Blogs from Orissa, India, Asia

Traditionally, people have been flocking to places of worship to pray individually,as a family or in a group to seek salvation from a higher order. And no where this is more evident than in India with its multitude where millions upon millions go on temple visits everyday.The enormous patience and self control that has been derived through the process of pilgrimage and the "Pray to God” that we have inculcated have stood us in good stead,over centuries One such popular destination for pilgrimage in India has been the abode of Lord Jagannath in Puri, Orissa which we visited recently. As they say, bigger the legend greater is the following; so it is here. Legend has it that Vishnu appeared in the dreams of pious King Indradyumna, millennia ago, and directed him to a special wooden Log ... read more

This time in India began for me 15 months ago. And now it's time to leave (already?). On May 2nd I will board a train from Bhubaneswar (where I have been living and working for a year) to Mumbai with Gladys (Royal Enfield Bullet), stay with my good friends Raj and Marg there, and fly out on May 7th. Not to Australia: to Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain. I will stay with Carolina in her house in Canet d'Adri (Girona). I decided that I just wanted to get out of the ever intensifying Indian summer and, of course, I had the huge desire to get back together with Carolina sooner rather than later. We have many plans for the next five months, including walking the Camino, visiting some friends in southern France and in Switzerland, and going to ... read more

This is the first of what one would hope would become an annual event of some repute. The awards for the best overloads in India. First let us start with the rules, the first of which is illustrated by my first picture: 1. You must break the rule about not overloading your vehicle! 2. Each overloaded vehicle must remain upright for the duration of the current journey, or else face disqualification. 3. The judge’s (that’s me) decisions are final – no correspondence will be entered into. 4. On the payment of 10,000 rupees, rule number 3 will be revised. Now let me say at the outset that this inaugural year’s competition has been very hard to judge – there have been so MANY entries. However, I should also add that there are a couple of non-entries. ... read more

Am 12. Januar findet das lange angekuendigte "Gartenfest" unseres Wohnheims statt. Die Inder freuen sich nur sehr verhalten, sie finden es einfach zu kalt, um zu dieser Jahreszeit draussen herum zu stehen. Seit zwei Tagen wurde bereits dekoriert, Pavillons aufgestellt und seit dem morgen wird daneben Gemuese geschnippelt und gekocht. Die Vorbereitungen treffen Arbeiter des NIT, die eigens fuer solche Aufgaben angestellt sind. Nun halten sie sich voruebergehend in unserem Wohnheim auf. Um 20 Uhr ist das Essen endlich fertig und das Buffet aufgebaut. Sogar unser Heimleiter, Mr. Bisoyi, sowie der oberste Leiter aller Wohnheime, Mr. Pati, sind nebst ihrer Ehefrauen erschienen. Sie halten das ganze offensichtlich fuer einen Pflichtbesuch und bleiben unter sich. Ich habe Kilian eingeladen, schliesslich moechte er auch bald hier einziehen. Es ist eine Gelegenheit, die anderen Bewohner ke... read more

I’d met one of the guys through a local kid’s library foundation where, like most foreigners in town, I too had been roped in to read a story or two to the kids. My friend (and librarian) Sharon had sent me some Australian story books in the post from Australia, including “Possum Magic”. These books then became donations to the library. I do digress. This guy’s mates were Royal Enfield motorbike owners and they wanted to form a club. Cautiously I agreed to meet for coffee one night to discuss this proposition. About 5 turned up to the meeting within the hour (maybe Indian time is the origin of the term ‘within the appointed hour’?, although often things can be later than one hour). That meeting led to my first ride with Jagjit the next day ... read more