Interface of a website dedicated to rath yatra celebrations

Last Thursday, software engineer Sidhartha Mohapatra, 32, was having his dinner when he heard rath yatra commentary in chaste Odia streaming out of his neighbour’s house in Texas. Curious, he inched closer to the window, wondering if he was just imagining it. He discovered it was for real when he checked with his neighbour, also an Odia.

Immediately, Sidhartha logged on to a website which was streaming the chariot festival live and was gripped with nostalgia as he remembered his childhood in Puri. He is not alone. For thousands of non-resident Odias in faraway places, these websites are the link to their homeland during the nine-day festival.

“My siblings and I used to visit our grandmother’s place in Puri every year during rath yatra. People in the neighbourhood would jokingly refer to me, my younger brother and sister as the ‘holy trinity’. Thanks to the Internet, I won’t miss out on the festival any longer,” said Sidhartha, who is planning to return home early tomorrow to catch the bahuda yatra action live on his laptop. Homemaker Arundhati, who stays in London, has been following the religious event on a social networking site for the last three years. “I told a couple of colleagues about the festival and shared pictures of the frenzied crowd pulling the three chariots on the rath yatra community page on Facebook. They were so excited that they are planning to visit Puri next year for a real spiritual experience,” she said.

These websites not only help the Odias in foreign lands tune into the rath yatra fervour but also provide information about tour packages during the festival. Members use this as a platform to upload images and video clips and even share their experiences about the annual event. Some of the popular websites are www.rathjatra.nic.in, www.rathyatra.org, www.rathyatra.fullorissa.com, www.incredibleorissa.com and www.puriwaves.nirmalya.in among about a dozen others. On one of the sites, www.ameodia.com, Jagannath culture experts such as Suryanarayan Rath Sharma have shared their articles, hymns and poetry on Lord Jagannath. Online greeting cards and SMS facilities specially created for rath yatra are also available on websites such as www.99colours.com and sms140blogspot.com.

These facilities have come in handy not just for Odias living abroad but also for devotees of Lord Jagannath staying in the country. For the past seven years, Kanpur-based college teacher Suryakant Mishra has not been able to go to Puri during rath yatra because of his hectic work schedule. But he makes up for it by visiting various blogs that provide graphic details of the festival. “Seeing the pictures and reading about the rath yatra, I feel closer to home,” Mishra said.