Holy Beach - Puri

Not a very pretty start to a travel piece but a shocking one nonetheless. A headless giant turtle being chewed apart by dogs on Puri beach. This is, evidently, not an unusual occurance since in my 5-day stay I saw three of these headless turtles washed ashore on different beaches near Puri. I was outraged and I am not even a vocal environmentalist. It seemed like such a sad waste.

On a happier note, Puri turned out to be more inspiring than one can expect from a beach called "Holy" (Yup I accpet I am a religion-phobic, but I'll save that for another post). Holiness, tourism and water don't go togeher in my imagination. And I expected to confront lots of fakirs saluting the sun god in different stages of saffron undress, coconut shells, orange garlands and other such offerings happily floating around on the waves waiting to hit me on my face... Thankfully this time my phobia was uncalled for.

Puri has a different charm of its own. Don't go expecting a hippy-style Goa or pristine backwaters of kerela. Puri primarily caters to a middle class Bengali clientele - amazingly cheap fish fried at the beach by vendors, coconut water, skinny life guards (Nulias) in their loongis and tupurs (hats which have LIFE GUARD written in bold, cos without that cap we would never imagine they were life guards! No bulky David Hasselhoff or well-endowed red bikins wearers jumping around here!), jhaal moori waala (spiced rice crackers) and men carrying the most yummy sweets in tiffins hanging from a little see-saw carriage.


Our hotel was bang in the middle of the crowded market place where bengali families with their usual monkey capped heads could be seen bobbing around as early as 4 am. Camel rides, pony rides, bangles, pearls, chai and samosas - the most un-beachly activities start in Puri beach even before sun rise. I accept that being away from India for such a long time has made me more tolerant to the unexpected and I was actually enjoying all these bizarre pre-dawn rituals. But ofcourse, this was not the place for P and I to show up in our swimsuits or shorts. The only bathers here were fully clad either in sari or salwar kameez (even the men sometimes wore shirts!) and any show of skin would have caused too much of a stir!

Mashi had been raving about a place called BnR which apparently has a less crowded, more 'our" kind of a place (Desai gives a remarkably apt description of "our" type of semi Indians in her latest book. We also belong to that category of snooty Indians who unconsciously but continuously disassociate ourselves from the "normal" religious, non-bikini wearing monkey-capped Indian types!). Early in the morning our wish almost came true. They were less people here in the "VIP" beach but by noon the sweet sellers and jhaal moorhi wallahs were thronging this beach as well. while Baba and Ma enjoyed massages and conversation with the not-so-hulky Nulias under their beach unbrella, P and I strolled down to the fisherman village, jumped around in the sea - yes in our swim suits!

Nights at Puri were filled with food (not that morning weren't). Fish from the roadside carts, snacks at the Orissa fair, fish at the hotel.... there was nothing much else to do really. The crowd there was not used to seeing women in jeans and P's short cropped hair attracted too many comments. Ofcourse, that just reaffirmed our need to disassociate ourselves from everything around us except the food!


Oh ya, talking about short hair, I have to quickly rant a lil bit about the Jagannath temple. P, being a historian type and less -religious phobic than me decided we should check out the famous Jagannath temple. As we approached the crowded lanes near the temple my usual sense of foreboding started setting in. All I could see were dozens of pandits (called "panda" - a severe insult to their non-human counterpart), a really unremarkable looking garish pink temple and lots of people screaming at us "buy fruits, flowers", leave your shoes here.....

The icing on the cake was the extra irritating panda who started chasing us first insisting that we should allow him to escort us inside and "charao prasad" (talk to god? what's the translation?). When we didn't relent (actually when I raised my eyebrow VERY high at him and snarled at him) he started yelling "only hindus allowed" - assuming, ofcourse, that no Hindu "good" girl would have short cropped hair and turn up in jeans (like my poor terrified sister in her black top and designer-ly dirty jeans!). Feeling almost triumphant with this disgusting and communal behavior (I told YOU saffron= danger!!) I refused to climb up the holy steps. P, the brave historian ventured in inspite of being labeled "muslim", came running down with Pandas chasing her (thankfully most of them were as high as her knee so were less threatening that they could have been)....OK OK I am adding a lil bit of spice here but then, that's allowed!

PS: If you enlarge the temple pic - you'll see the offensive sign "Only Hindus allowed". The sad part is very few of us were finding it offensive.

Thankfully the next temple visit was less traumatic. I've been meaning to visit the Konark's sun temple for quite a while now. I visited Khajurao a bit too early in my adoloscence and didn't get to appreciate the "nuances"! Tho' later at school I did manage to force my history teacher to let me do a project on Erotica in Ancient India. She was scandalized beyond belief and refused to allow me (I had a reputaion of a good old fashioned nerd till high school so it came as a surprise to all the teachers that I would want to work on such a hauji-ka pauji/shame shame topic!). I refused to give in and instead went and got permission from Ma baba and the principal! I still have the "permission" letter that Ma wrote : "I allow my daughter to write her history project on Ancient Indian Eotica. i also permit her to read the Kamasutra for background research.." HEHHEHEHE



Coming back to Konark. A bit on the history (tho the garbled semi-fiction our guide told us was much better than the real thing!): the sun temple was built by Kind Narsimhadeva in the 13th century. The entire temple has been built in the shape of a colossal chariot on wheels, carrying the sun god. The best part is the erotic sculptures found throught the temple walls. It is really ironic that a 13th century TEMPLE could freely depict unusual sex positions, lesbian relationships (whcih the embarassed guide insisted was depicting a mother in law daughter in law fight), orla sex and orgies while now we are creating a fuss over couples smooching in public!






In case one of my anon readers is planning to visit Puri (I like to believe my travel pieces are so powerful that they can convince people to go visit "my" place!) one beach which is a must see is Toshali Sands. I know I started off by saying don't go to puri expecting a Goa or Kerala. But in case you did, then just stay at Toshali Sands. i am not a big fan of extra- ethnic resorts, but for non- Indians and exoticifation lovers the resort is also a good deal. It has tons of mirror work, pretty sculptures, the right flora and fauna and most importantly is a stones' throw from the beach. Toshali sands reminded me of the only New england beach I've visited. It had a lot of green around it, blue water, clean white sands and the best part is that it doesn't fall under the itinerary of guided bus tours. Visistors have to pay an extra 50 Rs to get in since this beach is reserved forest area and that probably keeps the crowds out. When we turned up at Toshali (at aroudn 9 am) the entire strecth was empty. It was the most wonderful possible experience - almost like having your private beach. You bet we went crazy dancing in the sea. A great place for skinny dipping (WINK WINK!!)