Ex-NAL Dir recalls city roots at Ekamra Walks

Heritage walk and rediscovering the monuments of Old Bhubaneswar apart, the Ekamra Walks on Sunday became a celebration for the couple Shyam Chetty and Surekha Rani as it was five decades after Shyam, former director of National Aerospace Laboratory (NAL), Bengaluru, returned to his roots and was overwhelmed to see the changing cityscape.

The high-ranking scientist of the famous R&D laboratory under the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, studied Senior Cambridge level at city-based Stewart School, Bhubaneswar as his father was the Auditor General in Odisha.

“I have a very fond memory of the city and really feeling excited about the trip and especially the nice initiative of guided heritage walk. Though in the past I had been to Bhubaneswar on several occasion, my wife is coming to the city for the first time and she is also equally happy as it was here I studied my pre-university courses at Stewart School,” said the scientist.

Shyam is a native of historic city Mysore in Karnataka. His wife Surekha is a well-known artist, who has done a number of her paintings and other works in various mediums to express her feelings and creativity.

Professor of University London from School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) David Taylor, American Odishi dancer Durga Bor, 60 students from the Piloo Mody College of Architecture with their three faculty members, research scholars from the Orissa University of Agriculture Technology (OUAT) and 12 students of the Indian Institute of Travel and Tourism Management came calling for the Ekamra Walks making it a grand event with a massive footfall of more than 100.

Monalisa Pani, a student said, “We need to have more such visits in future to learn details on the structure and design components of our temples.” Swati Pattnaik and Abhipsa Bal, two PhD scholars from OUAT, who were happy with the walk’s outcome promised to request other friends to join the event in future.

Biswajit Tripathy, an IT professional from Patna, said, “Many locals are not aware about the basic details of our monuments and their stories. Young people should join the heritage walk to explore these stories.”