Bhubaneswar, my city is the capital of Odisha, located in the eastern part of India is a very peaceful place for living. It's known as Temple City of India, because of many temples representing a very rich history of ancient Kalinga architecture and these iconic temples (few dating back to 650 CE) stand as a testament to our spiritual heritage. It's believed that, there used to be 7000 temples in ancient times, but not all of them have withstood the test of time - we still have around 700 temples - some of them being architectural marvels of ancient times. This year, I may have time to show them to you. Though Hindu population is major in the city, it's very much a religiously diverse city giving respect to everyone for a blissful living.
The thing that I love the most about my city, is the infrastructure - it's the second planned city of India, you will barely have a severe traffic congestion, as we have many parallel roads. During some special events, the city administration notifies the restrictions around few roads in advance, so you can always reroute, in case you have some critical travel plan. During recent times, the city has been beautified spending thousand of crores, making several public places and the wide roads more beautiful. I am sure, anyone who will come here for the first time will simply love the city.
The second thing I like the most about my city is the love for Food - our people are very fond of tasty foods and spend a lot on them. Any food start up that will serve nice food will be an instant success. And our people love to spend a lot in social functions, inviting many guests and serving them grand menu. It's like an opportunity for people to showcase their capability, and they go to extra mile. You have already seen few examples in my blog.
The third best thing I like about my city is that it's just 60 km away from one of the best beaches of India - we often drive to Puri after lunch, the roads being 100 ft wide, we love the long drive. Spending few hours at the beach rejuvenates us and then going to the Jagannath Temple and eating Mahaprsad fulfills the day. I have also shown the beach few times as part of my blogs, you will fall in love with the golden beach, if you come and visit my place.
Overall life here is pretty peaceful and blissful if you have a decent earning. In general people here are very friendly, Lord Jagannath presiding over our hearts. Of course there are cheaters at every tourist place, but that's a common story everywhere.
Now coming to the down sides, I hate the rampant corruption resulting large amount of black money circulating in the market, skyrocketing the real estate price. It's either almost impossible to buy a flat or house, or you end up your whole life in repaying the loan. So far it has not been possible for me to buy a house in the city for this reason, but I don't regret about it, because my native is not too far, just 30 km away.
The previous government was very stable ruling the state for 4 terms (more than 20 years) and they could have developed the city to a much better place, but unfortunately, nothing significant happened to provide better income source to people except, most govt officials ending up being rich. When these govt officials are raided, they find a lot of money and properties, and then the story ends there - I wish, there were stricter rules to set a trend for younger generation officers. At times I feel like joining politics to bring a change, but that idea fades away quickly - we all know the reasons.
One other thing I dislike is the poor planning of long term policies or vision - we truly have massive potential, but the government does very little to truly improve the place - most of the money shown as spent only on papers, a large part of it going to pockets of babus involved. Slowly, there has been interest from big IT companies to establish their operation here, which is a good news. Hopefully in another 5-10 years, we will be a nice tier II IT city, providing better employment prospects to our kids.
Lastly I dislike the scorching heat of summer, which is rising year by year. When I was kid, this place was a cool city, I am talking about just 30 years back. Unfortunately increased population, massive increase of buildings , environment pollution have brought us here and no one has started to bother seriously about them yet. Hopefully electric vehicles will help a little, the educative society adopting them fast, but we need much more than that.
If you want to come to my place, then the best time will be Winter ( late October to end of February) - I am sure, you will love this place. We have several serene and scenic places to visit in the state at an affordable budget - I will be glad to help, should you need any guidance.
Hope I have shared more about my place as part of this post, to know it better. This post is in response to the Weekend-Engagement topics: WEEK 258, I would love to hear about your city/town, feel free to tag me when you write a blog.
Jai Jagannath 🙏🙏🙏
This quick painting of Lord Jagannath was done by the lady - let the lord bring happiness and harmony for humanity.
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