IN SEARCH OF TRANQUILITY,TIGER AND GOOD TIMES

I remembered the day when we first saw the picturesque tree shaded beach of Frazerganj in one of the popular travel websites, thinking that it is ‘kovalam’ of the East Coast and decided to visit the place during the festive holidays of 2011.

After some little research on the internet about the location, the route direction and mainly the available accommodation at Frazerganj,the one maintained and run by West Bengal Fisheries Department, popularly called as 'Benfish' seemed attractive enough from both the facilities vis-à-vis price as well as its location near the fishing harbour, and encouraged me to do the booking of the cottages.

Thus one September,2011 morning I left Bangalore on a morning 6.50a.m  flight for Kolkata where I was received by  my wife and an another enthusiastic family from my in-;aws side, around 11 am and we headed stratight for Namkhana, completely unaware of the great confusion of continuous and repeated traffic snarls at every  major road crossing of Calcutta that reduced our movement to a snail’s pace, only to delay us further making us reach Namkhana around 6p.m,We were excited to see and experience the cossing of a river by huge barges that accommodate several passenger cars,trucks and busses besides two wheelers also.

But unfortunately was again got delayed as we came to know that the barge will not start befoe 8p.m owing to high tide.Finally at 8.30 it loaded with several cars,trucks and a bus and left for the other side of the river.It was quite an experience and we were amazed to see how so many fully loaded vehicles were ferried .Once we reached the other side,it was already 9pm and we headed  for the Benfish Guest House  and after travelling another 21 kilometers in pitch darkness before finding out the halogen lights of the campus of the Guest House like a beacon in the darkess.After freshning up and having a late dinner we were so tired from our day’s excursion that we decided to call it a day,leaving all to be explored for the next day.

DAY-1

Generally when I am tired I wake up a little late but it was an exception that I woke up to the sound of bird chirping in the tree just beside my cottage’s balcony and ran with my camera to take a snap of it.But before I could capture its beautiful color ,it flew away and I with disappointment decided to explore the surroundings particularly the fishing harbour behind the Benfish Guest House. It was a small but busy harbour on a backwater that is connected to the Bay of Bengal on one side, with fishing trawlers leaving for the catch and some returning with loads of fish of different varieties some very popular while others unknown.There we met a couple of Fishermen who also conduct tour in their boats to places like Jambu Dwip,Bharatpur Croc santuary and some other tourist destinations. We decided to first visit the island of Jambu Dwip and after having our breakfast we took one of the boat for the island. It was an hour's boat ride through some rough sea waters that took our breath away with the boat rolling heavily before we found ourselves in the middle of  sea with the shore of Jambu Dwip in the distance like a black straight line.After the boat anchored some 20 feet away from the shore, we had to wade through knee deep water to reach the island. It was 12  in the afternoon and the sun was beating heavily on us ,We headed for that part of the island where the waves were crashing heavily on the sandy beach with innumerable sea birds crowding the beach as if having a gala of a time.

After taking few sanps of these incredible creatures we decided to return back to our boat as the heat was taking a heavy toll on us and we headed back to the harbour in Frazerganj and then to our Guest House from there.

Back in the Guest House we had a sumptuous meal and rested in the afternoon. In the evening we visited the Frazerganj beach and watched the setting sun while sipping tea in earthen pots.

The beach has lost its seating arrangements and much of its vegetation, whose picture made us so encouraged to think it as 'Kovalam' of the East Coast, to the waves of the sea that has eroded much of the coast line in this part of the country.

Around 6p.m we decided to  leave Frazerganj and visit the beach of Bakkhali where we spent the next 3hours seating on the dark sea bitch and watching the waves come closer and we moving backwards to safe distance, every time the waves touched our feet, until we finally decided to put an end to this game with the nature and returned back to our Guest house in Frazerganj.

Day 2-

Started the day early around 5 a.m and visited Henry Fisheries Island to watch the sun rise from the watch tower there. It was truly a magnificent view from the watch tower and we could see up further till the sea from there which was looking absolutely breathing in the first rays of sunlight.

 On the way  from returning to our Guest House we were mulling the fact when we have come so near to Sunderbans so we should also visit it and  finally decided to go by river to Sunderbans.The first hurdle is to find location from where the boats leave for Sunderbans and then to hire one such for the trip.We were told by one of the localities at Bakkhali that there are launces and motor boats that leave fro Sunderbans at Namkhana,So decided to leave for Namkhana without losing much time. On reaching we stopped at one of the eateries and had our breakfast where we luckily met one who owned to motorboats and was willing to let us hire one for a day and took us to Sunderbans. Although we had the option of having lunch cooked and served by those who were conducting the boat trip yet we decided to cook the lunch ourselves and did some shopping for the same before we boarded the boat. It was an entirely new experience for all of us to visit Sunderbans by boat and spending the entire day in a boat and were excited like anything. Before the boat started ,a priest offered puja as it was the maiden voyage of this boat after the same was renovated.

The boat took a brief halt at India’s first water borne Re-fuelling Station run and maintained by Indian Oil Corporation and after refueling it headed straight for Bhagabathpur Crocodile sanctuary island.

After the boat moored there we disembarked and headed for the place that has crocodiles from the hatching stage to fully grown one,in hundreds. One particular crocodile of 4years age caught our attention which was completely white in color.

 After we completed visiting , we returned back to our boat which left the sanctuary immediately and we headed for a place that was on river Matla and was famous for its ‘Bonbibi’s Temple. On the way the boat again dropped anchor near another island with mangrove trees where we had our lunch of egg curry and prawn in our boat only. It was quite enchanting to have food on the river itself in the boat with mangrove forest islands all round us. After we completed our lunch we again set sail for this island which were told had Royal Bengal Tiger , beside having deer and Olive riddle turtle and of course estuarine crocodiles. It also hads the famous ‘Bonbibi’ temple which we have read about in so many novels that were written based on this enigmatic landscape of Sunderbans.

Once we reached near this Lothian Wildlife Sanctuary we decide to moore near that side of the island which ends into the Bay of Bengal. From there we could also watch the famous Bonbibi’s temple which was in a ramshackle condition because of a storm that happened some few months back. We waited in our boat for an elusive glimpse of that magnificent creature  of Royal Bengal Tiger, watching the sun setting in the distance before engulfing us in darkness, which was interspersed  now and then with the lights of passing fishing trawlers.

It was really a new experience as the lanterns were put on in the boat and dinner was cooked. We had a simple dinner of pulses, rice and omelets before setting sail for Namkhana and from there back to our Guest House  in Frazerganj.

The next day we left Frazerganj after our breakfast and headed straight for Calcutta carrying with us some memorable good time that we spent amidst the tranquility of this magnificent landscape with the only regret of failing to see the Royal Bengal Tiger

Garpanchkot – A sprinkle of history amidst abundant natural beauty

Panchet hill happened to be one of my favourite destinations to escape the maddening city life and unwind and every time, I visited this place on a day’s trip and return back to my hometown, Durgapur, in the evening, this awe-inspiring landscape, with its vast expanse of forested land and rolling hills(all belonging to the same Panchet hill), has unfolded many surprises. One such uncharted territory being the West Bengal Forest Development Corporation’s ‘Prakiti Bhraman Kendra’, nestled within this beautiful landscape, which I had long thought of visiting and spending a night over, but was unable to justify myself with a strong reason, being from a place that is well within commutable distance for a day’s  trip. Finally on a February afternoon of 2011, I visited the Asansol booking office of WFDC for reserving a room in their ‘garpanchkot’(‘gar’- meaning ‘fortress’ and ‘Panchkot’ is the local name of Panchet hill) resort for spending the next day there. The next day being Sunday, I was not sure whether their would be any room left vacant, given the fact that this is by far the most heavily booked resort in the entire south Bengal and that rooms are booked at least three months in advance. But soon I found myself lucky enough to get a reservation of a room at a pretty decent rate, for the next day.

DAY -1

Though we thought of starting  early the next day but was delayed and finally reached the resort at 12.30 pm and after completing the usual formality of verification of booking reservation documents, our car was allowed to pass through the main gate( earlier we were prevented at this very gate from entering, as we didn’t have any booking, on one of our several visits to Panchet hill ).

Our very first expression on entering this resort was a whole hearted appreciation for WFDC people for setting up and developing such a nice place that brings to the mind every  visitor a sense of peace(the beautiful landscaped garden with various flowering plants and nicely built cottages) and security(a well protected and guarded compound).

We were given a double-bed room overlooking the garden with a clear view of the Panchet hill from the window, reminding us of hotels in any hill station like Darjeeling or Otty. After freshening up, we had our lunch at the spacious dining hall, which was a circular one storey glass building located at the middle of the campus, surrounded by the garden. The lunch consisted of fish curry and rice, that tasted very much like a home cooked food, unlike any restaurant food, which are generally rich in oil and spices.

While my wife opted for taking rest and went back to the room I picked up my camera a headed for the hill. After hiking for some 15 minutes through a rocky trail, I found it wise to abandon my climb and return back to the resort and take a guide and resume my climb up the hill next early morning, given the fact that it was already late afternoon and that the rocky trail was getting steeper and steeper. Back to our resort I thought of heading for the main road that runs along the foot of the hill and connects the resort and many other small tribal(mostly ‘Santhal’ people) villages with the nearest city of Asansol.

The long walk took me through winding roads that had serpentine curves every now and then, with the  Panchet hill and its forest on one side and some small hamlets on the other side. The silence of the entire place was occasionally disturbed by the vehicles that pass by the road, with its passengers staring at me with inquisitive eyes.

After clicking a few snaps of the landscape and its flora, I called my wife to bring the car and join me for the ‘gor’ or the old fortress at the other side of the hill. 

By the time we reached the ‘gor’ the sun had already gone down in the horizon and its last rays of the day falling on the ruins of the old palace and its temples, created a silhouette that  made those facades look like some ghostly figures standing and  hiding some untold mysteries related to this land. I captured the moment in the camera and as darkness engulfed the entire area we decided to leave the place for the resort.

Returning back tired and exhausted we went straight for the snack bar which is a elegantly made spacious circular bamboo structure. We ordered some ‘pakoras’ and coffee and gorged them hungrily. It was 7pm in the watch and we thought to take a stroll in the garden under the starlit sky. It was a very rare experience as we seldom get a chance to see a clear sky in the city. As we were enjoying the ambience of this place we got to hear the news that one rouge tusker has created havoc in some nearby village and killed two persons. Soon there were few vehicles carrying senior government officials from Administration, Police and Forest Department. I overheard their conversation about the elephant approaching the hill and coming towards this place. It was a rare experience and in fact first time in my life, where we were holed up in a resort in the middle of a forest at the foot of a hill and bracing for an impending danger from a wild elephant. After we finished our dinner in the midst of this turmoil, while my wife left for our room to retire for the day, I stayed back and occupied a place on several of the benches that were there on the lawn to get the latest information about the tirade of the tusker. Finally with no news of further developments, I also opted to call it a day.

DAY -2

As planned I started the day early and reached at the snack bar for having my morning cuppa and proceeding for the hill with the guide. The officials and those working at the resort are quite helpful and had already arranged a guide for me to assist me in climbing the hill. The trail was familiar as the other day I had made an unsuccessful attempt to trek up through this same route. After climbing almost for fifteen minutes we reached a place that had a very big rock whose top portion was flat like a table. The guide told me to climb the rock and take a view. It was a panoramic view and though we could see the various cottages of the resort below, even the one where we were put up, we were unable to see the river Damodar and the Panchet Dam, owing to thick fog blocking them from sight.

 Although this was not the top of the hill, but was some 25 minutes away from there yet I was advised by the guide not to scale up any further since the climb from here to the top would be quite tough as the slope would become steeper. The climb down was also trickier and difficult than the climb as I had to sit and crawl at few places to keep my balance and protect myself from a fall. Finally I reached back the resort, little disappointed that I was unable to reach the top of the hill. After we had breakfast at the dining hall, we  left the resort for our home back in Durgapur, carrying with us lot of happy memories of a fantastically maintained property by WFDC.

An evening in Baranti!

Tucked at one corner,almost near the end of Muradi village of Purulia district of West Bengal is a village called ‘Boronti’ or popularly known as Baranti, inhabited by 'santhal' people( a community of tribal indigenous people),with its picture postcard lake,that attracts photographers, painters(a few of my friends in this profession had there camps set up here), ornithologists(but of course during winter months) and casual tourists,alike.
On one of my several visits to this place, on a spring afternoon in 2010, I got the rare opportunity to experience the unspoilt beauty of this place, in its different color and textures, as the sun slowly went down in the horizon and the color of the water body turned from grey to red and then finally dark.

After a usual long grueling drive through serpentine roads, that pass through the village of Muraddi, we reached the water body of Boranti around 4.30pm.By then the sun had already slipped down in the horizon, behind one of the many hills that surround the lake, and the reflection of its glow on the lake water ,blurred the thin line between reality and imagination

We watched as the sun went down behind the hill, before getting lost in the mist, that enveloped the horizon, leaving the entire area with a reddish after glow, as if the sky and the water below it has played with colors, reminding one of Holi,the festival of colors.

It was almost 6pm and as we started to leave, we can’t help but reflect of how this place has painted itself in different hues in a short span of a couple of hours, amidst the backdrop of such serenity, that had lend this place an eternal tranquility.

'A tale of two hills' -At Bero in Purulia of West Bengal

Located in the remote part of Bero in Purulia district of West Bengal is 'khalaichandi hill' also popularly known as 'Chandi hill', which  is the smaller one of the two prominent rocky hill formations of this region,  the other being the Bero’ hill, taking its name from the place itself. Here one will find magnificent awe inspiring rock formations.

On a September morning in 2010, I and my wife set out for this place, from Durgapur, armed with just a snap of this place, that is so charecterised by two hills jutting out in the horizon, with the smaller one having a ivory white color temple at its foot, taken from a distance atop another most prominent hill of this region, the Panchet hill, as the only locational guidance and visual clue for this place. After a 45 minutes drive through the newly constructed four lane National highway No.2(G T road) we reached Niamatpur crossing. Here we took a brief stopover, not missing out on the fabled ‘chai’ from that roadside ‘dhaba’, whose story has reached far and wide. After getting us rejuvenated by the tea, we again started off and reached 'Sarbori moore' crossing in next quarter of an hour. 

We checked with a few local people about this place, showing them the picture of the place that we were carrying with us and came to know that these two hills are near Bero and that we have to go to a place called 'gobak' crossing, from where we can reach this place easily. Once we reached ‘gobak’ crossing we again checked with a few local people who directed us to proceed further through a village, that as right ahead of us. The road through the village was narrow, almost like a dirt lane, taking sharp turns now and then, leading ultimately to a unmanned level crossing. We were little worried about the road conditions ahead and was having apprehensions whether our car would be able to negotiate ditches and potholes, in spite of the villagers informing us that we would find better road after we cross the railway line that went from Asansol to Adra junction. But to our surprise we found nice asphalted road through a wooded region that lent a very peaceful and serene ambience in the middle of the rough and uneven landscape, that is  so very synonymous to Purulia. Then came that moment when that small stretch of vegetation gave way to the sight of the two prominent rocky hill structures  rising up in the horizon, that I had captured in my snap from Panchet hill, some one month ago. We were really elated to see that view of the two hills and decided to explore first the smaller one among the two, that had the white temple at its foot.

 By the time we were close enough to it, black monsoon clouds were already above us trying to play spoilsport to our efforts . After a short spell of shower that found us stranded in our car, we started exploring the area surrounding the hill and found that it is spread over an wide area consisting of smaller hillocks made of large and medium size boulders, similar to granite rocks, forming some very exotic and unusual structures. That is when one local person told us that this smaller hill is called ‘Chandi’hill or ‘Khalaichandi’ hill, further adding that, the Government had ‘bought over’ the entire hill and is cutting out these rocks for  using them in construction work elsewhere. This very disturbing news made us wonder whether we will ever be able to see this hill standing tall against the skyline, or these strange rock structures, in some five years of time from now.

 We carried on and after a couple more snaps we settled for  a sumptuous home cooked meal(my wife  had ensured that she cooked one of my favourite dish)that we had against the backdrop of this hill with its magnificent natural rock formations amidst the wide expanse of barren unfertile land of Purulia district, that was interspersed now and then by hills big and small, some prominent ones, rest unknown trying to make their presence felt under the blue and grey autumn skyline. I paid my tribute to this panoramic landscape by capturing its beauty, in few more snaps, before finally wrapping up at 4.30 p.m. Though it was little early to leave the place and miss out on the sunset, but the fact that we had to drive back all the way to Durgapur(some 80 kms away) and pass through the wooded region that is not one of the most safest place after sundown, left us with no other choice. 

While the car moved away further and further from this place with its two hills, that had caught our imaginations for some time now, I could see in my car’s rear view mirror the hills against the golden color glow of the setting sun, that made me reflect on the day’s happenings and wonder whether we would ever  get another such opportunity in our life to experience the joy of finding out a new place in a completely uncharted location

A torn picture or a window to reality? - Nandi Hills

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A torn picture, a shattered dream??Could be a combination of both! 

Actually it is a view from the parapet of Tipu sultan's summer palace atop Nandi Hill. Me and one of my colleague(an art guy in my agency) on one weekend had planned for a trip to Nandi hills. While  my colleague has sold his Maruti Zen, for a better life, and is awaiting his new Volkswagen Polo to arrive in a couple of months(that the usual waiting period for any VW cars model in Bangalore), my car is giving a good service to my wife at my home town. So we had no other choice but to take KSRTC bus service for going to Nandi hill, which was an experience in itself..We left the KSRTC central bus stamd at Bangalore city railway station for Chikballapur around 10am.The bus was moving slowly and picking up passengers every now and then untill the conductor found it sufficiently crowded enough to make his way inside as difficult as it is for those who were trying to come out and get down from the bus.

Around 11.50  we finally reached Chikballapur. This was my first experience with rural Bangalore and was quite surprised to notice the stark difference between the two.Anyway we somehow managed to find a decent restaurant, a south Indian of course, and had some dosas before we left for the hills in a auto rickshaw. Here one thing is required to be mentioned, The Karnataka State Tourism Department have not developed or at least have not tried to develop the transportation facility to Nandi hill in any possible way. For this reason we were easily fooled by the autodriver who dropped us at a place called Nandi hills cross, instead of the foothills, which was some 4kms from that place.

 So after another round of bargaining with the autodriver, we finally got one that took us to the top. While we were on our way we found hoards of people in their cars of every possible make and engine capacity, were either making their way up to, or down from, the hill. The hilltop was usually crowded by Bangaloreans, making one feel that ‘you can’t escape the Bangalore crowd anywhere’. After buying tickets we entered Tipu’s Summer palace.

Its parapet and surrounding compound wall is spread over the entire circumference of the hilltop. Though there was a mettle road that leads to the topmost part where one would find several eateries, we opted for going by walking along the parapet of the palace compound wall.

The short walk to the topmost part of the hill gave some breathtaking views of the areas and the hills surrounding Nandi hill. On one such occasion there was a huge gaping opening on the wall with an abrupt drop to the bottom of the hill, that would as if shatter the silence of this whole area and shake up one from his dreams, by suddenly throwing  up a panoramic view of the distant hill. It was almost spontaneous that I immediately captured the moment in my camera.

Soon we were on the topmost part of the hill after taking a few more snaps and found ourselves gorging up egg noodles at one such eatery, before leaving for Chikballapur and finally from there to Bangalore.