Hotel Santana（ホテル・サンタナ）

Santana hotel came into being in the year 1952 by Chandra Sekhar Dash along Bay of Bengal in the holy city of Puri, Odisha. Puri is famous for lord Jagannath’s temple and for its golden beach. The temple is also famous for the Chariot Festival every year when Lord Jagannath with his siblings come out of the temple and on three chariots visit aunt ‘s place, Gundicha temple. During this visit people

from all cast , creed, colour & religion congregate here to commemorate it amid enthusiasm & fervour. The Trinity, three idols , Jagannath, Balabhadra & Suvadra represent three colours black, white & yellow of the humanity. It falls in the golden triangle joining Sun temple at Konark & Lingaraj temple in Bhubaneswar, the capital city of Odisha and also called the temple city popular for age old temples, their artworks , stone carvings etc. Tourists & pilgrims used to stay in Puri and pay a visit to other tourist sites in and around golden triangle. The Sun temple at Konark with its fantastic quietness on the wind swept sand dunes of the blue bay amidst palm and casuarina is a breathtaking monument. The temple is open to tourists of all religions & beliefs. Chilka lake the largest lagoon in India & the second largest brackish lagoon in the world spread over 3 districts(1100 kms) of Odisha on the east coast of India flowing into the Bay of Bengal has always been a tourist haunt for boating and mostly to have the tasty fish, crab and prawn for its eco-diversity. During those days, (1952)there were very less numbers of hotels & there were many Bengali homes in Puri alongside beach run by caretakers gradually have been turned into hotels of today. Odisha, the land of rivers, forests & ocean shares its boundaries with West Bengal in northeast and Jharkhand in the north where as Andhra Pradesh is in its south and Chhattisgarh in the west. It has a long 485 kilometres coastline along Bay of Bengal in the east. Due to very less number of flights and remote train facilities, foreigners used to come through land ways via Nepal or present Bangladesh. Mostly they came driven by big vans having all the amenities of a home including toilet & kitchen inside it. And first time in Puri, Mr Dash greeted them in a professional way to his small hotel & restaurant in the brand name ‘Santana’. Tourists were welcome with a jovial smile into a clean, well ventilated room having fresh sea-foods with rice , chapati & salad served to their tastes having indigenous flavour as lunch or dinner at an affordable rate. Mr Chandra Sekhar Dash was a man of secular values being humorous & friendly to all his guests. Listened to them over a cup of tea or coffee and asked them to write their experiences on a ‘Visitor’s Register’ made it an excellent tourist guide book later to share all their in-depth feelings & travel stories for the succeeding tourists. Tourists used to visit Santana to have a glimpse of this guide book as there were no such books available during those days and there were no such television, computer or internet facilities available then. He was severely criticised for being a brahmin had chosen this profession but without paying any heed to them he concentrated on it serving tourists day & night in the image of God ( Atithi Deba Vabah). While serving them from all over the world comprising Europe , Latin America, Australia , south-east Asia, gradually he understood their cup of joys & accordingly made it a world hub. But, nowadays more Japanese tourists have shown their inclination to visit Santana & there by turning it into a Japanese hub showcasing its rich cultural heritage. Now the hotel stands magnificent in a three-story snow-white building in the image of a heritage palace along Chakra Tirtha road (CT road ) in the beach at the outskirts of Penthakata fishing village, Puri. The road is famous for Chakra Tirtha or Chakra Nrusingha temple, Sunar Gouranga , Bedi Hanuman , Maa Laxmi’s parental abode & Bali Rath or sand chariot as a myth attached to this place spreading over either sides of the road on a circular base like a Chakra and pilgrims during their visit to the beach throng here for spiritual ovation, so called it a Tirtha (Chakra-Tirtha). Out of the total Japanese tourists, more than 95% stay in hotel Santana for its hospitality, cleanliness, Japanese food & etiquette and for its safety. It designs Indian festivals like Holi, Rath Yatra & the festivals of the world like Christmas participating its inmates so as to make them feel the integration through cultural diversity. Now Puri is connected well by rail, road & air ways with other parts of the country. The capital city Bhubaneswar has the privilege of Biju Patnaik International Airport to access international tourists. It has 60 kilometres one-way approach road to Puri & hardly takes an hour to reach here from Bhubaneswar. Similarly by south-eastern railways there is a diversion from Khurda road to Puri and being the last station there’s no fear to be skipped. People in Puri have become more aware to keep it clean & green so as to make it a hub of pilgrims and let us be more tourist friendly and hospitable like our predecessors who have set examples ‘ service to mankind is service to God’ . Santana is less a hotel more a hospitality culture which has something for everyone to experience. We have made it a brand & achieved many things but still a long way to go learning day & night how it could have been still better, said Kunna Dash, eldest son of Chandra Sekhar Dash while interacting media. For more details please visit our website: http://www.indiasantana.com/