Ingeborg Krukkert, a national from the Netherlands, on her first visit to Odisha and Bhubaneswar, was very happy to participate in the heritage walk in the city on Sunday.
Krukkert will be soon moving to Ganjam to work as an anthropologist for a sanitation project run by an NGO, but she added that whenever she would get time in future, she will definitely make it a point to see the heritage sites of Bhubaneswar as they are beautiful and unique on their own.
Professor Chitta Baral from Arizona State University came to the 53rd Ekamra Walks (Old Town and Lingaraj Circuit) with his wife Matsumi Baral. During the early days of Ekamra Walks, just after its launching the US-based computer science professor had also participated in the heritage walk. On Saturday, he was also there at Monks, Caves and Kings, the second heritage walk under Ekamra Walks, at Khandagiri-Udayagiri.
Col Chandan Jha of Indian Army and Lt. Commander Amar Lahariya from Indian Navy both stationed at Brahmapur, came to join the walk and were very happy with the experience. “We are really proud of the heritage walk and will join the walks in the Khandagiri-Udayagiri coming Saturday. However, we will be telling our friends and family members to take part in these nice initiatives, whenever they are in the temple city,’’ they said.
The visitors, 30 in numbers, went to Mukteswar, Parasurameswar, Kotitirtheswar, Bindusagar, Ananta Vasudev, Old Dharamsala, Lingaraj, Chitrakarini, Sari Deula, Bharati Mutt, Mohini, Vaitaal and the medicinal plant garden at Ekamra Van.
Towards the end of the heritage walk, the participants experienced a beautiful recital of Odishi by the students of renowned Odissi dancer Ileana Citaristi at Art Vision.