We went to the famous Lingaraj Temple today! I have been wanting to see this place ever since I heard that this is the one true remaining essence of Orissan architecture and it didn't disappoint me at all!! The main temple is surrounded by lots of small ones inside and the towers were magnificent. One of the strange things about this temple is that, the main lord who is supposed to be Siva, is not actually Lord Siva but is half Vishnu and half Siva - Harihara Linga. This is because when the temple was constructed way back in the 11th century, the Jagannath craze had spread itself and the Svayambhu linga that was to be the main diety came to be known as Harihara! The temple is supposed to be offlimits to non-hindus but hey whatthehell....I asked my islam friend who had accompanied me on the trip to pretend to be a Hindu! I quite seriously find this a total nonsense...even back home in Triplicane, Chennai in the Parthasarathy Temple, non-hindus are allowed inside the temple..only not inside the main sannadi! And according to me, that is one of best temples in the world..I have got a personal attachment to it you see! After all I grew up on the four streets and the Iyengar environment surrounding the temple!
We also took lots of photographs! On the way back, we decided to take a bus and was it an experience or what? The conducter was quite pissed off when we told him we wanted to alight well before the place we took the ticket to and any near bus stand! The reason being that my eyes caught a "East-North craft sale cum exhibition" poster on the way!! ;) Had a great time shopping- Infact I have really spent lots of money on stuff I dont think I will need anytime in the near future!! I bought all of them with my future house in mind...after all the present value of the future worth of these goods will be really less than what I will be paying for them if I get them when I do get my own apartment!! Hehehe...and the selfish goose that I am, I didn't get even a single thing for anyone else back home in Chennai or Bangalore! So to wipe off that last minute guilt, I have comforted myself and decided to sacrifice a few of the stuff that I got for my Mom, Sister and Father!
God save me!
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