Day XII in Bhubaneswar - India trip 2017

Biking is fun, but for a shorter distance. The local traffic is too erratic and unsafe to venture into main roads where one needs to be a zigzag Zen master to manoeuvre. 

There's hardly any designated Pedestrian or Zebra crossing in Bhubaneswar. You have to tip toe and sway your hips, waving and clenching hands like an eunuch towards the incoming traffic in order to walk to the other side. Road crossing is an art and one needs to be a trapeze artist to cross roads at the crossroads of Bhubaneswar.

Though it stayed under 40s, it was another muggy, lazy dog day summer. After a heavy lunch, I lied down reading SAMBAD, a vernacular Newspaper. Didn't remember when sleep overpowered me until wafted in AMBACHAARA ... LEMBAAACHAARA, the voice of a street vendor selling Mango & Lemon pickles. 

The voice appeared louder, gradually closing on me and slowly fading away reminding me of the Doppler's Effects we studied during Intermediate Physics. I turned my side yawning semi asleep. Then poof, power gone again. But thanks to the inverter, the fan kept on churning the air to my relief but soon the circulating air was slowly getting too hot for my comfort. 

I stepped outside, still wobbly when our maid cautioned me not to step into the floor she just mopped. Thanking her for saving my somnambulist torso from crashing on the slippery floor, I tip toed carefully trudging into the balcony. Another vendor came yelling DAHI BARA DAHI BARA (Vada soaked in buttermilk), a big tin container tied to the back of his bicycle with rubber tubes. 

It reminded me of an episode from my childhood, when defying our parents we bought DAHI BARA from such a street vendor to find couple of drowned cockroaches who had taken a Buttermilk burial. We were squarely reprimanded not to buy anything from such vendors.

Had a taste of BIKRUTA (Wierd) Odia today while I caught the local FM. Some of my non Odia and NRI friends speak far better non-accented Odia than the anchors on FM, especially the female ones who apparently think speaking accented Odia is a fad. More later....