It all started last friday, when all of a sudden I realized that I had a 3 day weekend and hence should try and do something which is at the core of my heart and that which I am completely passionate about - TRAVEL. Friday night I partied till late, woke up at 7 Saturday morning and decided to don my adventure hat (figure of speech) and head towards sunderbans, I had no clue where it was , or how to get there.
The only piece of useful info I had was that it was inside west bengal!!! Even the localites here did not have a clue as to the best way to get there, I was quite surprised at this apparent lack of info...(it all became clear to me after my journey).
The start at kolkata itself was wrought with confusion and distress (with a handicap of not knowing the local language it was even worse) I was toying with the idea of dropping the plan, when one good samaritan on the street gave me some concrete direction. There were 2 bus routes, one taking me a lot closer to my destination than the other but as luck wud have it, I could get only the other one, anyways I jus wanted to get outta kolkata first hence I took that one.
It dropped me some 25 kms from my first leg of the journey. There I got down, spoke to the local villagers, sat with them shared a smoke and thus got the info I sought. There was a express scheduled some 15mins away which wud take me to my destination. It was quite a scene, there were 5 people standing around me trying to explain :)
I reached a place called sonakhalli, from where I had to take a semi- drowned retro fitted motor boat to a place called gosaba. the journey was 1.5 hrs long and I had no alternate choice. So off I went feeling grateful for my swimming capabilities, which cud come in handy very soon!! ( was only worried bout my costly zoom camera) the ride was fun, there were some local fishermen, doing some weird stuff with their hands inside a aluminium handi which was covered with a damp cloth.
Curiosity pushed me towards them and in my broken bangla I asked them wht they were upto,( ki korben dada?) turned out to be a pot full of small fishes which had to be aerated by constant churning of the water to keep them alive.
I reached gosaba , and to my utter delight was told that I cud get a ''van'' to get to pakhiralla which was 5 mins by boat from sunderbans. I went to the spot where the vans were supposed to be parked,,,and voila all I see are tricycle rickshaws. not the kinds with a seat and a top and stuff. these just had 3 wheels (obviously ) one flat wooden plank on top of the rear wheels and,,,lemme see did I miss out some key feature...nopes that`s it !!! I was sure that these were not meant for human travel, looked like some vegetable cart.
I approached a shop and asked the guy inside ''pray do tell me where to find the van to pakhiralla? '' and he points in the direction of the three wheeled contraptions,,, I repeat myself ''VANS'' ,,,I mouth the word...he again points in tht direction. Realization dawned in a discomforting way. I went to the driver and he said ''yes sir, pakhiralla sir, I take you on my cyclevan sir''...!!! and thus the mystery of the non-existent van was solved....:)
The 45min journey on top of 2 wheels and a plank under the scorching mid day sun brought me to my destination or so I thot. I was separated from the sunderbans by half a KM of water, had to find another ferry to take me across....there I was standing at the river bank and I was accosted thus by a localite'' sir you want room? inside the island room costs 500 I give u room at 250/-'' wow, I thought what I deal....he also offered to rent out his boat for some money to take me around the various islands.( lotsa haggling and stuff happened, but that is not the essence of this travelogue,,so I skip)
Went to the main island at 4pm to take a permit to roam around in my boat, then hit the waters, saw the ecological uniqueness of the sunderbans- the mangrove trees, thousands of em, they have a unique respiratory system, as half the day they are covered with water as and when the tide bulds up or recedes. Their roots go down for a meter or two then curl back up and re-surface as spikes.
These spikes sometimes grow upto a few feet in height. :) we went to a watch tower, situated near a man made sweet water pond (sorry forgot to mention, the sunderbans is surrounded by ''backwaters'' from the sea, hence salty water- I even tasted it to see for myself).. we sat at the tower for 1 hour..but alas no tiger showed up. I spent the night at the tourism depts lodge in one of the islands, which also had 2 watch towers...an after dinner vigil at one of the towers yielded no result either. Slept like a log, completely exhausted with all the events of the day.
The next day at 7 am we set off once again on the boat to explore interior water channels between islands - a point to note here is tht all tigers in sunderbans are man-eaters, they are very ferocious and are known to even attack boats in the middle of water not anywhere near the banks.
They are good swimmers. The waters in turn is invested with crocs and pythons. All the above makes this trip very CALM AND PLACID aint it !!! we were warned not to go near the banks for any reason and to stay on the top roof of the ferry...3 hrs and lotsa sun bathing later I was still at the same situation as I was the night before...no tiger anywhere. At this juncture my guide decides to alleviate my anguish by saying '' sir, winter months are the best to spot animals here as during summer the intense heat drives them to the shady depths of the interior forest, even the crocs lie low and deep in the water''
And so there I was at 11am under the scorching heat looking for a living creature ( other than myself, my guide and the captain of my boat, there was none to be seen) being told by the freindly guide who took 100 bucks from me ,that '' sir u city guys are so obless that you spend money and come to see a tiger in the month of may tht too at 11 am !!! u guys are nuts''....in not so many words but I got the msg. We headed for the water spot and the watch tower again. There I saw a family of wild boars( obleix wud have had a feast)...and a herd of deers, not to forget a water monitor...but again NO TIGER.
It was time for me to turn back home, hence I bid farewell to the royal bengal (unseen) tiger and departed, re-tracing my footsteps of the prev day....
He journey was fun, the unplanned methodology added spice, the language constraint pepped up the excitement and the sights and smell of rural hinterland where electricity is still a myth rejoiced my very soul. Its been a long narrative, hope u enjoyed reading it.....
barus.
