My City Links: July 2024 Issue

Book excerpt: The recent exercise of their democratic rights by the voters of Odisha brought about a sea-change in the composition of the Odisha Legislative Assembly. The power equation shifted decisively – the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) is out of power after 24 years and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has formed its first government in the state. With Mohan Charan Majhi assuming office as Chief Minister, our Cover Story brings you snapshots of members of the Odisha Council of Ministers. In a few weeks’ time, it will be 25 years since our soldiers drove out Pakistan-backed intruders from Kargil in what would go down in history as one of the most valiant operations of the Indian Armed Forces in recent times. In City Lights, we salute the bravehearts who secured the famous victory, including eight from Odisha whose names are among those etched at the Kargil War Memorial in Drass. This year’s Rath Jatra, which will be celebrated on July 7, will be a special occasion as history repeats itself after 53 years, thanks to a rare combination of events last witnessed in 1971. As our special feature explains, this year’s celebrations will span two days, July 7 and July 8, and the authorities have made extra arrangements to deal with the large number of devotees who are expected to descend on the temple town of Puri. The summer of 2024 was one of the harshest in recent memory, but the misery has now been washed away by the rains, which have come pouring down in abundance. The cadence of the raindrops falling brings with it an outpouring of emotions, of memories of the years gone by. Read more about them in City Tales. While on the theme of rains, we thought it would be a good idea to explore some monsoon getaways across Odisha. City Travels has all the interesting details. At the same time, a special feature in City Health provides some useful tips to stay safe amidst the inevitable outbreak of diseases during the monsoons. Odisha cricket has been living on hope for many years now, with poor representation of state cricketers at the national level. In City Sports, we catch up with a former cricketer-turned-coach and a current Ranji Trophy player to get a sense of where Odisha cricket is headed. Our regulars in this edition include City Beat, City Biz, and ScreenShots.