Bhubaneswar, June 13: Ladies, it's time to put your feet up and get pampered.

The three-day Raja festival begins tomorrow and shopping complexes here are teeming with women keen to do some smart, last-minute shopping.

Several shops are offering discounts, while others are giving away gifts with every purchase to woo the women folk. "Raja is incomplete without shopping. This year, I am going to buy maxi dresses, which are absolutely the in thing this season," said Shanaya Mohanty, a college student.

The festival, which celebrates Mother Earth's fertility and the spirit of womanhood, ensures that women get a well-deserved break from the humdrum of life and pamper themselves by indulging in shopping and observing rituals.

A number of cultural organisations are holding events for women such as pitha-making competitions and dance and music events.

The Odisha Tourism Development Corporation is hosting the Raja Mahotsav at Panthanivas here. A food festival, where you can sample authentic Odia country cakes or pithas such as manda, kakara, aarisha, guda pitha and kheer , will also be hosted.

Culture and tourism minister Ashok Panda inaugurated a prelude to the event here today. "Usually, the tourist season in the state starts after the monsoon, but we are celebrating the festival in a big way to attract tourists this time as well," said Panda.

The tourism development corporation has also opened pitha parlours at 10 cities in the state for Raja this year.

Swings being a part of Raja, girls are crowding around hammock vendors, who are making some a quick buck.

A number of makeshift shops selling tobacco-free Banarasi paans have been set up in various parts of the city including Saheed Nagar, CRPF Square and Kalpana Square.

The paans are intricately decorated with cherry pieces on top and silver foil and the price ranges from Rs 5 for the ordinary, to Rs 300 for the exotic ones.

This year, the tourists' guide association at the Dhauli Stupa will also host the festival. Swings will be set up at the foothills of Dhauli and four kiosks showcasing cultural performances by various artistes and selling of pitha will also be there.

The initiative aims to provide tourists with the opportunity to get a taste of this unique Odia festival. Dhauli Art College students will be involved in the event.

Click for Odia sweets

This Raja festival, Odias settled in various parts of the country can get traditional sweets and snacks delivered at their doorsteps at the click of a button. A group of youngsters in the city have started a website, www.odisharasagola.com, which delivers traditional Odia sweets to people living in the state and abroad. So, one can order delicacies such as rasgulla, rasabali, peda, chenna gaja, khaja and mixtures that are typical to Odia culture. These products are collected from reputable sweet stores in Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Salepur and Puri. An initiative by Odia professionals - Sarada Prasad Mohanty, a business analyst, and Tapas Kumar Behera, an engineer - the start-up aims to cater to the huge demand for Odia sweets.

"We stayed outside the state for a long time and missed Odia sweets a lot. People keep asking their relatives or friends to bring back sweets whenever they visit Odisha. That was the idea behind this start-up, which deals with online ordering of Odia sweets and mixtures," said Mohanty.

"With Raja about to begin, people would want to celebrate with traditional sweets. We have been receiving a lot of orders over the last two weeks," added Mohanty.

The items are dispatched within 48 hours of receiving the order so that it is delivered within two to three days. Vacuum packaging technique is used to pack the items. At present, there are around 10 products, but the duo aim to add more variety. A number of other sweets shops such as Ganguram and Chhapan Bhog are also providing home delivery of sweets in the state.