Orissa

When we checked out of the Imperial Hotel in Delhi, the woman at the desk asked me where we were going. I said the state of Orissa. She responded No one who stays here goes to Orissa. Why are you going? This was a good sign that we were heading off the tourist path into a different part of India.

The State of Orissa is located south of Calcutta on the Bay of Bengal. The flight south and east from Delhi took two hours. We landed at the Capital of Orissa, Bhubaneshwar. Bet you never heard of that city! It was HOT! It is tropical, palm trees were growing everywhere.

The two national languages of India are Hindi and English. Many states in India have there own language and alphabet, as does Orissa. If an alphabet can be cute, Oriya the name of Orissa’s language qualifies. To our eyes it looks like it is made up of circles and kids drawings of elephants. All of our Hindi lessons are for naught here.

We went directly to the National Museum from the airport. It was a good introduction to the history of the arts and culture of Orissa. The museum is very run down. No air-conditioning, bad preservation, stale air. The contents on the other hand are fascinating. There are many tribal areas in the state. These are protected indigenous people that have their own language, traditions and animistic religions. They dress and live in distinctive ways. We saw a photo of a man living in a tribal village where EVERYONE dresses as a woman. The only way to tell if someone is a man or a woman is to look at their nose rings, 2 for a man, 3 for a woman. The 3 gods you see in the painting are images we see everywhere. Orissa is rich in arts and crafts.

We all felt that yesterday the prime exhibit at the museum was 3 western tourists. We were followed by curious people who starred at us, while we were looking at the paintings and objects (and sweating profusely). I think they were saying in Oriya “Someone has come to Bhubaneswar” .

Orissa was originally known as The Kingdom of Kalinga. The Indian Ruler Ashoka was a fierce warrior king who unified much of Northern India in bloody battles. He eventually went to war against the people of Kalinga and in the huge and terrible battle that ensued, thousands were killed. Ashoka was horrified of the deaths he had caused, and renounced violence. He became a Buddhist and spread the religion across South East Asia. Few rulers in the world have had such a profound personal change. He is remembered as a hero in India. To see the story in all of its Bollywood Splendor, rent the movie: Ashoka staring Shahrukh Khan from Netflix.

We then drove to our hotel and checked in. It is a gigantic complex covering 20 acres. It reminded us of San Simeon meets Las Vegas. We appear to be the only non-Indians staying at the hotel. We like that. I went to put our valuables (such as they are) in the room safe. The safe moved. I lifted the safe up and carried it to show Cathy. We laughed hysterically. Safes are supposed to be attached and not portable. We used it anyway and hope that no one walks off with it. After resting, cleaning up and having drinks at the bar we went to one of the many restaurants in the hotel. We had to be guided to it. It served Orissa food. It was very good! During the meal a magician came by and entertained us. We are talking tourist experience. However, the guy was damn good. We are not sure how he performed his tricks so it was a fun experience.