The high point of 2007

6th May,2007 was my parents' 25th Wedding anniversary. To mark the occasion , all of us decided to embark on a pilgrimage cum pleasure trip to Puri. I had this impression that the Jagannath temple is right on the sea shore. So I was pretty excited. though I wasn't quite right in thinking so, I wasn't completely wrong too..It was amazing.

On 4th june, we boarded a flight from Hyderabad to Bhubaneshwar. We were told we would be flying over Vishakhapatnam and the eastern coast for most of our journey.

As soon as the familiar Hussain sagar was out of view, we could make out the faint blue of Bay of Bengal in the distance. I had a hard time distinguishing the blue of the sea from the blue of the sky.

Though I have travelled a lot and a train journey across the country is a marvelous experience with blink-and-you-miss landscapes changing at an astronomical pace, the view from an airplane window never ceases to amaze me.

Soon after Vishakhapatnam, we were flying over the plains of Orissa. It was like a kaleidoscope of earthy browns, greens and reds. Red laterite soil contrasting beautifully with the golden of thatched roof tops like a big rangoli splashed over an infinite brown canvas.

The next day, enroute Puri, We were travelling along a very narrow yet smooth country side road. I though it cant get any better than this till we took a turn towards Puri when we reached the end of the road. It was the end because(!) there was the sea beyond. It was mesmerising. When we started towards Puri, it was like a scene straight out of a movie shot in exotic locations with sea flanking the road for a good 20 kms before we reached Puri.

I had never thought even a sleepy, remote and unknown town could be so beautiful yet untouched. Another thing that I had never seen before despite my numerous travel experiences was the Lagoons, small lakes cut off from the sea by sand. We had to cross several before we could reach the beach by the resort where we were putting up.

My friends were really surprised when we decided to go to Puri and not to other well known places like Goa. And many did not know Puri is on the sea shore. No wonder Puri still looks untouched. Maost Indians can tell you which towns in the USA are on the coast while they wont know a thing about India's long and bountifully bestowed coastline.

People flock to South Africa, Australia for this experience while a virgin sea side road exists right there in their back yard.

Luckily for us, it was a full moon night when we reached Puri.

With darkness all around and the roaring waves, moon rays on water was giving this illusion of an illuminated pathway to eternity, ships gleaming on the horizon like a big jeweled necklace of the ocean.

I have this feeling every time I visit a coastal place. Its so difficult to think that across the sea , there is another country,another race with a different culture, tradition. There is a different world out there.

Insignificance of an individual in the whole scheme of things comes to fore when I think of it, more so at night when the sea is at its majestic best.

I had the time of my life in Puri. After 3 days of basking in nature's lap, the return journey was uneventful as it always is.