Bhubaneswar: Even as the world bid goodbye to a year mired in a global pandemic, in Odisha, hundreds and thousands of people who usually stood in front of the temples in queue to begin every year with the divine blessings, are a disappointed lot the way first morning of 2021 started.
The fact that the unlocking of many religious shrines for the general public is still some days away, has made many uneasy to even think that a year that spelt doom has gone. They have entered January, but on a bleak note.
What has affected the sentiments of the devotees is all the major shrines have put invisible ‘no entry’ boards outside, for the general public for the first 2-3 days of the New Year in anticipation of mass congregation.
After a nine-month hiatus, Srimandir – the abode of Mahaprabhu Jagannath in Puri, and Lingaraj Temple in Bhubaneswar reopened. While family members of the servitors and Puri town residents were allowed to catch a glimpse of the Holy Trinity in a graded…