Odisha Diary – Birds and rewards in Jeypore
Birds and spirited village women invite Jennifer Nandi’s careless attention as she enjoys Odisha’s pastoral countryside in Jeypore
Category: Odisha Diary
Odisha Diary – Meeting our Kondha and Paraja countrymen
The younger women are lithe and beautiful with tattoo markings and jewellery and a piece of cloth wound around the waist and then carelessly thrown over the shoulders. I am amazed at such natural beauty worn so easily. They sit in the warm sunlight, looking at us take pictures, talking to their babies, bathing their little ones, pounding rice, just carrying on despite our nosiness, our inelegant clothes and ungainliness with our shiny cameras. The group embodies an intelligence that seems to be fundamentally social.
Odisha Diary: The Chilika non-starter
Chilika, India’s largest lagoon and the second-largest of its kind in the world, offers a tepid reception to Jennifer Nandi, who retreats from it experiencing a strange emotion between disappointment and happiness India’s largest Lake, Chilika, famed for its birdlife, is our next destination. We pore over the map that…
Odisha Diary: In the court of the Sun God
After chasing down the Mangrove Whistler in Bhitarkanika, Jennifer Nandi journeys to the temple towns of Konarak and Puri, where a technicality stops her from washing away her sins A pair of Yali, fearsome mythical beasts, guard the temple gates True to his word, the boatman is already at the…
Odisha Diary: Guideless and guileless in Bhitarkanika
When the local bird guide of two decades vintage turns out to be a shimmering dud, Jennifer Nandi takes control of the rest of her birding trip at Bhitarkanika Early morning at Bhitarkanika – eagles in the trees harry the waterfowl Birding guides are, at the best of times, difficult…
Odisha Diary: Onward to Bhitarkanika
Jennifer Nandi‘s sojourn in Odisha begins with a ride through the Buddhist ruins at Udayagiri and Ratnagiri Some serious packing after dinner leaves the night in tatters – yet, we are ready to leave the hotel at 5.30 in the morning to catch our flight to Bhubaneshwar. Sushanto, the epitome of…