Whenever I decide to travel, I begin my preparations by making detailed plans, no mater whether it is a short distance travel or a long distance travel. My plan assumes urgency when the travel is to be undertaken during summer. My Review would give a true picture of the actual planning I had made in the second week of this May for going to Bhubaneswar.
1. The date of travel. Is the date suitable ? Is it a week day or a Sunday ?
2. The time of travel. Is it in the morning, in the afternoon or in the evening ?
3. The mode of travel. Is it by train, or by public transport or by private transport, i.e., own car or hired car ?
4. The size of the Group. Am I alone, or am I to travel in a Group? If so, what is going to be its composition ?
5. What should be our dress ? Formal or informal ?Or both ? What should be the colour ? Light or deep ?
6. How should be our shoes ? Informal type or formal type ? Brown or Black ? Or Swede?
7. What sort of snacks and drinks we should carry ?
8. Which medicines to be carried ? Mind you, Angul’s temperature is around 40 Degrees C, and on the way upto Bhubaneswar, it would be around that, subject to our time of departure.
9. Any newspapers or magazines to be carried ? How about a Radio, which comes in handy to give news from all over the world.
10, How much money to be taken with us ? Any Credit Card to be taken ? Bhubaneswar has become a tempting place for impulsive buying.
I have made the above Checklist as complete as possible. Each member of our Group had a look at it, and approved it. Finally we decided to take a hired car. I was relaxed, because during the hot weather, I hate travelling by a bus. We left Angul on a Saturday at 8 in the morning after breakfast, and arrived Bhubaneswar after two and a half hours. Had lunch and rest. Did shopping in the evening, enjoying the cool breeze for which Bhubaneswar is famous. Stayed with my brother in the Xavier Institute of Management Campus. The next morning visited the Lingaraj Temple and had a darshan of Lord Lingaraj. Visited the Kedar Gouri Temple. And left for Angul. It was hot, and we could not avoid the heat. Can you guess who were in our Group? My wife, our daughter and her daughter from Tamil Nadu, our son, our adopted daughter and my self. It was a family outing in hot, yes, terribly hot May. And we made it.