When I was between 3-8 years old, Anish was my best friend. Anish and his family spoke Oriya, a language very similar to my mother tongue, Bengali. Thanks to those years in Korba, I always liked to believe that I understood Oriya. My hypothesis is currently being tested as of December 16, 2023. I am in a small district headquarters town with a population of 22000 (as mentioned by my father) in Orissa, known as Boudhgarh.

I arrived here at 1:45 pm today. I started my day in Khiching, another quaint town in Orissa renowned for the Khichakeswari temple. Khiching is situated near the Simlipal National Park. Unfortunately, due to some strikes, the forest was closed to us. For now, Simlipal will remain a section in my class 4th’s GK book.

Btw, did I mention that all these places are a part of a ~40-day road trip? The four of us–my father, brother, my wife, and I–left Kolkata on the 12th and plan to travel as far as Hampi in Karnataka before we start the return leg. We’ll take the coast on our way back, but the more interesting bit is the onward journey. Why? Because all of us, except for my wife, Nikita, are well-traveled. The coastline features places we have all visited before. I wanted to experience Simlipal, Jagdalpur in Chhattisgarh, and everything else that the unexplored Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Andhra, and Karnataka have to offer. We even briefly entered Jharkhand yesterday to visit Benisagar. These were all unfamiliar names to me. Baripada was a reasonably sized town where we spent the first and second nights. On our way, we also stopped at Keonjhar to see the Sanaghagara waterfall, Kovid’s (my brother) find. 

The initial route map we had planned.

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I had confidently announced to my family that I understood everything I heard in Oriya and that the language had no unique words not found in Bengali, Hindi, or Sanskrit. However, a bit of googling revealed that while every Indian language seems to agree on the word for pineapple, it’s ‘Sapuri’ in Oriya. Just a bit of trivia.

So far, the trip has rekindled several memories of the winter picnics we enjoyed as a group of families in Korba. We’ve considered doing the same this time as well. Let’s see if that happens. Kovid’s and my driving skills have been improving exponentially. The weather has been great, but sadly, the Air Quality Index (AQI) has not, even deep within these forested areas.

Hopefully, I’ll post more updates. In the meantime, I’ll continue to enjoy Chhana Pora, Dalma, and the gradually changing taste of food from Bengal-like to Andhra-influenced.”

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This article is part of a four-part blog series. Here’s the complete list:

• ROAD TRIP (PART 1): FROM KOLKATA…
• ROAD TRIP (PART 2): I EXPERIENCED TOTAL BLINDNESS FOR 2 MINUTES
• ROAD TRIP (PART 3): HAMPI: A TALE OF TWO VISITS
• ROAD TRIP (CONCLUSION): HIGHLIGHTS AND ENDURING MEMORIES

Check out the Instagram page of this trip where Kovid shared the daily highlights.