Puri, PAR and Peace
on Jen's Indian Adventure (India), 15/Mar/2010 15:06, 34 days ago
I’m just back from a lovely few days inPuri, a beach resort on the Bay of Bengal, on the coast ofOrissa. I attended the VSO Programme Annual Review (PAR) which was held 10th- 12thMarch at the Holiday Resort Hotel. It was great to see the old faces again, and some new. In all there are currently 60 volunteers inIndia, but unfortunately due to financial cut backs that number will start to seriously drop from next year.We had great discussions on each of the topic areas– Participation and Governance, Disability, HIV/AIDS and Volunteering.We worked hard during the day, but VSO had arranged for us to play hard in the evenings– the first evening we had dinner on the beach, and on the second evening we were entertained by Gotipus and Odissi dancers. Gotipuas are generally young boys, dressed up as girls. From the 17th century onwards Gotipua dance spread as part of the temple culture of Lord Jaganannath in Puri.The third and final day of the conference was run by the volunteer committee and as a group we found that there was a lot to discuss. But not so much we spent the whole day locked into a room. The committee had very kindly arranged a choice of outings for the afternoon and I chose to go see theSunTempleat Konark, a local World Heritage Site.A13th-centurySun Temple(also known as the Black Pagoda) it was built by King Narasimhadeva-I(AD 1236-1264) of theEastern Ganga Dynasty.The temple takes the form of thechariotofSurya(Arka), the sun god, and is heavily decorated with stone carving. The entire complex, most of it now gone, was designed in the form of a huge chariot drawn by seven spirited horses on twelve pairs of exquisitely decorated wheels. The entrance is guarded by two lions, which are each shown crushing a war elephant. Each elephant in turn lies on top of a human body.The temple symbolises the majestic stride of the Sun god. All around the temple, there are various floral and geometric patterns. There are also human, divine and semi-divine figures in sensuous poses. The carvings contain couples in various amorous poses, and are derived from theKama Sutra.I had previously decided to then spend the weekend in Puri with two other VSO volunteers and I’m delighted I did. Not only was it lovely to catch up with them, but other volunteers had also decided to stay on in Puri for a few extra days.We just spent the weekend lounging around, spending lots and eating lots. We were spoilt for choice in Puri with pizza, pasta, good fish and proper coffee– all things we generally can’t get in our placement areas. We ate in restaurants called ‘Peace’,‘Xanadu’, ‘the Pink House’ and the now famous ‘Honey Bee’. Some money was also spent on clothes suitable for hot weather (and tall people)- something else I can’t find in Bhubaneswar.I stayed in the Z hotel for the weekend, an old quaint, basic hotel, but one which was very clean and had lovely, friendly staff.I don’t have any interesting or funny stories to tell about my few days in Puri. It was simply a nice, relaxing break.