The empty throne in the sanctum of the Jagannath temple will soon be taken over by its Lord. The whole world was rejoicing the nine-day long trip of Lord Jagannath during rath yatra, when He came out with His divine siblings, interacted with His devotees and took a vacation at the Gundicha temple.

But most residents of Puri feel otherwise. They are relieved that the festival is coming to a close and the Lord will return to His abode and they have plenty of interesting reasons behind the feeling.

With the city turning into a sea of devotees, the local residents seem to have missed their personal space with the Lord. Though Gundicha temple is hardly two kilometres away, people living around His temple love to see Lord Jagannath seated on His throne in the Sree Mandir.

“Rath yatra definitely brings us lot of business, but it also leaves us bitter since the Jagannath temple lies lifeless without its master. It hurts us when He leaves his shrine for over a week since we are used to worshipping Him here for the rest of the year,” said Sriharinath Dash, a grocery shop owner. “None from the members of our family, friends and neighbours participate in the chariot pulling, neither during rath yatra nor bahuda,” he added.

The streets can be seen busy with tourists from within and outside the state and abroad, hustling around to explore the city and its beach. But one can hardly find local women coming out of their houses. A few youngsters do venture out on their bikes, only to get upset about the special traffic rules, preventing them from reaching their destination easily. Rather they are forced to take a long-route-home to make it easy for the visitors.

“Be it Grand Road or the path reaching the beach, the flock of devotees creates such a rush that we prefer avoiding both the rath days. Rather, we pay a visit to the Gundicha in the evenings during the Lord’s nine-day stay,” said Purnima Tripathy, a housewife.

“We understand that it is necessary to implement special rules to manage the huge rush of devotees during the festival. But it becomes simply impossible for us to ride along the beach from our house since we are forced to divert at almost all traffic points like the square at Mochi Sahi, Bali Sahi and others,” said Nilakantha Sahu, a local resident.

Local residents also complained that the high inflow of tourists as well as the barriers in transport due to traffic rules has led to an increase in vegetable prices.

“Every year during rath yatra, the prices of many commodities, including vegetables, are bound to rise. All the hotels get full and the stock is not able to reach the interiors of the city due to traffic rules that do not allow heavy vehicles at many places around the city,” said Sarathi Dash.

But the return of the Lords has brought them their share of joy. They will be there to worship Lord Jagannath in His golden avatar during suna besha.

“Be it the nabajouban besha when the deities are freshly painted just before rath yatra or the suna besha when the divine trio deck up in gold ornaments and golden hands and feet, local residents never miss an opportunity to witness the special besha (dressing up) of Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra,” said Jagannath Patra, a sevayat.

“Since the festival of rath yatra is meant for devotees who live far and wide, many local residents indeed prefer bahuda yatra when the deities come back to their temple,” he said.