Digha Tour

“Tring Tring” The Intercom bell rang on a lazy Sunday afternoon. It was my ever-enthusiastic carom partner — Suman Pal.

“Saurav, we are going to Nicco Park. Would you people like to join us?”

I immediately declined the offer as I had already visited Nicco Park and also advised Suman not to go there in the afternoon as it gets closed by 5 PM. 

A few minutes later, the Intercom bell rang again and it was him once more — this time with a new offer. “Would you like to join us for a Digha trip this weekend?”. This time I had to relent as I had not been to Digha earlier and weekend trips do not disturb the office factors. 

 

I usually do a lot of planning before our tours, but this time it was a lot different. Suman was taking all the pain. By evening, he booked the hotel rooms, and next day he was ready with a list of all the do’s and don’ts — we were supposed to carry bed-sheet, mosquito repellant, and ample drinking water.

Saturday morning – 15 December, 2012

We started off at 5:15 AM on Suman’s car, with him on the driving wheel.  The earlier night, he had done a night-shift, but there were hardly any signs of lethargy. Digha was a little more than 200 kms from Kolkata and we reached there by 9:45 AM.

We checked into Hotel Greenland Inn in New Digha and immediately proceeded for the sea-shore on a motor van. On the way, we had our breakfast at a road-side dhaba.

The beach was slightly crowded, but we managed to find some space and privacy for ourselves. The weather was bright and sunny, and the water was warm. The sea was there to mesmerize all and sundry.

I did not have my swim-gear on and had no plans to wet my clothes. Yet, sitting dry beside the sea was simply impossible — the waves were so irresistible. All of us, including Suman’s ‘small wonder’ Tathai,  played with the waves, and Suman seemed to enjoy the most. There was no stopping him as he did whatever a non-swimmer could do in water. 

Old habits die hard and so we clicked lots of photographs from various angles, forgetting that no photograph can capture the beauty of the forever dynamic Bay of Bengal.

After our fascination with sea was over, we had lunch at Sonar Bangla restaurant and then went to Udaipur beach, which was nearby, but belonged to Orissa. At the Udaipur beach, we hired two bikes for Rs 50 each and drove to the estuary (commonly known as mohana in Bengali). Driving bike along the sea was an exotic feeling — something that we thought only film actors could experience. 

Mohana & the ‘sinking’ feeling

We parked our bikes at the mohana, and just as we were enjoying the beauty of the moment, my bike fell down as the ground was weak. I had heard about the presence of chora baali or quick sand in Digha, and so I immediately tried to move the bike to a safer place. However, the more I tried to start the bike, the deeper it went into the sand. Suman came for rescue and noticed that in the tense moment, I had forgotten to switch on the bike. Somehow, he managed to pull it off and park safely. We were safe, but the ‘sinking’ feeling had marred the beauty of nature and disturbed the feeling that I could reminisce.  

The bikes were our property only for half-an-hour and so we had to quickly return to the main beach. There, we found many star fishes and Suman even captured a snail. The beach was calm with almost no waves on the sea, but the crowd was mostly drunk and ill-mannered.

We returned to the hotel by evening and had a stroll in the hotel lawn. Considering the room rent (Rs 800), our hotel (Greenland Inn) was too good. It also had a restaurant where we had our dinner.

Sunday– 16 December, 2012

We checked out at 10 AM and headed straightaway for Talsari (Orissa), which was 8 km from New Digha. At Talsari, we boarded a hand-driven boat and went to a nearby island. The island had dry white sand, lots of greenery, and was inhabited mainly by red crabs, which played hide and seek with the visitors.

From Talsari, we went to a park in New Digha wherein we took a toy-train ride across the park. I had heard about the toy train and had expected it to be along the sea, but unfortunately it was not so.

By 3:30 PM, we were done with Digha and hence thought of visiting Mondarmoni as well. Mondarmoni was 23 kms from Digha and 12 kms from Chalkhola, which was on our way back to Kolkata. So, overall we had to travel only 12 kms extra, though I must say, the road was too narrow and replete with bumpers and speed-breakers.

We were aware that Mondarmoni is an over-rated and over-publicized place. However, it had many big hotels on the sea-beach itself and provided the unique option of driving cars on the beach; Suman was too excited to take that opportunity. Some other adventurous sports as well like para-gliding and sea-scooter were also on offer, but did not fit the bill.

We left Mondarmoni at 5:15 PM. On our way back, a major traffic jam at Kolaghat consumed half-an-hour and so we could not reach home earlier than 9:30 PM.

Catch the Shuttle

As the shuttle breezed past City Center, I was still admiring my observation, anticipation, and sense of timing. After all, just a while ago, I had beaten 30 odd people in the race to reach office. It’s amazing how the struggle for survival assumes a new form everyday and we have no option but to take the plunge and emerge victorious.

Today when I reached my stop, Chinar Park crossing at 9:15 AM, my would-be co-passengers and competitors had already burnt a lot of skin under the sun. Thankfully, our nemesis, the traffic volunteer, was absent. His absence improved the probability of getting shuttles, but made it even more difficult to guess where the shuttles would put their brakes on.

As I saw a shuttle approaching us, I placed myself a bit away from the crowd that had already begun the chase. The shuttle moved a few spaces away from the attackers and stopped right under my nose. I timed my jump to perfection, and was bang on target. The moment did not give me the license to be as expressive as one could get after scoring a goal, but the feeling was at par.

Throughout my childhood, I have played as ‘left back’; but now in my routine life in Kolkata, every morning I have to act like the opportunistic ‘center-forward’ who is always on the prowl — looking for the right position and the right moment to launch his attack on the alluring shuttle.

For those who do not know, in Kolkata, ‘shuttle’ refers to any public vehicle that plies between a specific location and Salt Lake, SectorV — the IT hub of Kolkata. Ambassadors, SUVs and even small cars may fall under this umbrella, and only an experienced office-goer can distinguish between a ‘shuttle’ and a private car.  

‘Shuttle’ is Kolkata’s answer to Delhi and Mumbai’s carpool system. In fact, I believe that in our space-starved country, the shuttle system is a better solution because I never see a parked shuttle in our office territory.

While the ruler and the opposition fights the petrol battle,

You and I – the lesser gods – come, let’s catch the shuttle.

Shuttles have become an integral part of Kolkata’s IT industry. Due to the ever-rising petrol prices, the lack of desire to maintain status quo, and reluctance to driving, even the wannabe aristocrats in Kolkata depend on the shuttles for commuting to office everyday. This, I would say, is a healthy mindset as it takes a lot of load off the narrow roads of the congested city. However, an equally poor mindset of many of my fellow commuters is their mobile usage etiquettes, which completely mar the otherwise comfortable ride on a shuttle.

Very often, especially on my way back, I am accompanied by co-passengers who board the shuttle while talking on their mobiles and continue talking about private affairs till their destination comes. Just like these irritating chatterboxes, there are some irritating gluttons who cannot finish their stuff before boarding the shuttle.

I wonder why such people think that talking crap on phone or eating their snacks during the journey is a better ‘utilization’ of time and why they fail to understand that others may require tranquility after the rigorous working hours. I can’t fight with such people but can just hope that better sensibility prevails among these otherwise educated people.

Sunderbans Tour

In Kolkata, winter is the only time when you don’t have to bother about the weather related problems, and you feel like going out, visiting places, and having fun in the sun. So, even though the beauty of Gangtok was still afresh in our minds, we were looking forward to shape up another short but memorable tour, and Sundarbans seemed to be a promising option.

To we Indians, the name ‘Sundarbans’ itself spells danger, adventure and wilderness, and reminds us of the famous Royal Bengal Tiger. The recent release of detective Feluda’s Royal Bengal Rahasya added more fuel to our expectations from this short visit to the dreaded beast’s hometown.

Unfortunately, Sundarbans fell much short of our expectations as the beauty and the beast both went missing. Let alone tiger, we could hardly see any animal, bird, or reptile in the so-called dense mangrove forest. Even the forest was not very intimidating and seemed more like low-height bushes. The greenery was not the kind of green that pacifies our eyes. I know beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, but to me, the monotonous view of Sundarbans consisted nothing more than stagnant water, silt and bushes that seemed to be on the verge of getting submerged in recent future. Personally, I would not recommend anybody to visit Sundarbans in search of wildlife or natural beauty.

However, for those who would still like to visit Sundarbans to witness the reality themselves, here is an account of our tour.

We learnt that Sundarbans is not the kind of place where hotels are galore and you can choose the one that suits you best. So, we decided to go for a package tour. As always, finance was a concern since we were a group of 9 people and we had to look for a package that costs less on per head basis.

After some research, we decided to take services from Sky Sketch India who was offering an economical package (Rs 2500 per head + guide charges) that included night stay at a lodge.

The tour package began on 28^th January 2012. We were picked from our residence at 9 AM on a Sumo that got off EM Bypass near Science City and took us to Gadkhali through bumpy village roads. At 12:15 PM, we reached Gadkhali where our tour operator, Mr. Mutsuddi was waiting with his boat ‘Jungal Queen’. The boat was neat and spacious with several chairs on the deck and sleeping berths underneath the deck. We kept our luggage on one of the berths and took the deck with lots of excitement.

The boat started at 12:30 PM and tea was served immediately. The sunny weather was fantastic and the breeze lifted our mood. We clicked lots of photographs (of ourselves only) as the boat cruised through the stagnant water in between the mangrove forest.

Within an hour or so, we reached Sudhanyakhali Island that had a so-called tiger reserve and a broken watch tower. After waiting for a while near the watch tower, we saw two deers that had come for a sip of water.

We boarded our boat again and had lunch on the boat itself.

At around 5 PM, we reached the Pakhirala Island. After a 5 minutes walk through the village, we reached a cottage where our accommodation was arranged. The arrangements were up to the mark, but the tank water was dirty. We bought drinking water from the nearby shops and decided not to use the tank water for bathing.

Apart from water problem, another issue on the Pakhirala Island was that there was no electricity. Generator facilities were available only between 6 PM and 11 PM.

However, the hospitality was good and so the problems did not bother us much. Breakfast was served soon after we adjusted in our rooms.

We spent the evening playing cards and chatting with our Tour Operator, Mr. Mutsuddi, who seemed to be a simple, straight-talking person and a generous host. He got the dinner prepared according to our preferences and it was too tasty.

Next morning, our day started at 7:15 AM. Within half-an-hour, we reached Sajnekhali Island where our boat permissions were to be taken. While the permission process was going on, we had a quick visit to the wildlife museum.

From Sajnekhali, we went to Dobanki Island that had a deer park and an adjoining forest separated by a canopy. We walked through the canopy and could see several deers — no traces of tiger though. On the way to Dobanki, our guide briefed us about the Sundarbans and asked us to keep looking for the Royal Bengal Tiger. Unfortunately, we could see only fresh footsteps of a tiger that had crossed the river a while ago.

From Dobanki, we had a long boat ride to Gadkhali. We had lunch on the boat at 12 noon and reached Gadkhali at 3:30 PM. Our otherwise boring, long boat ride was made eventful by another boat that broke down on the way and joined our boat.

Our Sumo was waiting at Gadkhali and dropped us home at 7:45 PM.

Overall, the tour was not a memorable one, but we can still take note of a few high points. The weather did not cause any disturbance, Sky Sketch India’s services were admirable and so was Mr. Mutsuddi’s generosity. Also, somewhere on our way back, we reached a point where 5 rivers met and it looked like a wave-less, endless sea. Most importantly, we did not get into any kind of trouble throughout the tour.