OB Special

Can Bali Jatra be our own Oktoberfest? With a little bit of effort, yes.   Munich lies several time zones apart from Cuttack and the cultural ethos of the German city is far removed from…

Cuttack: Pashmina shawls and sarees, foam tulips and dahlia, dry fruits and designs with chinar leaves - Kashmir is making its presence felt at Bali Jatra. It has made the range of choices…

Ancient Odisha’s connection with Ceylon, the modern-day Sri Lanka, ran deep. Some historians believe Vijaya, the first king of Simhala, was from Simhapura, the capital of Kalinga. When…

Bhubaneswar: Like its more famous counterpart in Cuttack, Bali Jatra in Bhubaneswar has also started with much fanfare by drawing thousands of people to the fair ground every evening. Joy…

Bali Jatra holds a seductive allure for Suryanarayan Satpathy. Seventy-two and a bit infirm in body, the resident of Mehndipir in Cuttack, still finds it difficult to resist a trip to the…

The placid Chilika lake has been reduced to a mesh of prawn farming nets these days. In its glory days, which spanned many centuries across the pre-and early Christian era, it was an…

Cuttack: The historic Bali Jatra on the banks of the Mahandi in the Millennium City has been extended by a day. The mega open fair, which was inaugurated on Tuesday (November 12), will…

Kalinga was a maritime superpower. It means ancient Odias were proficient at ship-building and had sound knowledge of the seasonal winds. While contemporary and later-day literary accounts…

Rituals succeed where history fails. Bits of our past survives as collective memory through them. History looks for evidence, they don't. They deal with certainties etched into our communal…

What did the sadhavas carry in their magnificent boats? Historical evidence suggests the cargo consisted of ivory, textiles, precious stones, rice and betel nuts among other items. Elephants…