Jagannath Puri - Revisited - On The Ganja Juggernaut

I am now in Puri - the premier beach resort on the East Coast. Here, the oldest hotel is the BNR - named after the private Bombay-Nagpur Railway that first connected wheels to this place, and the rich people of Calcutta built their holiday homes here. Then, in those early days, BNR built a hotel in Puri. Now, it has been privatised, and my driver said it belongs to a relative of the former railway minister, Laloo Yadav.


There are many ancient holiday homes near my hotel - one, in fact, owned by the CONgress MP from this area, the son of Nandini Sathpathy.  Yet, this place is a mess. This dude ought to be made Mayor of Puri - instead of MP. And, he smokes ganja. All Oriyas do. They have a festival when all three gods are worshipped - Brahma, Visnu and Shiva - and the offerings are paan, betel and ganja. The ganja is for Shiva. There are many Shiva temples here.


I got ganja from a legal shop just 5 minutes ago. You cannot do this in Goa. Orissa can compete - positioning itself as the Ganja Capital of the Free World. Also, there is no Coastal Zone Act here - my hotel is right on the beach, as is the MP's, just around the corner from mine. But the place sucks. Goa is far, far prettier. Here, they have made a mess of their city. 


The mess starts from Bhubaneshwar. My taxi ride was slow and uncomfortable. Many a traffic jam. And there was no bridge over the railway crossing that must date back to BNR times.


No road to the beach resort.


And no beach road either.


No Marine drive.


The city needs a Mayor - like all Indian cities do.


But I love the Freedom - to be able to buy and smoke ganja without police harassment.


Freedom!


Tomorrow, I will watch the sunrise across the sea. 


And smoke a chillum while doing so.


Enough of Goan sunsets.