Proving its growing popularity among students community, city’s heritage walk, the Ekamra Walks, on May 7 got several engineering students from the KIIT University as participants.
They heard about the event from social media and made it their day on the 21st edition of the unique tour on Sunday.
Anas Khan, who came to Ekamra Walks for the first time, was overwhelmed seeing the grace of the Kalingan temple building architecture. He said the event will definitely go a long way to take the identity of the city in the world arena.
It can be mentioned here that among all cities in the country Bhubaneswar has got the highest concentration of temples and monuments as it has 361 listed monuments either on the conservation list of ASI, State Archaeology or documented by INTACH. About 25 people participated in the walk, braving the sun.
Vivek Sharma, another student from KIIT University, said “The Odissi performance at Art Vision, the institute to promote the classical dance form by Italian-turned-Odia dancer Padmashree Ileana Citaristi, was really mesmerizing and one never realized when time passes once he/she is inside the institute.”
Ileana, who has mastered two beautiful dance forms from the State, i.e. Chhow and Odissi, has beautifully built her institute with the Kalingan touch and made use of the laterite stones in the building her mini auditorium, which comes as a unique piece of art, besides the Odishi performance.
Abhishek Pandey and Amit Chakraborty, also part of the KIIT University team, said, “We will definitely tell our other friends to visit Ekamra Walks as it has all elements to bind and engage the walkers with its monuments, dance recital and Ekamra Van medicinal plant garden.’’
It can be mentioned here that the social media has come as a real helping hand for the popularization of Ekamra Walks and especially attracting the young mass towards exploring the heritage sites in Bhubaneswar’s Old Town area, which traditionally is known as Ekamra Kshetra in the religious texts.
Gurudev Mumase, an elderly person and ex-Indian Air Force personnel from Chennai said, “This is my second visit to Ekamra Walks and I am really fascinated by the temples of Bhubaneswar. I am doing a research work on their various socio-religious and technical aspects and would love to visit the city more often.’’
Banker Prabhudutta Bal, another participant, termed the experience “exciting’’.
“We have visited the temples on numerous occasions, but if you are part of the Ekamra Walks, then only you can be able to get the real inputs and knowledge-base on the Old Bhubaneswar area. I will definitely recommend my other colleagues to come and explored the monuments,’’ Bal added.
The heritage walkers today started from Mukteswar and touched Parsurameswar, Sampoorna Jaleswar, Kotitirtheswar, Bindusagar, Ananta Vasudev, Old Dharnasala, Lingaraj, Sari Temple, Parikrama of Bindusagar, Mohini Temple, Vaitaal Temple, Ekamra Van the medicinal plant garden and Art Vision for Odissi recital.
As a joint venture of the Bhubasneswar Development Authority, Odisha Tourism and Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation, the Ekamra Walks has come a long way in attracting nearly 1,000 persons so far as all are niche segment visitors with special and specific interest on temples, heritage and Odia culture. De Tour is the agency managing the show.
First published in Daily Pioneer