Bhubaneswar: The 81st Ekamra Walks Old Town Circuit early and the fourth Museum Walk at Kala Bhoomi Sunday attracted students from Australia and US, besides natives. While 25 people joined the Heritage Walk in the morning, 70 participated in the Museum Walk in the afternoon.
Pratibha Singh, a post-graduate student in Health and Human Services from Deakin University, Australia, was happy to see the monuments at Ekamra Walks. She originally hails from Udaipur in Rajasthan, but is studying in Australia on internship with five other students at city-based Centurion University of Technology and Management (CUTM).
“This is my first visit to Odisha and I found the city beautiful, with nicely preserved monuments and I hope more and more visitors come and explore the unique Kalingan architecture, style and also the rich traditions,” Pratibha said.
Joshua Noonan, Zoe Perrone, Saoirse Anderson, James Grills and Emily Lees, all Australians pursuing courses at Victoria University, joined the walk. They were accompanied by professor Michael Mathai.
Mathai, originally from Malaysia, has been in Australia from the age of 15. “My father was from Kerala and he settled down in Malaysia,” said the professor who teaches nutrition.
The Museum Walk at Kala Bhoomi in Gandamunda along the Pokhariput-Khandagiri Road also saw its fair share of presence of foreign nationals. American students from Emory University, Georgia, Renee Cerovski and Rebekah Williams, who are on a two-month internship with a city-based organization based in Lingipur, joined the Museum Walk.
They visited various galleries with special themes, and listened to a beautiful table-flute jugalbandi. A Gotipua performance was also organised for their enjoyment. The performance was shifted to a hall instead of the amphitheatre as it rained heavily.
The visitors were from different age groups and interests. They scanned over galleries on terracotta, pattachitra and palm-leaf etching besides paintings on papier-mâché. The galleries on wood carving, stone carving, metalcraft, weaving, tribal craft and handloom besides a live session on the potter’s wheel were other big attractions.