santiniketan

place: santiniketan
district: birbhum

state: west bengal

location: some 180 km from kolkata via NH 2 and NH 2B

average cost per head: rs 1000 (in a group of two)

mode of transportation: train (general)

stay: hotel santiniketan lodge (non ac room, rs 300 for double bed occupancy)

food: local bengali cuisine at a restaurant

fame: tagore, rural bengal, viswa bharati university, khoai, santhals

route map

“Mighty heavens! It’s already 1 am and within four hours I will have to leave for Howrah station” saying this I switched off my computer after having posted a competition blog and went off to sleep. It was a Friday and sleeping late was usual but today was different. My namesake and friend Vivek and I had planned to visit Santiniketan. We had to take the Gandevta Express at 6.05 hrs from Howrah station so we had to leave for Howrah (some 5 km from my home in Liluah) at around 5.30 hrs.

village at santiniketan

I woke up at 4 hrs and after packing my bag and refreshing got ready by 5 hrs and gave Vivek a call. It was still dark outside on the road and a little cold. Huge trucks passed by and some stars still twinkled and after a wait of a while I finally got hold of a rickshaw which I hired till Vivek’s place because he was still bathing and would take time. I reached his place, had a warm cup of tea (bliss) and left for the Liluah station in the same rickshaw whom I had told to wait. It was 5.35 hrs by the time we reached Liluah station and bought tickets for Santiniketan via Howrah (94 bucks). We reached Howrah at the nick of time and our scheduled train was thankfully on the next platform and about to leave in a while. The ignorant we scanned the entire length of the train for the general bogie not knowing that almost the whole of it was general. We thankfully got one seat which we shared. The train journey was great fun. The green paddy fields with the blue sky above gave a pleasant feel and before it was 9 hrs we reached Bolpur station in Birbhum district, a few minutes after having crossed the demarcating river of Ajay on a bridge. A baul singer had just mesmerized us with his songs.

what was the train's name?

The station looked great and much like my earlier visit to unknown and faraway places this one too gripped me with a passion so deep that a smile came on my face. I have always imagined and painted places in my mind and the fun of seeing them in real and comparing the two pictures is so much great fun. We got a rickshaw and told him to take us to a hotel. We booked one on the main road and coincidentally the road was named Santiniketan main road and the hotel, Santiniketan lodge.

taking notes

The hotel was cheap (300 bucks) but very clean and comfortable. We rested for a while and off for sightseeing. We walked for a while in search of a good restaurant but seeing none finally took a rickshaw and off to Viswa Bharati University. The road that took to our right from the rickshaw stand went to the famed poush mela ground but we didn’t go there, albeit straight to the university. We reached there and got down at the museum which was closed. A guide confronted us but being poorly paid IT professionals we obviously couldn’t afford one. We again booked a rickshaw which would take us around the university town and double up as a guide too. But before anything else, we told him to take us to a place where we could eat something. The dhaba where he took us was pretty much good. We had luchi and cholar dal besides tea and off to the university ground.

bolpur station

hindi bhavana

I was amazed at the calmness and serenity of the place. The university is world famous for its model of classes which are mostly open air and its long association with Asia’s first Nobel laureate, Rabindranath Tagore. He founded the world famous university with various departments in arts which attracts students from across the world. They had the Hindi Bhawan, the Chinese Bhawan, Kala Niketan, Sangeet Mandir etc and every department was nestled amongst the lap of nature. There were ponds, trees, beautiful hostels and structures of modern art spread throughout. The university was a tourist place in itself. Since it was around 10 hrs and classes go on till 13 hrs it wasn’t wise to go around clicking pictures of students, teachers and the classes and disturb them. At least I saw the classes under progress and it was an amazing feeling. Every corner, every bench, every building had stories related to the mahaguru and I couldn’t possibly miss out on anything. I was feeling good.

inside the campus

a buddha statue

kala bhavana

We also decided to go to the nearby Ballavpur wildlife sanctuary housing some 275 spotted deer besides a host of local water birds and insects. It was an amazing place and since it wasn’t a big one we could go around on foot just following the fencing. It was a good place for photography and I loved it. We did see a herd of deer from close but it was sweating hot inside. The entry price was 4 bucks for adults and 5 bucks extra for still photography and I had to go around the place asking people for a hundred rupee change because the ticket collector didn’t have that but he was good and answered every question I asked him, including the area, the animal count, the species I could see, when the blackbucks got relocated, the time I could spend inside et al without the slightest of a fuss.

inside ballavpur wildlife sanctuary

More than wild animals the sanctuary had many a couples gone wild. After all where else would you get to spend cozy moments under the darkness of the jungle for as less as 4 bucks an hour? Couples could be seen kissing, hugging and doing what not and not even minding wildlife enthusiasts (yeah! I am talking about myself) pass by. I went and sat on a concrete bench beside a couple deeply lost in making love and more than them I was feeling weird so I got up and got going. We almost totally explored the sanctuary and got some classic macro shots of insects. I couldn’t thank my stars. My camera was perhaps eight months old and not even one butterfly shot but the day was luck. Guess the wild couples blessed me for moving out from the “core” area of the sanctuary. I took shots of pollen grains, dragonflies, a butterfly and a spider besides many a thing else. It was already 13:20 hrs by the time we came out, after having spent a wholesome 80 mins inside the sanctuary. The rickshawala was tired but still showed us more around the university.

road sign

pose! pose!

We asked him if there was anything else to see. He told us about river Kopai and the khoai geology unique to the area. It was already time for lunch and the best restaurant we could get there was just about ok. The food was good (130 bucks) and we even invited the rickshawala to eat with us. It was quite hot by the time we set off for river Kopai where Tagore had written a famous poem. It’s a seasonal river and the area around it was very beautiful. We also saw a Santhal village while going to an area of khoai formation where Bengali movies are also shot. It was an amazing rickshaw ride and he took 250 bucks for the entire stay. The red soil looked picturesque and the sal and eucalyptus trees gave the area a surreal look. A canal ran nearby and the water looked inviting in the sweltering heat. We returned to our hotel at around 16 hours and since we were very tired we thought of resting for a while. We hadn’t rested for some 12 hours at a stretch and the body ached like hell. We had bought some sweets from a local shop but it tasted bad.

We decided to go for a stroll in the evening at around 19 hrs and hired a rickshaw from our hotel to the station. Since we had an extend weekend we had made plans to go to Bakreshwar or Tarapeeth the next day but considering the odd train timing plus our tiredness we changed our mind and decided to leave for Kolkata the very next morning. We went around Bolpur, eating anything and everything and spoiling our stomach. It’s a cheap city compared to Kolkata but quite bustling with activity. I was in no condition to eat a morsel but my namesake, the super glutton wanted to eat more.

fencing inside the sanctuary

dragonfly

creepy crunchies

We had a hard time looking for an air conditioned restaurant. We asked a rickshawala, “Yahan koi air conditioned restaurant hai?”

“Kya? SBI bank? Haan, wo hara light hai na, usi ke bagal mein.”

“Arrey nahi, air conditioned restaurant, bank nahi, restaurant.”

“Oh! Acchca! ICICI bank. Wo to ye samne hai, par raat me to ye bank bandh rehta hai.”

“Arrey nahi chacha, restaurant.”

“Ye naam ka koi building yahan nahi hai!”

“Restaurant chacha, jahan khana milta hai.”

“Oo, to aisa bolo na.. mere ko nahi pata.”

countryside

beautiful bengal

Considering an old man gone bonkers we left him in his fantasy world and got ahead to find a gang of boys under a street lamp. We asked them about an air conditioned restaurant. They did direct us to a dark alley where when we went we didn’t see any “Green Chili” restaurant as said by them but bumped instead into the West Bengal Tourism Development Corporation (WBTDC) building. We hadn’t booked our rooms here, they are expensive plus booked well in advance but there was no reason we couldn’t have dinner at their restaurant. We got inside, inquired about the rates and got straight to the dining hall. After spending the whole day under the nude sun, this was such a respite. We ordered chicken, rice, roti and egg curry and some coke. We had our fill, sat for a while and left for our room and had a good sleep. We got up early the next morning and took the 8.30 hrs train to Howrah.

khoai

the lush and green fields

they are birds!

I for the first time tried to get down a running train at Liluah when it had slowed down a while but it gave my legs a strong jolt, and then when I remembered my namesake was still on the train and couldn’t get down because of his luggage and I had both our return tickets (92 bucks) I ran and got into the train yet again with a heart beat exceeding a thousand beats per second. It was dangerous and I am never going to do it again. We reached Howrah safely, had vada paw and off for our homes where we had a sound sleep for the rest of the day.

bakkhali

place: bakkhali

district: south 24 parganas

state: west bengal

location: some 150 km from kolkata via NH 117

average cost per head: rs 1000 (in a group of seven)

mode of transportation: chevrolet tavera (ac)

stay: hotel ananya (ac room, rs 800 for double bed occupancy)

food: local bengali cuisine at a restaurant

fame: beach, mangroves, deltaic islands

route to bakkhali

“Chotu jaldi kar” Krish da told me with a frenzy that I had to stop submitting the jobs one after another and readied myself to leave for his place. I was in hastened mood because I had to generate a print but the jobs just wouldn’t stop abending. The morning of Friday itself Pinaki da had asked me, “Chotu impression?” to which I said, “Bad!” and I didn’t want to repeat the same on Monday too. It was already 7 in the night and the next day, early the morning of Saturday I had to embark on a day long journey to Bakkhali, a sleepy beach washed by the waters of Bay of Bengal. I was to stay at Krish da’s place for the night and since it was a good 2 hrs away from office we had to leave early. I couldn’t have gone to my home and taken the car from Salt Lake early the next morning and moreover it had been ages being to a Bengal village and having the luchi tarkari. We reached his place near Amtala quite in time taking a route where I had been for the very first time. The bike ride was awesome and as we neared his place the air became fresher with the smell of tree blossom and the sky clearer revealing thousands and millions of twinkling stars. I had a nice dinner and a good sleep and woke up early to find the place much more beautiful than I had imagined it in the dead of the night.

a village pond in bengal

Bakkhali, one of the numerous deltaic islands, is located at the western fringes of the Ganges delta in the district of South 24 Parganas and the world famous home to the Royal Bengal Tiger, the Sundarbans isn’t far away from here, a few miles towards the east. We had planned a trip to Lothian wildlife sanctuary too later in the day but I knew it looked a distant possibility owing to time constraint. Vineet bhaiya who had sounded the laziest on Friday actually turned out to be the most active and even before I could open my eyes on Saturday morning I got a call from him saying he had already set up from Salt Lake to pick up the rest. Krish da and I were reluctant to wake up and dismissing Vineet bhaiya’s call as a prank got some more sleep and readied ourselves at a snail’s pace and by the time we reached Amtala bus stop Vineet bhaiya, Saurav da, Nilanjana di, Piyush bhaiya and his wife were already waiting with the Chevrolet Tavera for almost half an hour. We set off on the trip with much enthusiasm and the greenery on both the sides of NH 117 was too beautiful to miss.

a delicious hilsa catch

The highway was narrow and the car drove slowly but the green fields, the trees, the passing villages and the sleepy crowded towns more than made up for it. The weather played hide and seek with irritating spells of rain and intense sunshine but we seemed to mind little inside our air-conditioned car. The seven of us ate, joked and made great fun. My eating habits and photography skills, Krish da’s obsession with girls, Bollywood and its music, Saurav da’s onsite trips and his love for Barcelona and Venice, etc were the topic of discussion. Time passed quickly and we reached Namkhana where we had to cross the Hatania Doania creek on a trawler and that was certainly an experience. I could see boats full of delicious hilsa fish and flags furling high in the sea breeze. Namkhana was very close to sea and the air was high with humidity and salt but nobody seemed to mind the discomfort. Vineet bhaiya was curious why there wasn’t a bridge crossing the busy creek to which I said, “huge ships keep passing” to which he replied, “can’t they make a Tower Bridge kind of thing here?” We laughed to the proposal and continued on our way to Bakkhali after having being ferried across the creek.

the hatania doania creek at namkhana

We reached hotel Ananya sometime when the sun was just overhead and saw scores of mighty windmills seeing which I showed the enthusiasm of a child. I was seeing them for the first time after all. We took rest for a while and off for the beach. I had decided not to go into the sea and do photography instead but the mighty waves quelled the promise I had made to myself and I just couldn’t resist the invite. I had to walk all the way back to the hotel for changing and the pucca road baked by the scorching sun burnt my naked feet but I took some good photographs on the way to the hotel and made it a point to return to the beach on a van. The sea waves weren’t strong enough and failed to impress me the third time in a row after Mandarmani and Tajpur. Digha is still the only beach where the waves were magically dangerous.

bakkhali beach

Vineet bhaiya bathing in the sea with his specs fixed was a sight to see and after almost an hour of fun in the water we went back to the hotel, got fresh and had our lunch at around 4pm. It was a fantastic spread of rice, dal, sabji, sorsher ilish, chicken, chingri, salad, papad and chutney and I ate like crazy right till my neck and I could take no more. We had masala pan and left for Henry Island, a landscaped resort of sorts that got inundated at high tide. It wasn’t technically an island and had a beach too, more beautiful than we had at Bakkhali, plus mangroves, which I was seeing for the first time in my life. It was an amazing place for sure. The beach had hundreds of red crabs (species still unknown), a crocodile carcass, some sea birds, a beautiful rainbow, the amazing patterns made by the sea water hitting the shore and a handful of beautiful girls. The faint rainbow across the vast endless horizon over the sea is one scene I would never forget besides the windmills I saw in the open green fields. It was a memorable trip. By the time we left Henry Island it was already dark and we were quite late. We had some tea, packed our bags and off to the City of Joy.

henry island

We were all very tired but still managed to have enough laughs on the return journey which mostly centered on Krish da and the mindless songs that came from the CD which he had got from Diamond Harbor. We had a brief stopover at DH from where the view of river Hooghly was amazing to say the least. We reached Kolkata at around 11pm and everyone kept getting down at their respective places. Vineet bhaiya and I were the last to get down at Salt Lake. It was almost the middle of the night so I decide to rest my tired soul in the air conditioned room of Vineet bhaiya. It was one of the finest trips I had and being with such awesome seniors made it all the more memorable.