Bhubaneswar: Friendship of decades, sibling love, students from a single institution and love for Odissi were the elements of the 147th Old Town heritage trail under the umbrella of Ekamra Walks, which is attracting people from every corner of India and of the world. Brigadier Dr Sailesh Mohanty along with his three other friends, all engineers were very happily listening to and asking questions to the guide as they found the walk as an down memory lane for their early days in the city. Dr Mohanty, who spend over 36 years in the Indian Army said “todays tour was an eye-opener for me as I had visited the temple, might be several times in the past, but never had the opportunity to discover the beautiful buildings under the unique Kalingan style of architecture and also the influence of it over other regions in the South Asian nations with which we had a strong maritime trade link. Dr Mohantys friend Aditya Mohanty was retired from Rourkela Steel Plant, Piyush Kumar Kanungo was a retired Works Secretary and Ashok Das, also an engineer. However, all the friends, all retired, had a good time spending in learning the history, heritage and traditions of the Old Town area through the heritage trail. Sanjana Marwah, an M.Ed student of Regional Institute of Education (RIE) came with her sister Sunaina. “I came yesterday to Khandagiri and Udayagiri for the Jain heritage walk and long ago to Old Town, but this time I requested my sister to company and enjoy the walk. We are from Jamshedpur and we really loved the way the temples and other heritage monuments are preserved and maintained in the city. “Today we are also going to Kala Bhoomi for the museum walk and I know my sister will enjoy the Odissi recital at Art Vision by the disciples of Guru Padma Shri Ileana Citaristi, she added. Two other students from RIE Arimab Pratima Devi from Manipur and Pratyush Ranjan Sahoo, both Ph.D. scholars said “we are really happy to learn so many things about our monuments in the city and will definitely tell our friends to join Ekamra Walks as RIE has got a spectrum of students who hail from across India. Poongothai and Gopalkrishnan from Chennai were very impressed to see the temple architecture of the temples in Old Bhubaneswar. “Our temples in Chennai are different, but the carvings here are with every minute detaims and beautifully done in the 7th and 10th Century, observed Poongothai. Jyotirmayee Patra, a Geology honours pass out from MPC College, who originally belongs to Balasore spent most of the time photographing the carvings on the monument walls. “I am preparing for Combined Defence Service and now stay in the city. In the past also I had been to the temples, but todays experinec was unique, said the girl, who is daughter of a senior Forest official from Cuttack. Related Comments comments

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