Night Cycling in Love With Jagannatha

An un planned Cycling having a good Darshan, a good distance, a good time, a good sky, a good rain, Some Good Foods; that’s all what we had under twelve to fourteen hours of cycling between Twilight to Dawn where eight of our Cyclist from We All Ride Bicycle rode for the Darshan of Balabhadra in Taladhawaja, Devi Subhadra & Chakra Raj Sudarshana in Darpadalan and Jagannatha in Nandighosha. We reached Puri Badadanda after 100km of cycling via Konark & marine drive then another 60km or so into our homes in Bhubaneswar.

Although we don’t have plan when we start where to eat, drink, stay or how top it would be to ride in dark night after witnessing heavy rainfall in afternoon. But there was a curiosity amongst all cyclist to have the blessings of trinity in Chariot even though bad weather can't stop pedalling. So everyone prayed eternally that when we will begin our cycling towards puri at least no rainfall at the time of leaving home to ensure no resistance from home as no one wants to miss the occasion. Yes Miracles do happen and it did happened as the dark clouds moved away and rainfall stoped with bright sky.

Well when the Nandighosha Chariot moved in Badadanda we left home after having blessings in home and gathered in front of Raja Rani Temple. At that point it was clearly visible how the Butterfly making noise inside all of us as for some it would be first Golden Triangle Ride, for some first 100km and for some first ride in night and for all of us a good Darshan.

After quick selfie at the staring we took the path covering places like Bhaskareswar Temple, Megheswar Temple, Kuakhai River, Chaousathi Yogini, Puri Canal and Budhanath Temple before arriving in Nimapada. We could mark the curiosity amongst children and people to cheer us as well chatting with us and those who have seen us in past have their Smile. Their cheer and smile were enough to boost us and we knew many more will celebrate with us in our journey. We reached Nimapada just to realise our favourite tiffin counter service closed for the day. So we tried some other shop but couldn’t found interesting. By the time we left Nimapada drizzling started which turned into heavier & heavier with voices of frogs becoming louder and louder throughout our cycling under the dark sky.

In between we suggested one of our fellow cyclist who is having food venture in Puri to arrange dinner for us, as we were not aware of surprises in Konark that someone will feed us. Although Konark was a dead town with water logged when we reached. But we realised newly set up Konark Temple Interpretation Centre was opened for us to have glimpse of it. So we visited the centre thoroughly and felt may this be the place that will attract tourists to find a reason of visiting Konark in evenings.

Then we had our vegetarian dinner before descending towards Puri. But we realised processing food will take some time and one of our cyclist had a flat. So we patched tube and had two hour delayed dinner. Which means by the time we were suppose to reach puri, we actually left Konark. It was raining heavily but no thunderstorm nor lightening. So we touched Chandrabhaga and then used marine drive before reaching Puri around 2am by saving one hour. This one hour was crucial otherwise we might have reached Bhubaneswar by 8 or 9 am. But when the call was from God then God know the passage for devotees.

Then we had our darshan of Balabhadra in Taladhawaja and Devi Subhadra & Chakra Raj Sudarshana in Darladalana in front of Shri Gundicha temple and finally Jagannatha in Nandighosha near to medical square. While we had our darshan we got blessings in form of heavy rainfall.

While we were returning some people in Car were in talk jokingly why not they are in Bicycle. Well these are all usual comments but i realised after seeing so many car in que why the chariot festival is called Car Festival, perhaps is reason why Car Pass are Issued not Walking or Cycling. Intrestingly Bada Danda is just 3km, then just wonder what would have been the challenge if people began to walk than roaring inside cars.

Then in rains we descend back to Bhubaneswar with two stops for tea and snacks before reaching home in early hours of the day. Yes we had plan to collect Rs300/per cyclist for expenditure but like past we either forgot or such circumstances didn’t arrived or it was just God's plan that we could not understood beyond Cycling.

There is a say in Odia “କରି କରାଉଥାୟେ ମୁହିଁ ମୋ ବିନୁ ଅନ୍ୟଗତି ନାହିଁ” “I do everything and there is no escape without me”.

ଜୟ ଜଗନ୍ନାଥ🙏🚴🚴🙏

Jai Jagannatha🙏🚴🚴🙏