Day II in Bhubaneswar - India trip 2022

 Over my morning Cuppa tea I browsed through the local vernacular Odia newspaper "SAMBADA, scanning for anything newsworthy, something spicy or titillating. The newspaper was full of crap and commercials. Always a sucker to all kinds of sensational stuff, I eyed upon a piece of eye catching news on the front page - "MAHILA BANK KARMACHARI KA GHARE PASI ULAGNA JUBAKA KA UNMUKTA KANDA" (A man went wild after entering naked inside the home of a female Bank Employee). It took me barely 5 minutes to go through the entire newspaper skipping through all those junks.

After a day of resting at home I became restless to venture outside. Jump started a Scooty which stuttered and shuddered on the dusty, bumpy road. Not yet used to it, I accelerated a bit too fast as it zoomed past, fast enough to disturb couple of pariah dogs resting peacefully under the shed of a nearby wall. My driving shrugged off their jaded nerves. One of them jumped away a few feet to his safety giving me a shock and awe look. The other one made a yogic BHUJANGASAN (Snake pose) extending its feets and let its disapproval known by yodeling "Wooo..Woof Woof".

I sped away piercing through the dust, intermittently applying the break and adjusting and getting used to the vehicle. After couple of hundred feet I was able to get a handle of the Scooty. In a drive of barely a mile I saw a good number of stray dogs, cows, bitches and bulls on the roads of our Old Town neighborhood. On every trip I find these animals increasingly getting numerous. 

On the road encountered a guy who driving on wrong side of the road suddenly approached me, forcing me to lean towards further left most corner of the road to avoid hitting his bike. "KANA MARIBAKU ICHHA (You got a death wish ?) - spontaneous was my outburst. He reciprocated by smiling back exposing all his 32 phalanx of dark, betel stained teeth and fled away.

Another hot and muggy day here in Bhubaneswar. ASAHYA GULUGULI (unbearable humidity) is the talk of the town. And it's not far from the truth. Prior to the arrival of monsoon in Odisha it is not unusual this time of the year to be accompanied by stifling heat and humidity. Hence this phase is locally called as ANASARA GULUGULI (muggy) days, close to the famous RATH YATRA (Chariot Festival) of Lord Jagannath.

The almost static air, pregnant with water vapor and barely moving a leaf on the trees becomes unbearable with hardly any relief on sight. The local populace takes solace from a free, healthy, natural Sauna bath for a few days cleansing the pores in their body, praying for the early advance of monsoon. More later...