Pantha Nivas

Odisha Tourism hosts a chain of hotels called "Pantha Nivas" or "Yatri Nivas" across many of the tourist destinations in Odisha.
The hotels generally have very good staff & the food is generally yummy!! Infrastructure wise they vary, however the location is always Super  :)

Modes of Booking - 

1. Online Booking - http://www.visitodisha.org/
Need to book 3 days in advance. So if I am booking for Saturday, Need to book by Wednesday.
Checkin & Checkout time is around 12 PM.

2. Phone Booking - Call, Block & Pay. 0674 – 2430764
You can call and block the seats in any of the hotels & pay on the same day at any of the Panthanivas office counters.

3. Office Booking - You can drop by at any of the Panthanivas offices & book.
Central Reservation Counter -- Panthnivas (old block), Lewis Road, Bhubaneswar – 751014,Telelphone # 0674 – 2430764
Detailed list here.

Konark Dance & Sand Art Festival, Odisha

This time of the year draws curtain from various Dance and Art festivals in Konark.
The Konark Dance Festival organised by the Odisha Tourism department hosts a range of Classical Odissi, Bharathnatyam, Manipuri, Kathak and Chau dance performances.

Date - 1 to 5 December 2015
Time - 6.00 P.M. to 8.30 P.M
Venue - Open air auditorium, Natyamandir, near the Konark Temple.
Live Telecast - DD Bharati

Live Streaming - www.webcast.gov.in during the festival period from 6pm to 8.30pm.

Festival Details - http://www.odishatourism.gov.in/Festivals/SpecialFestivals/KonarkFestival.aspx
OTDC Package Details - Click here

Program Details -
01-Dec-15 Odissi Srijan, Sri Ratikant Mohapatra Bhubaneswar
Tuesday Manipuri Jawaharlal Nehru Manipur Dance Academy Manipur
02-Dec-15 Sattriya Sattriya Academy - Sri Jatin Goswami & Group Assam
Wednesday Odissi Aum Arts Dance Academy, Suprava Mishra & Group Ahmedabad
03-Dec-15 Odissi GKCM Odissi Research Center Bhubaneswar
Thursday Kuchipudi Shambhavi Dance Ensemble, Smt Vyjayanthi Kashi Bengaluru
04-Dec-15 Bharatnatyam Kalakshetra Foundation, Priyadarshini Govind Chennai
Friday Odissi Odissi Nrutya Mandal, Sri Ashis Kumar Das & Group Cuttack
05-Dec-15 Odissi Odisha Dance Academy, Smt Aruna Mohanty Bhubaneswar
Saturday Kathak Lashya Academy Dance Repertory, Guru Rajashree Shirke Mumbai

Image - Odisha Tourism

International Sand Art Festival
It is held to coincide with the five day Konark Festival.
Date - 1 to 5 December 2015
Time - 6.00 A.M. to 6.00 P.M
Venue - Chandrabhaga Beach, Konark.

pinti-benguli-o-chadhei

ପିଣ୍ଟି, ବେଙ୍ଗୁଲି ଓ ଚଢ଼େଇ

So,  was browsing through some of the famous local stores & online stores & couldnt find Odia story books for my 10-month old toddler. I mean English books are also fine, but my aim is to draw her interest towards reading without making any of our lives difficult (Be it the pain of translating it in the mind, or the pain of making the toddler understand a different language or the discomfort of my aunties/ Grandma - Aaee in reading the English text out loud to the Baby with whom they have been conversing in Odia).

So a short story not only for her, but to help out all of us in the family :)
Link to my website

A Day in Remote Rayagada - II

Continued From .... A Day in Remote Rayagada

So as we enter the training room, I realise its as good as any conference halls from the finest of cities! There are around 23 trainers who have come for this session. They have traveled from their (tribal dominated) villages, where they are presently conducting classes of ALP (Adult Literacy), thanks to Sparsh. So my work? To train the trainer - TOT. To make them comfortable with the TCS built software, which can make their lives easier along with making learning more structured, fun for the villagers and of course to introduce computers.

TCS has donated 10 computers after a long approval process and now the software and the training is a part of its own CSR :-). All thanks to the efforts of our CSR coordinator, Priya Mahapatra.  As I start interacting with these trainers, their Simplicity & Innocence hits me. They are so soft spoken I cant hear them standing just next to them with my ears stretched! One moment I feel the despair, how am I going to finish the session and come out satisfied if I don't get any interaction? How would I know if the purpose was fulfilled? Will they be able to go back and use the computer software and teach?

Anyways giving up doesn't come that easily to me ;) . For the next 1 hour I keep shouting my lungs out, poking everyone, madly reaching out to each individual throughout the room! There are a few supervisors and officials from Sparsh who poke them along with me. That helps as well, as these girls are more familiar with them.

Going by the instinct, I call them up and ask them to help me with the software. Towards lunch time I get smiles, replies, reactions!! Now that the comfort level has been established, we have to rise to a new level!

I realise the trainers haven't operated a computer before and are getting confused with the mouse! I pass the mouse across to let them have a look and check the left and right clicks. Little patience and time works like magic :-). Some of them go pro with it exploring and helping others!!


The training goes down very nicely, much better than the expectations I had after entering the room :-). We have a small photo session outside the conference hall in our tea time. There are about 5 supervisors with us, I basically focus on for explaining the Reporting part! Although others are still there, I find it hard to expect them to learn mouse clicks & excel sheets the same day :-)

Eventful day almost closes with formal greetings, just the way it had started! We go back to Mr Rajguru's office n are treated with another round of lemon tea :-)! Seriously, after having 3 rounds of lemon tea the entire day, I started to like it :D They even take us to their CEO, again a nice gesture and we get some unexpected gifts! :-)

Next we are permitted to go see the paper industry with a guide and helmets. And wow! Starting from logging to chips to pressure cooking to labs to humongous rollers to packaging to the multi floored storage. Just wow! Felt as if I am standing inside an episode of Mega Factories, Nat Geo!!

After an Awe-inspiring tour of the factory we started out to a nearby village, Amalapatta to see the present ALP center running there. It was a small place filled with enthusiastic people, running out of a Anganwadi center, 7 to 9pm. Mansi & Ninoshka mingled with the ladies there and brought out their hidden talents. In a few secs someone was singing, few others were drawing!! A lady with two naughty children very enthusiastically shows me what all she's learned in the last week.

We return back to our guest house. Situ is also done with her program n has reached there (I had already called her to come there on Mr Ashutosh's request). We have a heavy dinner, at least I have ;)

Then it's time to start back. Having said our goodbyes to Mr Ashutosh, thanking him again for the hospitality and promising to have another visit after few months, we take leave to catch our 10:30 pm train from Rayagada. On the way back I share the latest Rangabati song with our recently-converted Odia volunteers from SBI YFI before waving them goodbye. Its been more than 12 hours and we are totally spent. Situ & me, we share a few stories of the trip & Situ snores in no time :P

I lie down and start with this blog & doze off in the train.

A Day in Remote Rayagada

So after discovering the awesomeness of TCS made software for ALP (Adult Learning Program) -- the CBFL (Computer Based Functional Literacy) several thoughts cross my mind.Do we really have illiterate people in Odisha or is the concept as old as the initiative!!!Anyways if there are people in need, we can help them, so I leave it at that.

Next thing we know we get an email calling for volunteers for 2 training (train the trainer) at Rayagada - Sparsh, JK Paper Mills & Agragamee. Both Situ and I volunteer instantly and get ready for the assignment. Although excited, a hundred other things are running in my mind - the mosquitoes, malaria, remote region, accommodation, naxals and what not!! Anyways "darr k aage jeet hai ;) ". Only thought that's left is our 8 month old Rishika. She's never been without seeing her Mom for a night. And my Aaee (Granny), Aunty and Papa keep prodding - do you really have to go? Mom's cool. She knows! So, I cool down too :-)

I get back from Kolkata on Thursday night and wfh on Friday. Working till 6pm, I wind up to scoldings from Papa n Situ and hurry to pack for the 7:30 train - Hirakhand express to Rayagada.

We wake up around 5 am and wait for the station. It's dawn and the view is breathtaking!!! There are series of hill ranges!! Forest areas, eucalyptus plantations, Farmers tilling lands, bullocks, villagers. Just Wow!! Situ gets down at Rayagada and goes to Kashipur with the SRC officials to conduct training at Agragamee SRC. I get down at the next station, Singapuram Road. Meet 2 daredevil trainees, Ninoshka & Mansi who have travelled from Gajapati for this training. They come from diverse backgrounds and have opted for a 1 year fellowship helping rural communities. As part of SBI csr activities they form the youth for India group working with NGOs.

We have a car waiting at the station to take us to the guest house of JK Mills. It appears as if the area has been developed around the paper mill!! And it's amazing to see how an industry can change the landscape of a region :-).

We reach the guest house. It is way above my expectations, much better than what I had in mind :D Its still 7am! I call up Situ n check on her, inform back home and then fall flat on the bed for an hour :-). 8ish I get up n get ready for the day ahead and call up Mr Asutosh Das to check on the schedule for the day. Mr. Ashutosh looks after a lot of stuff along with the NGO Sparsh and has been in touch helping us with the details. The program would start by 10:30, so I still have time to explore the place and talk to him and others at the NGO.

Main Gate of JK Mills

The laptop and camera bags get picked and I go about admiring the beautifully maintained gardens and plants in the campus of the guest house, staff colonies! To my surprise the guest house officials say it is completely ok to leave the room unlocked :-)

Strolling, I walk upto the campus of the factory and they won't let me in without a helmet :-) (damn, I couldn't click that pic :P ). Went to the administration building n met Asutosh and his boss Mr Rajguru. Very nice, warm & hospitable people. After a series of intros and chit chats, I get up - its time to start the program.

To be continued..

Its a Baby Girl !

So now that my wife, Situ has published her interpretation of my thoughts and the events around the birth of our Baby,  I am left with no other option but to get my lazy self up and write about things I have been procrastinating since "God-knows-when"!!

Almost all of the 9 months we have had guesses, fights about would it be a baby boy or a girl... and what would we name it!! 1st I wished for a girl n then for a boy and at last decided  not to be inclined towards any particular gender :) It was all a game and Little did we know how exactly it felt to be a parent!

So Situ is admitted for an operation to take place later in the evening...I come home for a short lunch break leaving her with both of our Moms and we get a call shortly after from them that the doc came in early and - "Its a baby girl!".

I rush to the hospital with Papa....numerous thoughts running through my mind..My first thought being its a girl... Living in "almost" a joint family,  have never handled baby girls... its been boys always and that was one of the reasons we wanted one in the first place! Now that we have one am clueless...  So much of love without even seeing her till now!!

I mean if it would have been a boy, may be we can throw him out one day or he will run away himself or stay back...who knows...Doesn't matter either ways... But she's a girl... You have to be careful... You have to raise her delicately with lots of love and care and one day you will have to give her away!! 

  I know its ridiculous and archaic... but that's the way Indian society works... and you need to have the courage to get over that.. At the 2nd moment I laugh myself off thinking who knows whats in store... May be she will be potent enough to face the world... May be she will find her calling and stand up for herself... May be she will keep in touch after all :-) 

Lots of thoughts n we reach the hospital..Moms are unable to tell where did they take the baby for cleaning...Situ is still in the OT. Rest of the family also joins in, all waiting anxiously... Even Aaee (my Granny) has climbed the dreaded stairs to have a glimpse of Situ n the baby..Situ is brought out in a highly medicated state with saline n all n she is constantly mumbling about the pain she is in!!

I feel a tap on the shoulders & look back to see Papa whispering to me, "come if you want to see the baby". I am like-- What's with advocates & how do they have an eye for so much details! Impressed I follow him downstairs & he points to a small room with a single incubator.

Not knowing at all what to feel n think I move into that room and see a tiny baby moving her hands n legs under a bulb.. That very moment is rather overwhelming and inexplicable! From a state of "blank mind" to standing near a "live-playing-baby" that is yours!! Words fail & am all choked.. well as I said, inexplicable :)

Without facing Papa I quietly go upstairs to Situ's room.. Every one in the family is concerned about Situ & they are like are you crying for Situ!! Hehe... I am like no, "I saw it...it really is a baby.. a tiny one" :D

Aaee is all impatient to see the baby...She will be getting her 1st Great-Grandchild after all! They bring in the baby few moments later.. Now "another" first look at her and all my inhibitions and worries melt away... I instantly know she will be a fighter, born in a family of fighters where people are free to express, take their stand and do what matters!

Over the next 3 days we stay in the hospital with both our Moms taking turns to stay with us to help with the baby..Situ gains consciousness the next day & I hand her the baby with a kiss. Don't remember if I ever said thank you because those words would  have been dwarfed by the Sacrifice, Pain and Tapasyaa (guess the nearest English term is extreme-meditation) she went through for all of us to be sitting here!! No wonder they write so many things on the greatness of a Mother!

1st night both my Mom n Situ are sleeping n snoring in their beds in the hospital room, while I am keeping watch on the sleeping baby :-) She cries n I go up n clean her 1st potty.... Never thought of it then... but now whenever Situ accuses me of not cleaning her up, I bring up the topic that I cleaned the very 1st time :D :D And yes I sometimes think if she will like me once she grows up, will she be able to relate n of course I have thought of many ways to keep her liking me :D

Fast forward and the baby completed her 6 months recently... She's been blessed with a wonderful family support... She's been staying with Aaee and our aunty while we go off to work... may be she loves them more than us now... may be she is loved more by the entire family (being the youngest and only girl)... may be she's been mumbling Bababa Papapapa but when she is stressed and cries, she calls out  A ....Ma (grandmother) / ...Mamma (mother) :-) :-)