Place: My Guest House
Time: 4.30 a.m
Oh no! Not so soon! – That was the first thought that came to my mind when my alarm buzzed. Yeah, I had to get up at 4.30 A.M (read aloud) that too on a SATURDAY (read louder). It was my third weekend in Kolkata, the land of rosogullas and pretty very pretty girls 
(all girls everywhere are pretty though) and co incidentally my project team had planned for an outing, an unofficial one, so on a saturday.
Initially I had no clue about this place. I could not even get the name right. The place’s called Bakkhali (pronounced: bho – kho – lee). Anyone who knows bengali and is reading this, please correct me if I am wrong. As a part of our plan, it was decided that 6 of us would meet at Karunamayee (pronounced: many versions guys, every one has his/her own way, can’t put them all up here) since we were from around that place. From there we would take a taxi (yeah, the yellow colored ones you see in films) to our next stop, where our whole team would meet up (team = 21).
Got ready by 5.30 and peeped out of the window only to find the rain Gods shower their blessings, not abundant though. Good start, i said to myself and stepped out to reach the nearest auto stand.
That reminds me, people in Bengal are really disciplined. Why? They stand in line at the auto stand waiting for their turn patiently, and believe me there is no policeman or anyone else monitoring the line and still i haven’t seen anyone break the line. That calls for a round of applause for them.
Coming back to the waiting, luck has it that there was no auto in sight (I can here you say people sleep at 5.30 and not go around in autos at that time). The rain Gods seemed to get happier by the minute now and me inpatient by the minute. What else, took a taxi to Karunamayee, which costed me 5 times what the auto guy would have charged me.
Next stop, waiting game again, this time for the other 5 people. Finally all of us got a taxi to our next stop.
Place: Sealdah Station
Time: 6.30 a.m
We were the last to reach the station. Once there, we found our train, rather they found, I followed. Thus started our trip, a 4 hour journey from Sealdah (pronounced: see – yal – dhah) to Namkhana (pronounced: naam – khana). The journey i must say was impressive. getting a glimpse of what bengal actually looks like. Imagine, paddy fields on either sides of the tracks, with infrequent patches of water, the sky in a bluish gray mood. the sun not too bright to overshadow the greenery and not too dark to hide them, the playful rain Gods causing an occasional drizzle – man, nature at her best! This train trip reminded me of Satyajit Ray’s ‘Pather Panchali’ though in black and white i could totally relate to Apu’s house and the surroundings. Occasionally, I could see kids playing in the patches of water unmindful of anything, in their own whole world (kids are meant to be like that anyway). Coming back to the train, just as any other train, there were vendors hopping in and out exhibiting their wares which ranged from fancy articles to eatables. They speak in Bengali which unfortunately I dont understand, but later learned from a friend that you could get well entertained by just listening to what the vendors have to say about their wares. Moving ahead, gazing past the window, our station arrived (in relative sense) which was the destination for the train too. There ends our four hour train journey.
Place: Namkhana Station
Time: 11.00 a.m
Honestly, this station had a ghost like look, looking around i could not see any sign of any sizeable population. The cloudy weather only tried making the place look beautiful. Our next mode of transport was err.. hmm.. how to describe.. yeah a picture would be better (pic below)…
Pic 1- The triwheel-carrier
Interesting isn’t it… I liked it… This triwheel-carrier took us to the next stop, which was a river bank engulfed by buildings. We had to cross the river in a boat, a motor boat, a blue motor boat, a little big blue motor boat which could carry around 20 people, a little big blue motor boat which could carry around 20 people and also their luggage, a little big blue motor boat which could carry around 20 people and also their luggage which could include a cycle. Guess how much the guy must have charged per head?? 25 ps (yes 25 paise), these days i havent seen those coins and he charges that per head, my head’s spining.
Pic 2- The Boat
Now on the other side of the river (The river crossing thing happened in a jiffy, so i dint have much time to savour that experience). We found a bus that could take us to Bakkhali from Namkhana. By this time the rain Gods had left their game and let the sun God rule the game. Or may be i was illusioned so because I was sitting in a stationary bus. (guess you can understand the ambience inside a stationary bus). The bus then started after a little coughing and chucking.
Wheez! went the bus on the road, the clouds and the sun fighting for their share of the ground (to play of course, remember, they were in a playful mood since morning). This trip was quite similar to the train trip. Greenery all around.. hey wait a second.. i see a windmill, no two, no three…. oh there are more than that… a couple of windmills. On reaching closer i found that there was a wind power genration station there. Interesting again! Going further the landscape primarily consisted of fields, huts and that’s all. Finally, after a 45 minute bus journey we were there. Bakkhali.
Place: Bakkhali Bus Stop
Time: 12.30 p.m
First impression – this doesn’t look like a place by the seashore! Ok, our next game was finding a place to put up for the day. Luckily we found a lodge with two rooms to spare for us. Quick, got in, got ready, left. We then walked to a hotel, a simple good one for lunch. Lunch, a typical bengali one, comprised of rice, dal, potato (i dont know wat that dish is called) and yeah fish.. slurp!. After lunch, we walked further down the same road. After sometime, i find the soil color changing from the normal brownish color to whitish! then i look up, THERE!, the sea.. the sand.. wow.. but wait… the sea…. the beach.. its flat… not as sloping as marina too..the water whitish again… and the crowd effectively nil… perfect place for a lonely weekend away from the rush of the office, the traffic, the sight of buildings and hoardings…
Pic 3 – The Beach!
I later got to know that there are a couple of places around.. like an island with only a temple… no one lives there… but we dint have time to visit all those places… Given the time crunch, we were had to start early. so came back to the lodge, washed ourselves got ready and got out…
Back to the bus stop, the bus ride to the river bank, the boat across the river, the triwheel-carrier ride to the railway station, on the train back to the city, and on the cab back to my Guest House completed the day.
On the whole – a trip memorable – a trip to Bakkhali!
Sayonara!
P.S: Thanks to Soumya and Mainak for the wonderful pics and for letting me use them!
