BHUBANESWAR: From pandal hopping to shopping with family and friends, people of the State Capital are in a festive mood and making the most out of their vacation this Durga Puja. Roads in the city remained a chock-a-block on Sunday, as hordes of revellers started thronging Puja pandals for Goddess Durga’s darshan on the day of Saptami.
“Our festival mood is high. We have already planned a list of pandals in the City that we will visit between Saptami to Dasami,” said Gitanjali Dash, who came with her family to Rasulgarh to have a darshan of the idol and get a glimpse of the Akshardham-themed pandal.
With the festival being celebrated with no restrictions after a gap of two years, almost all the pandals in the city witnessed huge crowd. This has prompted many to visit the pandals early morning or late in the night to avoid the evening rush and traffic.
Apart from Rasulgarh, the Ayodhya Ram temple replica at Saheed Nagar, Lalitha Mahal-themed pandal at Bomikhal, Varanasi’s Ganga Ghat model at Old Station Bazar, Russia’s Hermitage Museum replica at Jharpada, including pandals at Nayapalli and Baramunda are also a big draws among the people.
“We visited the pandals on Saptami as there will be more crowd in the next three days due to the vacation which will continue till Wednesday,” said Jyoti Rath, a civil engineer.Jyoti, said, exploring the street foods at the stalls near pandals with friends is always a fun during Puja. “As this was not possible during the last two years, I won’t give it a miss this time,” he said.
While a majority of the crowd seemed enjoying pandal hopping and enjoying local food, shopping spree too gripped city markets and malls.The Market building at Unit-II, an old favourite of shoppers, witnessed huge crowd during evening, while shopping malls on Cuttack-Puri road, Janpath, Nayapalli and Jaydev Vihar-Nandankanan road also saw heavy rush.
But then there is another section of residents who have planned a getaway. “This time I have planned to tour Koraput with friends and stay put there for four days by exploring the local tourist places. I have already taken leave from office,” said Pritm Sahoo, a techie.
Ankita, a BBA student, on the other hand, says she and her friends have planned to enjoy movies that have released this Puja.