Holding onto tradition so well amazes Unicef official

A senior official of the

Unicef

was the visitor at this week’s

Ekamra Walks

at Old Town. She was amazed at the city’s rich heritage and monuments keeping the tradition alive.

Monika Nielsen

, chief of field officer, Unicef Odisha, joined the walk with her husband Robert Roclawski. Monika has come to the Old Town for the first time and termed her experience of this guided tour as educating and engaging with lots of information on the historical, archaeological and cultural aspects of this part of the city. “I like the way the old city has kept its age-old traditions and the manner in which they are still keeping their identities in modern times,” said the excited official. She also hoped that she would explore more parts of the state and know its culture in detail.

Along with her, there were other participants in the 118th edition of Old Town circuit of Ekamra Walks. They were classical dancers, researchers, photographers, students of architecture and city residents. The walk started with a

jugalbandi

of classical music at Mukteswar temple. The visitors listened to stories of Mukteswar, Parshurameswar, Swarnajaleswar, Kotitirtheswar, sacred Bindusagar pond, Doodhwala dharmasala, Gourishankar, Lingaraj, Sari deula, Mohini temple. Then they visited medicinal plant garden known as Ekamra Vana. The walk finally culminated at Art Vision where a beautiful Odissi dance recital was presented by disciples of renowned dance guru Padma Shri Ileana Citaristi.

In the afternoon, the weekly

museum

walk also saw a good number of visitors coming to attend the guided tour into the craft museum at

Kalabhoomi

. More than 30 visitors, mostly students from

KIIT University

and College of Engineering and Technology (CET), took part in this

trail

and explored different Odia art and craft at this new facility.