OdishaLIVE Bureau

More than 60 visitors including People from three continents participated in the 56th Ekamra Walks, Old Town Circuit. Perhaps for the first time, foreigners across three continents were present at a single city-based heritage event in the Temple City of India, Bhubaneswar.

Among others, people from Armed forces and bankers did join the weekly heritage walk showcasing the rich heritage of the Old City and enjoyed every bit of it including an Odissi recital at Art Vision, the dance institute of renowned Odissi and Chhow dance Guru Ileana Citaristi.

Col Bijayananda Pattanaik, Station Staff Officer at Military Station Bhubaneswar and his wife Lipishree Pattnaik were highly impressed with the walk.

Neera Prasad, a retired Banker from Bangaluru, who came for the heritage walk with her fellow workers, was very happy after the day’s experience. “I have visited the city for five times including this time, but this unique experience would be engraved in my heart forever,” she said.

A team of 18 students from Australia and France came from School of Vocational Education and Training at Centurion University of Technology and Management (CUTM) in the city were thrilled to witness such aesthetic beauty in the heart of the city.

Jasmine Garnet-Carroll from Melbourne said “this was a fantastic experience and the beautiful monuments impressed me like anything. We would be happy to have more such tours in future”.

An eight member Odissi dance team from California was present at Ekamra Walks under the leadership of Revital Carroll, who has an experince of 20 years in Odissi.

“We have visited the Monks, Caves and Kings Heritage Walk at the Khandagiri-Udayagiri caves yesterday and today we were at the Old Town circuit. As we are here to trace the origin and the different aspects of the Classical dance form, today’s tour was indeed a great learning lesson for all of us.

We will also be learning other things like how the ornaments are made, how the sarees worn by the dancers weaved, how the decorative headgear or `tahia’ is made and all our team members will visit the places with me to learn them,’’ said Revital, who runs a dance institute Shakti Bhakti in California.

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