Visit to Puri

Two weeks ago Shine told me in evening that 'today is the deadline for submission in a conference'. I came back in the evening from hostel, and prepared to make draft. It was Modern Trends in Operating Systems, organized by Konark Institute of Science & technology Bhubaneswar(www.kist.ac.in). I planned to submit the survey paper. Due to page-limit discussion two schemes ( key predistribution schemes based on generalized quadrangle and 3-design) had to be scrapped. And the modified paper I submitted there just an hour ago of deadline.

After 2 days they confirmed that our paper has been selected. Consulted with my M.Tech thesis guide. He gave the permision. But I was in fix. Whether I should attend that. The points that came to my mind in favor of attending those are: 1. Since there will be many invited lectures (one by prof Rajib Mall from IIT KGP) on operating system, listening to those will be one kind of preparation for phd interview ! 2. My guide will also be delivering an invited lecture there. 3. If I go one day in advance I can meet my parents in Bhubaneswar Railway station on their journey to Sai Baba Hospital. 4. Visit to Lord Jagannath Temple and Puri Beach.

Srichandan agreed to join me for Puri trip. Many days ago we three - Shine, Srichandan and myself planned that we will go to puri together. So we left Rourkela on 26th March. Reached Puri next day around 10 AM. We walked all the way to Puri swargadwar beach through the temple road. Sat there on the sand for a while. Then we decided we should take bath together. So kept our luggage on the chair on rent. We had bath for one hour. It was really nice. We hold each others hand. The force of tide was making us to shift not to straight back, but little bit towards puri hotel. During last Deepawali, two b.tech 3rd sem EE students from our NIT died in puri during their bath.

We completed our bath at 12:30 PM. After that we left for Lord Jagannath Deb Darshan. Before this, I visited Puri two times. First time, I was only 4-5 years old. Then my grand father was alive. I remember grand father, grand mother, aunt (choto pisi), and my parents. Only two things I remember of that visit. First, where we stayed in the lodge/hotel, the house owner had a plenty of collection of lottery tickets. In our childhood lottery ticket was also a thing to wonder. Second was a very interesting. Either in Khanda -giri or in Uday-giri there was lots of large sized monkeys. we were offering groundnut to few of these monkeys. Suddenly one monkey snatched the packet of groundnut (thonga) from my hand. Then I tried to re-snatch it from that monkey. After this It happened like this. The monkey tried a big slap on me. But my father was alert enough to lift me by his one hand, and the slap didnt hit me !

Second time I visted puri when I was in in class VI. This time we - my parents, my brother, and Shyam babu sir, and his wife went together. This time we met my aunt and uncle (maasi - mesomoshai) in the beach one day. But this time we went inside the temple bu didnt visit the lord. It was heavy rush then. And also that time it was impossible to see the lord without help of priests (famous or infamous panda of puri). I dont remeber if we had seen the lord Jagannath in our first trip.

So this time I was little bit excited that I will see the Lord jagannath. When we enterd the temple, it was closed for a while. We came back from the inside temple after realising that we have to take our offerings from the outside. In the trustee office we took the prasad, ther a panda guided us which kind of prasad we should take if we want to take it to home etc. then he came with us inside the temple. We saw the lord. I was feeling very peace within myslef while visiting the Lord jagannath. Srichandan told me that by touching the Garuda-stambha whatever one wishes it gets filled up. The priest who accompanied us shown us the mark of feet of Mahaprabhu Sri Chaitanya dev. That place also unique in a way that a person, however small he/she is, will be able see the Lord Jagannath from that place. After that the priest provided us the mahaprasad inside the trustee office. we ate that. While eating he told us some facts about the temple. He told that the kitchen of Puri timeple is the largest restaurent in the world. 100 ovens are there. 500 cooks are there, and 150 assistants are there. Everyday, clay pots of lakhs (i forgot the amount, probably of 15 lakhs) are used there. After that we told how much we should give him. He told as you are student, whatever you want to give you give. We were in a fix. We asked him how much we should give to him. He told you cant satisfy fire and brahman, whose demand never satisfies. Srichandan offered him Rs 61. He accepted it without hesitation. Even after listening that my father is going to undergo treatment of heart in Sai baba hospital, he wrote my father's name in his plam, and it seemed he will pray for him. I took the mahaprasad for my parents also. While returning we realized that the priest literally took very less from us. We took his contact number. After this we returned to railway station and took the puri-sambalpur intercity express to reach bhubaneswar. I took a room in a lodge in Rajmahal chowk area. While I was in lodge, imy father phoned me and told that my mother is getting teeth pain and he asked me take some medicine for her from a medical shop. After the bath, we came for station, as the timing for arrival of East Coast express at bhubaneswar was 19:20. It was 40 minutes late. Srichandans train left at 20:00 hour. The east-coast train came at platfrom numbner 4. My parents were in coach S2. Srikanta-kaku, Subhash-babu and family of his daughter were also accompanying my parents. I ate bhaat, aalu-bhaate, aalu-posto, maach-bhaja in side the train only. The train had 20 minutes of stoppage in that station. I gave the prasad and medicine to them. The train left at 20:30 hour.

The next day I took the bus for Khurda to reach KIST college for the conference. Only four persons were there to present their paper. May be in next day some more people will present their paper. I saw in the proceedings that one paper was co-authored by prof Pabitra Pal Chaudhury of ISI kolkata, who was my MCA dissertation guide. Few papers were co-authored by prof Rajib Mall. As my paper was presented on that day afternoon only (After each paper presentation organisers gave the presentator a good momento), I was feeling to leave bhubaneswar that day only. so i cancelled my ticket which was on next day, and took the tapaswini express at 20:20. I reuested TTE for a birth, and he gave a side upper birth. As there were three births in side, the sleep was very uncomfortable. Also I was feeling itching sensation (may be due to our bath at sea), and the sleep was very disturbing throughout the night.