exponent, Ileana Citaristi.
Senior forest official Ashok Mishra explained the concept of Ekamra Van to the visitors and how 220 medicinal plant verities are planted there with a concept of Ekamra Kshetra in mind. Plants benefitting male, female and paediatric usage are placed with a uniquely designed concept in the garden.
Comments are closed.