Visiting the old city heritage just a day after the bustling Kartik Purnima, participants of the 47th Ekamra Walks had a unique experience of the traditions and culture post the holy Kartik month in the old Bhubaneswar.
They were also given brief understanding of the Kartik Purnima and Chhadakhai rituals, while travelling through heritage by-lanes and holy Bindusagar lake.
A total of 25 heritage enthusiasts, including children, elders and professionals, took the tour on Sunday and visited the heritage sites such as temples of Mukteswar, Parsurameswar, Kotitirtheswar, Ananta Vasudev, Bindusagar lake, old Dharamsala, lingaraj, Chitrakarini, Sari, Mohini and Vaital and ended the trip after visiting the unique medicinal plant garden, Ekamra Van, which has over 220 varieties of medicinal plants.
An Indian army officer PC Pusti and his wife Jayanti from Chhattisgarh, who have shifted to Bhubaneswar less than two months ago, described the walk as a memorable experience for lifetime and appreciated the initiative. A father-son duo of Biswajit and Divyansh Das Gupta who were participating in the heritage walk for the first time, were quite awestruck and elated with the unique experience in the heritage trails of old Bhubaneswar area. Shovan Das, a retired banker from the city who participated in the walk, said, “It’s truly a very memorable walk for me and frankly I didn’t have much knowledge about such rich heritage and culture along
the streets of old city though I am a native of Bhubaneswar for quite many years. I am very much thankful to the Ekamra Walk organizers for facilitating such an intimate experience of our rich heritage in the city.”
Another city-resident Raghunath Prusty echoed similar experience while describing overall cultural ambience of the heritage tour.