Heritage enthusiasts explore past glory of Puri’s CT Road, a favourite tourist destination

Once a hot favourite with foreign tourists, CT Road’s past glory is now being explored by Puri Heritage Walks (PHW) enthusiasts.

Exploring Puri’s past and places of tourism, culture and the historical narratives, participants of the PHW yesterday visited the Chakratirtha Road, popularly known as CT Road during the sixties and seventies.

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Overseas tourists from the Western world are in love with the length and breadth of the major thoroughfare of the holy city.

The visitors not only listened to the tales from Prasanta Kumar Mishra, curator of the unique trail, “International Tourism Trail: CT Road” under the aegis of 18th PHW, but also explored and discussed various places on the CT Road that are historically associated with the hospitality of the international tourists in Puri.

Beginning their walk from near Hotel Bay View, the heritage enthusiasts proceeded towards Honey Bee Café. At this location curator Mishra elaborated the accommodation preferences and food habits of foreign tourists. He explained that from around 1960 foreign visitors started coming to Puri and were staying along C.T. Road. The peaceful local environment attracted them as they preferred small hotels that were affordable, which in turn, became a significant source of livelihood for local business owners.

Mishra also shared his experiences of interacting with foreign tourists, spending time with them, and observing their lifestyle while they stayed at nearby small hotels. By the 1970s, Western or the Hippie movement began spreading through these visitors. During this period, the number of tourists from Spain, Italy, Japan, and other Western nations increased manifold.

As many of these visitors did not have a strong preference for local Odia cuisine, they taught local cooks in the restaurants how to prepare various foreign dishes. The speaker narrated several interesting and humorous experiences related to trying new international cuisines. He explained how the Japanese dish “Omu Rice” evolved locally into “Om Rice” and how foreign dishes such as spaghetti, different varieties of pastas, burgers, toasts, and other Western foods gradually became available in Puri’s cafés.

The participants also learned how open-air restaurants such as Bamboo Restaurant and Shambhu Restaurant catered to foreign tourists along this road. They heard stories about foreign women who married locally and later established restaurants here. The coordinator of the PHW Dr. Kumar Aurojyoti also shared some of his personal experiences.

The walkers visited a Kashmiri handicrafts shop that was popular among foreign tourists, Harris Café, and several old heritage houses, including the Madhupur Kothi (the palace residence of the Queen of Madhupur princely state) located on the beach.

As the PHW edition focused on international tourism, the participants also enjoyed the Odisha–Japan Festival held at Talabania. They witnessed various Japanese cultural performances, enjoyed Japanese cuisine, interacted with Japanese visitors, and returned enriched by the experience.

Among others, PHW co-coordinator Ashoka Manjari Nayak and Programme Director Biswaranjan Dehury and heritage enthusiasts like Jyotsna Mohapatra, Rajashree Sahoo, Mahasweta Basu, Hitesh Seth, Taranisen Pattanaik, Subrata Kumar Bal, Benudhar Biswal, Tanmaya Chatterjee, Biswa Shanti Tripathy, Rajeswar Mohanty, Priyankar Maharana, Jinod Mohanty, Biswamohan Sahoo, Siddhartha Mohapatra, and Sai Shivakumar participated.