Bastar Dussera - '23

The four of us outside Roma Resort - Sunabeda

Whenever I visit a new place, mentally I tell myself - this is just a short recce, I will come back again and explore this place in better detail with more time. I promised this to myself during our Bastar trip of 2017 when we chanced to see the unique festival called Bastar Dussera. Before that I had no clue about it. We had gone to Chitrakoot falls near Jagdalpur town where we were thoroughly bored by the lone water fall. I mean for how long can you stare at a waterfall? On our way back we decided to spend a day in Jagdalpur town - the ex-capital of Bastar. It was the day of Nabami and we realised that Dussera is celebrated very differently here with a huge tribal participation. 

We were fascinated by the tribal mela (fair) that was on outside the royal palace. Tribals were selling their own hand made things to other tribals. Mostly hand made iron tools for daily use in an agrarian society - sickles and knives of various kinds for use in the field or kitchen, axes of various sizes, spades of different types etc. There were many sellers selling tribal drums of various sizes and shapes - they were attracting the maximum crowd of other tribals. The buyers were checking out the drums by playing them and the combined sound of all the drums was something quite unique. 

There was hardly any decorative handicraft type items for sale because the fair was not meant for urban outsiders like us. In fact we were perhaps the only urban outsiders in that fair that year. And evidently tribals don't use handicraft as decorative pieces. Everything that was available had some utility value to them. 

I bought a small tribal drum as a memento and Monisha bought some unique handmade cotton durries/sataranchies from sellers who came from neighbouring Koraput. We still use them on our divans or on the sofa etc. I have never seen anything similar anywhere else. 

In short - we loved the fair. We also went inside the palace complex and saw some tribals sitting around with doli type things - wooden structures to carry their idols. We were told there will be a big event in the evening related to the Dussera. There was a huge chariot waiting outside the palace and we were told that this moves around the villages of Bastar over 75 days and its journey ends in the town around Dussera. Apparently it starts from the famous Danteswari Temple in Dantewada. 

We were very tired and didn't go out to see the evening programme. Also we would be starting the next morning for the long journey back to Calcutta so we didn't want to tire ourselves out and went to bed early. But I loved the tribal fair and told myself I would come back another time after educating myself better about the Dussera.

I am quite fascinated by the tribals of India. Perhaps becuase of the mysteries associated with their unique societies. We know nothing about them. And there is so much to know. Apart from their various religious beliefs and practices or languages there are so many other socio cultural aspects of their life that is totally unknown to us. Their identity of each sub-tribe is often expressed through the way the women make the bun in their hair, their ornaments like nose rings, the way they wear the saree or the different tattoos they wear on their bodies. I am very curious about these things but have no idea how to learn about them. 

Bastar, in case you don't know, is a very tribal area in what is now known as Chattisgarh (36 forts) state. It shares the border with another very tribal district of Koraput in Orissa The name Bastar sends a chill down the spine of many Indians because it is grappling with a very violent ultra Left terrorist movement for a long time now and many people have died in this movement, particularly policemen and politicians whose convoys have been mercilessly ambushed several times in the past. Tourists are generally not specifically targetted but you could always get caught in a cross fire or your vehicle might get blown up by accident due to mistaken identity. 

This is the reason why not too many tourists come to this region and very rarely by car from Calcutta. I have done this two times now. In fact that slight tension at the back of the mind keeps me motivated :) I remember crossing the jungle between Bongaigaon and Gaylegphug in an army vehicle. This was during the peak of Bodo movement and the remains of an ambushed army truck used to lie on the way side that had killed more than 20 soldiers. We always knew that a similar fate was a possibility for us too. 

Except for seeing a lot of commandos with automatic rifles marching up and down the jungle roads of Koraput and Bastar I have never felt threatened here.

This year we made up our mind to revisit Bastar and see the Dussera in better detail with more time at our disposal. But we ended up experiencing a lot more than just the Dussera. Let me jot down the day by day experiences. 

First the route. 

Our Route Through Four States (Bengal, Orissa, Andhra, Chhattisgarh)

We stuck to the route that we had taken earlier. Go down the highway that goes to Chennai up to a point in Andhra called Chilikapalem (this is a little before Vizag) - on the way you will be crossing Kharagpur, Bhubaneswar, Balugaon, Berhampore etc. Turn right from Chilikapalem and go straight to Jagdalpur via Razam, Salur, Sunabeda, Koraput and Jeypore - the last two being old tribal towns of Orissa. One can also reach Koraput via a diagonal road from Berhampore and via Rayagada, I have never taken it because it's a state highway. In comparison my route goes along the four-lane national highway for a longer distance and is perhaps faster. But the diagonal route might be more interesting through tribal villages. I might explore it some other time. The state highways of Orissa are often much better than the national highways.

The route we took is an approximate journey of 1000 km from Calcutta one way. We broke it up into two stops. Day one's drive would be from Calcutta to Barkul on the bank of Chilika lake where we would spend an extra day. Next is the drive from Barkul to Sunabeda in Koraput district where again we would spend a day. Next we would go to Jagdalpur (via the towns of Koraput and Jeypore) where we would spend three nights. It is possible to drive straight from Barkul to Jagdalpur, as we did last time, but we wanted to break it at Koraput and explore the surroundings. So we took 3 days to drive to Jagdalpur. 

Incidentally we came back in two days driving from Jagdalpur to Barkul on day one and Barkul to Calcutta on the next day.

On the way up we planned our exit from Calcutta in such a way that we would reach Jagdalpur on the day of Ashtami, so that we get to see the spectacle on Navami (or Navratri as the North Indians call it).

Day One - Calcutta to Barkul - 18th October, 2023

Our friends and travel partners Chandra and Shoma came to our house in the early morning of Chaturthi in their car. They were travelling pretty light. We had loaded most of our luggage in the vehicle the previous night. So we took off almost as soon as they arrived. I am mortally scared of Pujo jams of Calcutta even early in the morning. Because I have suffered several times for hours in the wee hours of the morning, while trying to get out of the city during the Pujas. But this being just Chaturthi, the frenzy had yet to reach that level. We got stuck for about 20 minutes or so before the Satragachhi bridge and the rest of the way had no surprises for us.

Shoma had brought some delicious home made cake. Monisha had home made ruti and chicken etc. We reached Barkul pretty comfortably around late after noon. We were booked in the OTDC hotel there and had a fantastic time in the evening among the four of us just chatting and exchaning ideas. This was Chandra and Shoma's first multi-day car trip. So they were pretty excited about it.

Incidentally, we found several small hotels have now come up on either side of the lane that leads to OTDC Barkul. So now there is quite a choice for stay there. However, the OTDC property is the only one that offers a view of the lake from most of its rooms.

Day Two - Rest Day in Barkul 

We spent the next day in Barkul literally doing nothing. I had kept this day as a rest day for my friends because I wasn't sure how they might react after a day-long car ride. They were pretty cool and had no fatigue or body aches etc whatsoever. So we just spent the day listening to the fascinating stories from Chandra's life as a poor young man in Calcutta, trying to eke out a living against all odds while studying art at a government college. Life takes a different meaning altogether when you hear such stories and this blog is perhaps not the right place for me to recount those stories. Those who may not know, he is now one of the leading painters of India.

Day Three - Barkul to Sunabeda 

In the night we got a few eggs and potatoes boiled by the kitchen staff for the next day's journey to Sunabeda. This was converted into a delicious breakfast in the backseat with pepper, salt, chillies and a dash of lime by the Bhattacharyyas on the backseat. We crossed Ichhapuram to enter Andhra. Chilikapalem is a dot on the highway from where we took a right turn towards Razam/Salur. By the way, there is a new flyover here. You have to take the exit from under the flyover. There is no road sign telling you all this. If you want to ask anyone ask them to show the way to Razam. I still don't use Google maps for navigation on the road. I use these good old methods of asking people around.

I must say that the amount of urbanisation that has happened along this route, particularly around Berhampore is simply mind boggling. What used to be vast open fields up to the horizon is now a township with modern buildings all around. The Tatas have set up a new steel plant here.

Crossing Razam was a breeze compared to our previous experience when we had faced a massive, unruly jam at a crossroad within the town. Thankfully that seemed like a thing of the past. The next significant town is Salur where we had lunch in 2017 from a tuckers' Dhaba. Now I found Salur has a bypass which we took. The Eastern Ghat starts after Salur. It's a beautiful landscape here. The roads are just as winding as any in the Himalayas. But the hilly portion (ghat section in Indian terminology) is not very long. 

Apparently Salur used to be a beautiful sleepy little town with a small Leprosy Mission hospital. When we crossed it six years ago it had already become a dirty, congested town. Now, you don't have to go through it any more which means it has got even more congested for the townspeople. 

We crossed small hamlets like Pottangi and Sunki on the way. They have quite grown up in these six years, it seemed. The next big town on the way was Semiliguda which has grown into a massive highway town complete with a huge Trendz store. We had our lunch here at a very downmarket eatery where all the other customers were local tribals. But the food was fairly decent and extremely cheap.

Later we found there were more upmarketish restaurants on the roadside but we had no regrets. The food was good. 

Sunabeda came almost immediately after this. It's a very small place with a Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) factory where they make fighter jets for Indian Air Force. 

Hotel Roma is our destination here. It's right on the highway. It used to be an OTDC property in the Panthashala category (lower than a Pantha Nivas) and was in a dilapidated condition when we crossed it in 2017. Now it has been taken over by a private entrepreneur called Prabhakar Rao who is trying to revive it and run it properly. He is a middle aged gentleman from Koraput with a flowing long beard and crisp English. He is an ex-finance professional, he said. He has worked in Bombay and England all his life and is now persuing a completely different profession of running a hotel - more as a hobby than with any motive to make big money out of it. When we were there his teenaged daughter was holidaying and helping her father to run the place. She is a college student studying in King's College, England, no less. 

The property is by the side of the highway but in a  very quiet place. The highway being not too busy with trucks etc it is hardly a highway in that sense. There is a small hill just behind the property. The rooms, the balconies and verandahs are huge. We quite enjoyed the place. Of course there were small problems like the bolt or the shower not working etc. But we sort of pardoned Rao, given that it must be difficult to get mechanics for sundry jobs in this type of remote places in India. The lone maid at Roma - Santoshi - was a very sweet and ever smiling lady who helped us carry our luggage up the stairs etc. Incidentally, I always make it a point to carry my own luggage.  

Dinner at Sunabeda was a very simple affair, cooked by Rao himself because his cook had ditched him that day. We asked Rao for his advice on how to spend the next day around Sunabeda. He suggested a trip to the Deomali hills. We accepted it. It's supposed to be the highest point in Orissa. There is another village there called Kotiya, which we could also explore perhaps.

Day Four - Day Trip to Deomali Hills

Next morning, after breakfast we went out in search of Deomali. We had to go back to Semiliguda and onwards to the Kundili haat. It's a large vegetable market on either side of the highway. It is a two-day haat that starts on Thursday and continues till Friday. We had crossed it around Friday after noon while going towards Sunabeda. But even on Saturday when we were going to Deomali there were lots of sellers still hanging around. I have a feeling this might soon become a permenant bazaar. 

From the haat we took a left turn towards the Deomali hills. I must say, the tourism department of Orissa has done a commendable job towards putting up road signages in appropriate places to help drivers. All the major and minor tourist attractions are prominently shown in English and Oriya, making it easy for an outsider self-drive tourist like me to find his way around. One doesn't need to ask anyone for direction to the popular tourist destinations.

We soon started climbing the hilly terrain. The valley was quite wide with beautifully terraced fields with paddy cultivation. Some of the fields had various vegetables planted on them. We stopped at a place in the valley that was looking particularly pretty. The different fields of various shapes in the distance had different shades of green and even yellow. A cool breeze was blowing over the paddy cultivation sending waves that were looking quite enchanting from the top. The sky was a clear and bright azure blue.

To make the scene more picturesque there was a small river ambling through the middle of the valley and we saw two women with baskets on their heads walking in the distance there. It was a picture perfect scene of tranquility. The autumn sky was blue with a few white clouds floating around. We are told the hills of Deomali are rich in Bauxite deposits and mining might start any day. It's a sad thought that we didn't want to think about. Rather, we continued on our journy up the hill. A Niyamgiri like future is perhaps awaiting these pristine hills.

We missed the exit to the Deomali hill top and reached Kotiyar village. It looked more like a tight urban slum than a traditional tribal village with its own architectural heritage. It was a very underwhelming sight. I didn't want to stop or explore the village. The sight just didn't inspire me. We went back in search of the hill top. On the way we saw a road sign pointing towards some water fall. We went in for about five kilometers off the main road and down an even narrower mountain road. The place had an elaborate parking lot complete with a Rs 50 parking fee. Just  as we were entering the area, the vehicle in front of us - a small Maruit Alto from Calcutta (you can make it out from the registration number) - suddenly banged into a parked Creta. The Alto was badly damaged. The driver had a more than six-inch gash on his head and the Creta had a bashed up rear bumper. The man was profusely bleeding and there was blood all over his T-shirt.

All those involved were Bengalis. The driver, the victim and us the onlookers. He claimed his brake had failed. I think he was looking at his mobile phone. Both he and his wife looked totally perplexed. The lady said they were staying in Semiliguda. 

The water fall was quite underwhelming. We left the scene quickly because the situation was about to get tense with the Creta owner getting increasingly angry with the Alto driver. It was a less than one-month old vehicle. Poor guy. 

We soon found out the exit for Deomali hill top and went right in. We had somehow missed it while going up. Entry cost here is Rs 100 per vehicle. We stopped near what looked like an abandoned coffee shop on top of the hill. The hill top is pretty barren with minimal vegetation. Other tourist vehicles were going farther ahead towards the actual top but we didn't go there because it looked pretty croweded there. The hill top is apparently Orissa's highest peak. Having hiked to above 5000 meters in Stok Kangri, I had no intention to climb this particular peak.

There were tourist cottages being made by the government here. And a pleasantly chilly breeze was blowing non-stop. You could see far off into the distance across the valley below. It's green all around with a prominent teraccota coloured road going through the middle of the hills in front. We thought these cottages would make for a fine place for a short stay when finished. Later we learnt environmentalists have stopped the construction over various ecological and cultural grounds. Perhaps rightly so. The cottages certainly looked very cheap and had no connection to the aesthetics of the area. A typical thoughtless government project. We have something similar in Gajaldoba called Bhorer Alo. That's on a grander scale though.

On our way back, as I turned a bend in the snaking hilly road I saw a man sitting by the road side with a heap of fresh white raddishes taken off the fields. His wife and daughter were busy washing a sac full of sweet potatoes. We stopped the vehicle to do some impromptu shopping. I had no clue what dish could be made out of sweet potatoes and raddish. 

We had our lunch at Desia Eco Resorts which was on the way. It was an excellent lunch for us and the restaurant was pretty busy with mostly Bengali tourists despite the area being quite desolate. Some of the parked vehicles had Orissa and some Andhra registration plates. Before settling for Sunabeda we had tried to book Desia but rooms were not available. 

Upon arrival back to Roma we set out to try our own cooking in Chandra's room. The large size of the room helped. From Calcutta we had brought our own portable stove, gas cylinder and basic cooking utensils. They were tried here. My friend Raja had brought the burner for me from England, the gas cylinder was purchased off Amazon. Shoma in her enthusiasm had bought a back up cylinder too. I even brought am aluminium contraption to baffle the wind. All these were put to use in right earnest. Shoma cooked a dish of roasted sweet potatoes which tasted quite delicious. We even boiled a few eggs and potatoes for the next day's journey. 

After our self cooked evening snacks, we had dinner and went to sleep.

Day 5 - Sunabeda to Jagdalpur

Today's journey being a relatively short one, we started a little late after breakfast. On the way came the town of Koraput where we stopped for the ladies to do some shopping at the Orissa handloom store called Bayanika. Here we were told that the small town of Kotpad has some weavers who weave a saree that is known by the name of the town. We had planned to visit Kotpad on Tuesday for the village haat that it is famous for. The sarees would be an added bonus. On the way we stopped at Kotpad to enquire about the location of the haat. The locals showed it to us. We knew we would come back here in two days. 

But before Kotpad we had to cross Jeypore, another ancient town of Koraput, where we stopped again to check out the state owned emporium. When we reached Jagdalpur it was late afternoon. We checked into hotel HAM Residency. 

Valley of Flowers Visited

The Valley of Flowers

Just came back from a successful trek to the Valley of Flowers. It is not only a National Park now, it's a UN declared world heritage site and part of the Nanda Devi Sanctuary. The trek also involved a hike to the world's highest Gurdwara at Hemkund Sahib. That's above 14,000 feet.

If you want to know my reactions in short - it's a beautiful place and quite easy to reach even for novice trekkers. If you have never trekked in life but have reasonable fitness this is the trek you should start with. There are two challenges in this destination. A. Reaching the base can be really difficult as this trek is open during the monsoon months only and the bus route upto Govindghat is full of landslides. One left us stranded for about five and a half hours, the other forced us to detour for about 100 kms extra. If you love the mountains you should make every effort to see it. B. Dealing with the crowds of people going on a pilgrimage, mules, porters and not to speak of the rain can be annoying for many. 

I had heard about this trek (and a few more like Sundar Dhunga or Har ki Doon) sometime in the mid 80s when I went trekking to Langtang in Nepal. This was from a group of other Bengali trekkers. Somehow over the next few decades when I travelled to different parts of the Himalayas, VoF didn't happen to me. The beaitiful valley remained elusive. A few years ago my good friend Ambarish Dutta went to the VoF with India Hikes, which rekindled the interest in me.

After my recent trek from Rovers Point to Lepchakha (an easy downhill hike of about 3 kms) at Buxa Forest in North Bengal where my right knee became very painful and wobbly (I literally had to hold someone's shoulders to come down) I got really worried about my fitness and felt very disheartened that my dreams of going to the mountains more frequently in retirement now perhaps stand shattered. 

I exercised a lot upon return to Calcutta, reasoning in my mind that all my problems with pain are routed in lack of strength. Finally I decided to check the strength of the knees out through a Himalayan trek. As my friend and a doctor practicing in the UK Raja Biswas described it - I was doing a functional test of the knees while I should have got a medical test done first through an X-ray etc.

I chose VoF for this test, given that it's an easy trek. If necessary I can exit from the trek at any point of time without causing any trouble to anyone. I checked India Hikes first. In their typical style, they have a requirement that people above 55 years of age must submit a treadmill test report. I find these not only stupid show offs (as if they are the know-all of treks) but very restrictive. So I switched my attention to Trek the Himalaya (TTH) and booked my trek and tickets etc. If you are interested you can read about the pre-trek part here . It talks mostly about my preparations.

On the scheduled date, that is 18th of July, I boarded Upasana Express from Howrah Station. The trek would start from the TTH office in Rishikesh on 21st morning. I reached Haridwar on 19th around evening. I checked into the first hotel that I could see across the road outside the station. It was a dingy room in the basement that was mine for the night at Rs 500. It had no AC, no windows and no toilet seat also. But I didn't care. In fact I quite enjoyed the El Cheapo experience. I was kind of back to my college days when I would go for such cheap places. I started my first solo trip with stay in the dormitory of the Yout h Hostel of Darjeeling. That cost me Rs 10 per day.

The evening in Haridwar was spent walking towards Har Ki Paudi and coming back and reminiscing about the 1976 trip with my parents and sister. I felt very sad that both my parents were now gone. This was our first and only multi-day and multi-city trip with the whole family. I remember how happy my mother was to be able to bathe in the holy Ganga in the privilege of a private ghat of the Dharamasala we stayed in. In fact I wanted to stay in the same Jaipuria Dharamsala. But no one picked up their phone.

Haridwar is a very non-descript temple town. Unless you are very religiously inclined there is nothing here. For the record, Ganga hits the plains here and starts her journey through the plains of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Bengal.

Of course, I was shocked by the grey water of the river. When we came here in 1976 the water was absolutely crystal clear. However, I was told once the monsoon gets over the water would clear up again.

Next afternoon I went to Rishikesh by a shared auto spending a princely sum of Rs 70 and checked into a hotel across the road from the TTH office which is located in the Tapovan area of the town, so that early morning the next day I wouldn't need to undertake any journey within Rishikesh. 

That evening I met a few of the other fellow trekkers. There were a couple of men who were senior to me but mostly the others were way junior to me. That is how it should be actually. VoF is a beginner's trek. It might be steep but there is no technical climbing involved anywhere. There were several who were seeing Himalaya for the first time. I should actually have done this trek 30 years ago but then better late than never.

I also met Ajay in the afternoon, the TTH tour coordinator, at his office. On my walk down the main road in Tapovan I came across Adventure Axis, a shop selling outdoor gears. I had bought many trekking gear from the guy who runs the shop. He recognised me by name. It's a large shop but not very attractively arranged. 

In case you want to know, I had lunch and dinner at a restaurant called Uttar Dakshin - Madras Cafe. They are very neat and clean well lit and well occupied by customers. They serve excellent South and North Indian food. I mostly had idly and vada and filter coffee in the typical Tamil style.

The Journey Towards the Mountains Starts 

The next morning we started on the bus journey to Pipalkoti. It's a day long journey which was completed in bright sunlight. We were in two mini-buses. A group of 22 split into two buses. I got a single window side seat. On this route try to take the left hand side seat because that's where the river is. On the way came all the Prayags (meaning confluence), starting with Devaprayag where Bhagirathi and Alokananda meet to form Ganga - the lifeline of North India and a very prominent figure in Hindu mythology. 

We followed the fiercely flowing Alokananda via Rudraprayag, Karnaprayag etc. What were once dots on the way to Kedar and Badri have now morphed into full fledged towns.We went towards Badrinath. In 1988 I came down this road from Ghat and saw the tree under which Corbett had killed the "man-eater of Rudraprayag". There was a large stone plaque by the side of the road under a tree. Apparently a fair is still held to commemorate the day. But this time I couldn't find any such thing in the busy town that Rudraprayag now is. I saw a largish building - Corbett Memorial though. This seemed new.

The skies were blue and the white fluffy clouds made you feel like it was autumn. At Pipalkoti we were put up in a hotel and were introduced to our trek leader. She is a young but competent girl from the mountains. Usha Shahi. Our documents were all collected and health check up done in the form of a pressure check. Mine was found to be normal. One of the elderly gentlemen was found to be suffering from high BP. He was given a polite warning of sorts that if it doesn't go down by the next morning he wouldn't go with us.

Pipalkoti is a wide open, green valley with a very small town. It's an important town on the way to Badrinath. I am sure it was a dot on the route to Badrinath in the earlier years. It has a few hotels now. I had some jilebis and samosas from the shop in the town. Wasn't anything great. Though the day was very bright it started raining very heavily from the night. I guess it had rained the whole night in Pipalkoti when we stayed there.

I shared the room with two other senior Bengali gentlemen. One from Tripura - Subrata Roy. A retired banker. The other is Joydeep Roy from Kharagpur. He has taken VRS from BPCL. Later I found them to be rabid Hindutva badi BJP supporters. These people regard us liberals as almost non-Hindus. However, the first night with them was not very unpleasant as I had no idea about their political inclinations then.

Next morning, that is 22nd July, we started for Govindghat in the same bus. We got a bit delayed as the elderly gentleman Venkat couldn't clear the repeat BP test in the morning also. It was apparently still showing 160/90. Unfortunately we had to leave him behind and proceed. He seemed like a reasonably fit person and he himself didn't feel anything. TTH told him that he could wait in Pipalkoti for a day. In case it comes down he could join the next batch of TTH on the following day, which ultimately didn't happen because his BP still didn't come down. I hope he gets a treatment for it when he goes back home.

Within a few hundred meters after starting from Pipalkoti our vehicle came to a stop behind a long queue of other vehicles. Apparently there were a number of landslips ahead that were being cleared.

From 7.30 we waited in the same spot past 8,9,10,11, 12 and then finally at 1 o' clock we could move forward. The slushy area was long and I could understand why it took so long even for two JCBs working in tandem to clear the mud. We crossed a few more rocky stretches on the road very carefully. There was one more hold up before Joshimath. It turned out to be a minor one with just a few boulders lying on the road. Two back-hoe excavators came and simply rolled the boulders down the mountain slope into the river. We saw a crushed vehicle way down the slope fallen on the river bank, perhaps many months ago. Its bright yellow paint was still making it easily visible. Evidently it had fallen in the past and no one bothered to pick up the wreckage. I hope the driver jumped out in time (usually they do) Alokananda here is really fearsome. 

After this came Joshimath. A famous old mountain town before Badrinath and a base for many an expeditions and treks that has now become more famous due to its status as a sinking town. From the bus I saw many buildings that have cracked up. Some have crumbled down. These buildings didn't have any inhabitants. I was told that they have been given shelter elsewhere. I saw a few new buildings under construction as well. Joshimath town seemed more open and sparsely populated than my mental image of it. I had imagined it to be a small hilly town with dingy, narrow, dark and wet lanes. It was anything but that.

It was funny how the government propaganda against this disaster - the current government doesn't want us to think anything can go wrong in their sacred Devbhumi - has worked among the locals. I asked a person in Pipalkoti about Joshimath and he said it's all false narrative to discredit the government. Nothing has happened in Joshimath. I heard the same thing from another person in Govindghat - it's all bull shit. They have perhaps not seen those dangerously cracked buildings. Even if they have, to them what the government wants them to believe is more true than what they can see.

Finally we reached Govindghat. A very small hamlet on the bank of Alokananda. Here one has to cross the fiercely flowing and a much narrower river over a small and narrow military hanging bridge painted in British racing green. There is a Gurudwara by the side of the river and a small market - mostly selling Shikh religious stuff - with a few hotels.

It was already 3 pm. Our plan was to take a jeep from Govindghat to Pulna (the local drivers of Pulna don't allow any outside jeeps or buses to go to their town beyond Govindghat), a distance of only 4 km and then start walking. If we started the walk by 3.30 we would reach Ghangria by 9 ish. The skies stay bright till about 7.30 which means we would need to walk in the dark for about two hours.

However, the local police didn't allow us to proceed. As per a big signboard before the bridge, one cannot go towards Ghangria beyond 2 pm. It was already 3 pm. Our trek leader went to the police station to seek permission from the officer-in-charge but it was flatly denied. They said it was because the road has wildlife like bears and leopards and as such could be dangerous in the night. 

So we decided to stay back for the night at Govindghat itself. We checked into a hotel next to the Gurdwara and had food at the langar inside the Shikh temple. Luckily I got an exclusive room to myself as a few fellow trekkers moved out into better hotels paying from their pocket and free rooms became available for those who stayed back. 

Here I slept alone in a room that thus fell vacant and made myself endless cups of tea with my kettle and tea bags. I had a plate of momos in a shop outside the hotel.

We saw very few pilgrims here and the small market run by Sikhs was mostly empty with only shopkeepers keeping it alive. I asked them why it is so. They said it is because of floods in Punjab. Indeed most of the pilgrims here are from Punjab. 

The Trek Starts - Day 1

Snapshot - Pulna to Ghangria is an 11 km walk over stone paved road with railing and garden benches. Takes about 5 hours. Nothing could be easier than this in the Himalayas. You get porters and mules etc at Pulna if you want. Plenty of water sources are available on the roadside. 

Here is a link to the map of the walk recorded on Garmin. 

 

One leaves Alokananda at Govindghat and from Pulna starts following the Laxman Ganga. The valley here is wide and the river looks beautiful. It's just somewhere betweeen a stream and a river here in terms of size. After registration at the Pulna check post we started our walk. There are a few homestays available in Pulna. There are many porters and mules available too. Our bigger loads were off-loaded to mules here. A few trekkers additionally hired a porter to carry their personal stuff. It's a novice's trek, please remember. 

The trail is very well laid out. It's wide and paved with stones. One doesn't need to be careful with one's steps. It's not smooth but there is no challenge to walk here. There are garden benches on the side of the trail. There is even a railing on the side of the path and shades in various places to take rest in heavy rain. We were lucky that it wasn't raining. It was overcast throughout the four days of our trek but didn't rain very heavily except on the last day. 

Our first stop was near a confluence. I was told the river coming from the left hand side was Laxman Ganga while the one on the right was Kaak Ganga. Our local trek leader - Deepak Singh Rawat - said only Bengali trekkers go in that direction to Kaak Bhusandi lake. As a Bengali I felt rather proud for a change after a long time. These days in such religious places where vegeterianism is worshipped and non-vegetarians are seen as criminals, Bengalis are almost hated. I had one such incident where someone shouted at me for being a "non-vegetarian Bengali". 

Bengalis, once upon a time were respected across the country for being freedom fighters and intellectuals. In such violently vegeterian and religious places our only identity now is our non-vegeterianism. Personally I apprehend the current state-sponsored hatred that is going on against beef eating across the country will soon be converted into hatred against non-vegeterians. I hope to be proved wrong. 

Coming back to the walk - we saw many pilgrims and so called trekkers overtaking us on mules. I think each mule costs Rs 1000. After a long walk of more than five hours through the forested path we reached what looked like Ghangria. There is a very large field that has a helipad run by GMVN and several neatly arranged tents. I have no idea how these tents are booked but they looked better than the hotels in the town. 

Make no mistake. You haven't reached Ghangria yet. You have to walk for a kilometer or so more to enter the dingy town. The town is full of small hotels including a GMVN guest house. We were put up in a two storied hotel named Deepak with a dining hall in the ground floor. The room we got was really small with barely space for 3 beds and hardly anything else. Even finding space for our bags on the floor was a challenge. The bathroom wasn't dirty but could do with a competent plumber. In fact on the entire route starting from Haridwar plumbing seemed like a major issue. 

In the evening we went to check the town out. Essentially a narrow and straight lane with hotels on either side. Each hotel has a restaurant in the ground floor. There is yet another Gurudwara in this town as well. I later learnt that they also rent out rooms. We watched a short documentary on the valley paying Rs 50 per head. Informative but expensive in today's world where everything is available for free on youtube. 

I hardly had any sleep that night because of the loud snoring by my fellow trekkers. And next morning we were ready to move out at six or so. 

Day 2 - Ghangria to Valley of Flowers and Back 

Snapshot - Four kilometers of uphill walk to reach the valley. Took me 3.5 hours. After that you can walk upto 8 kilometers on flat trail in the valley. The trail to valley is very well laid out but narrower and steeper than Day 1.

Here is a Garmin map of the one-way journey 

 

After Ghangria the path bifurcates into two. The right hand side one that is wider goes to Hemkund and the left hand side one goes to the Valley. There is a checkpost here that opens at 7 am. We were told that we must wait at the hotel to hear from an advance team whether the route to the Valley is open (on bad rainy days it remains closed). If not we would go to Hemkund. However, the route was open and we proceeded towards the valley. Just after the checkpost where the entry for us was paid by our agency we entered the sanctuary through a gate.

Before this we had to cross a disgusting mule stand where several mules and porters were trying to find customers. Disgusting because of all the poop all around and their stink. Mules are not allowed in the National Park but for going towards Hemkund or back to Ghangaria. 

A young Nepali porter offered to carry my backpack. I answered him in Nepali and he was more than pleasantly surprised and wanted to know how I knew his language. I gave him a mysterious smile. He kept pestering for my business. I felt rather sad for him. They come as migrant workers from Nepal. Live in extremely unhygenic conditions and go back by October when everything gets covered under deep snow. It's a more than two day journey from here to their home. I wonder how much they make every season. The work is often back breakin as they carry human beings on their back in a basket. I saw two able bodied men using this service.  

It might look obnoxious to us but it's livelihood for them. Daily work is not guaranteed at all but it pays well when they get it. Many in our group used porters to carry their personal stuff. I even saw one of them being carried on the back of the porter in the basket. 

VoF is a UN World Heritage site now as it has been brought under the Nanda Devi National Park. It is my ambition to see all these natural World Heritage sites in India. So far I have seen Manas, Kaziranga, Sunderbans and Western Ghat. I am not sure about Kanchendzongha National Park (that is, whether I have been there officially but Sandakphu is good enough). The Great Himalayan National Park is as yet unseen. 

The path to the VoF is narrower than the one we used on Day 1 but this is also paved with stones. Soon after the gate one starts to see wild flowers on the sides of the path. Different colours like red, purple, yellow and white. I have no idea what their names are. But they are beautiful. Small wild flowers of different hues. Gently blowing in the cool breeze.

We crossed the fiercely flowing Laxman Ganga over a small bridge and climbed up the mountain path. It's more back breaking than yesterday's walk but again nothing technical. It was overcast as usual but there wasn't any rain. We presently reached a mountain stream which had to be crossed over a small bridge and entered the flat valley. At the beginning there is a large overhanging boulder. After this the valley opens up very wide. 

It's lush green all around and despite all the tourists it seemed so serene and beautiful. The valley is some eight kilometers long and there is a river that borders the valley. It's at a little distance. I ended the walk at exactly 5 kms from my hotel and 1 km from the overhanging  boulder. I found a large boulder by the side of the path and sat on it, waiting for our team members to come back. Just looking at the valley and the mountain on the other side is so serene and peaceful. 

Many from our group walked right upto the river. I didn't feel any special urge to see the river. I much prefered to just sit quietly and soak in the beauty of the place. There are a few snow capped peaks that are visible from here on a clear day. But I wonder if anyone gets a clear day here so late in the morning.

This boulder turned out to be a selfie corner for the trekkers. Some people are so obssessed with selfies. They were taking selfies virtually at every step. And in different poses. As an onlooker I found it rather amusing to see how instructions were being given for the perfect pose. Lift the hands a bit. Break a little at the elbow. Keep the head up. One wondered if a Bollywood film was being shot. 

I felt like a complete outsider to this group. I had no one that I could relate to really. There was a German guy Dario. He was quiet like a mute person. He would answer if you asked him a question but he had nothing to offer on his own or any questions to ask. Conversation with such people is impossible. Socially inert, one could say. 

There was another Venezuelan girl (who lives in Denmark), Andreina. She was decent and quite jovial had similar values but I couldn't see her during the trek. Normally they walk on their own. But apparently she later complained to the group leader that no one was there around her in the valley. I didn't think she wanted anyone around her. 

After some time we turned back and traced our way back to Ghangria down the same trail. 

On day 1 I had suffered a little pain in the knee. The pre-patellar bursa I have on the right knee became more prominent but it wasn't anything disabling. On the second day I took no chance and wore the knee cap. I was totally pain free and walked rather confidently. I was particularly happy with the confidence with which I was climbing down. In my earlier two treks of Roopkund and Stok Kangri my descent was rather slow. 

But this time all the exercises for the hip flexors and glutes etc seemed to have paid off. I came down alone rather quickly and as I entered the town I saw a small hotel just opposite to the Gurudwara. Hotel Holiday Inn. I asked them if they had a room. They showed me a decent room at Rs 800. It was better lit and more spacious than the room  I had at Deepak. It even had a thin green carpet on the floor. I immediately decided to take it. Spending two more sleepless nights in that cramped room with all that snoring right next to me was out of question. 

I went to Deepak and brought my bigger rucksack to move into this hotel. There was no other guest in the hotel. They insisted on foot massage. I refused steadfastly. At Deepak someone was hawking hot water and foot massage down the corridor like one was in a suburban electric train. Once again I made myself endless cups of tea.

While I stayed at Holiday Inn I had my dinner at Deepak with the others. I was a lot more fresh the next morning when we started the slow climb to Hemkund. 

Day 3 - Ghangria to Hemkund and Back

Snapshot - Total walk - 6.5 km either way. Five hours to go up. A very back breaking steep climb up well laid out, wide path with lots of tea stops. Full of wild flowers and even a glacier. 

Here is a map of the one-way walk to Hemkund

 

The tenth Shikh guru, Guru Govind Singh had written about one of his previous incarnations when he spent his life meditating in the Himalayas. He described the place in detail and it is written down in the Granth Sahib. About 100 years ago a Sikh devotee went in search of the place and finally found this spot that he thought matched the description of Guru Govind Singh. A Gurudwara was built and it is now the famous Hemkund Sahib. The world's highest Gurudwara at more than 14000 feet.

The road is wide like on day 1 but a lot steeper. Mules are allowed on this pilgrimage trail. I saw many families including youngsters a third my age going on mules. I kept a slow but steady pace and kept walking. This side of the mountain also has lots of wild flowers. I was hoping that I would be able to see the Brahma Kamal and some Blue Poppies. Contrary to what I knew, Brahma Kamals are not found in the VoF because they don't bloom below 14000 feet or so. I was told it was too early to see Brahma Kamals. Mid August is the right time to see them, particularly around the lake.

And sure enough, we didn't get to see any Brahma Kamal. I guess I have to come here again. I did see some Blue Poppies on this trail. But the main highlight of this walk is the sight of a glacier by the side of the road from where a stream flows out. You can see the ice melting in droplets and becoming the fast flowing stream. 

There are many tea stalls along the way. I drank some tea at Rs 30 for a cup and kept walking. I met an elederly gentleman. He is 71 he said. Radhe Shyam Soori from Dehradun. He had retired about 11 years ago from a PSU bank. He was walking in ordinary trousers and a shirt. Like a standard office wear in India. He had ordinary sneakers on. He said his companions including two in their twenties have gone ahead on mules. I soon realised that he knew Bengali. It was amazing, given that he has never lived in Bengal. He learnt it from his neighbour who he seemed to have a lot of respect for. One Dr Raha who was one of the directors at Anthropological Survey of India in Dehradun. 

I told him that I knew lots of third generations non-Bengalis living in Calcutta who don't know a word of Bengali. He laughed at it. 

The Gurudwara in Hemkund can look rather underwhelming. It looks like a lotus of sorts with tin roof. It's right on the bank of a small glacial lake - the Kund. I could see glacial ice all around the lake (in the plains we would call it a largish pond). It was quite cold though not freezing. I found two sardars taking a dip in that glacial water. One of our fellow trekkers, young Shubham Baroi from Andaman was very keen to take one too. But he had not brought any towel. So he went in upto the knees only and quickly came out. 

It was raining most of the time during our hour-long stay there. I took a little khichdi from the langar. It was delicious. They also serve an extremely sweet tea. After spending about an hour or so I started my slow decent down the trail and reached Ghangria in decent time. There was no pain whatsoever in my knees.

The only negative thing about this walk was the use of microphone and loudspeakers at the Gurudwara. They were singing devotional songs that was audible throughout the walk. When one uses loudspeakers in such a serene surrounding devotional feeling is totally lost. But in India we love to make noise. 

Day 4 - Ghangria to Pulna and Farther On

We started our final day's walk early. We were to start by 6. I could hardly sleep as they required us to come for breakfast at 5.30 am. This meant I would need to pack up and be ready by 5.15 am. This in turn meant I would need to start packing by 4.30. Packing the sleeping bag seemed like an intimidating thought. To make matters worse the power went off in the middle of the night to never come back.

My cycling torch came in handy here. It gave me a room full of light for half an hour without a blink. I think it goes on for 2 hours. I had bought a candle in Govindghat but that turned out to be useless, as the light was very little. These are prayer candles and not meant for any practical utility. 

But I packed everything on time and reached Deepak. As usual, we never started at 6 but well after 6.40 or so. The trek down the valley was done in heavy rain. We stopped at a few places. Had tea twice. We reached Pulna and came to Govindghat by jeep.

From Govindghat we boarded the bus to go straight to Rishikesh. It was already well past 12 in the afternoon. Normally TTH takes its trekkers from here to Pipalkoti and then to Rishikesh the next day. As we lost a day in reaching Ghangria we decided to complete this two-day journey in one day.

However, we had a small problem. The road beyond Pipalkoti had a major lanslide zone and we would require to make a long detour of 100 km via Chopta as this section was going to take about a week to repair. This detour road is quite narrow but beautiful. Goes through lovely villages with terraced fields. They were looking beautiful with the soft light of the setting sun. 

Taken off the moving bus

Soon we drove into a massive traffic jam. Too many large buses with pilgrims on both sides caused the jam because it was really a narrow road that cannot accomodate such large buses. The administration was nowhere in sight in that forest. The drivers took turns to untangle the jam. It took about an hour and a half to clear that spot and come out into the empty road. It was already dark and we had 5/6 hours more of driving left to reach Rishikesh. 

On the way two sets of drama happened. A few of our fellow trekkers got very scared by the fast driving of our drivers. They complained to the TTH head office. The drivers got rebuked by their bosses and started driving very very slowly.

I have ridden thousands of kilometers in the Himalayas including in Nepal and Bhutan. I have personally driven in the Himalayas too - in India and Bhutan. And I am a very cautious and careful driver. While I wouldn't drive like these boys were doing, I didn't think they were driving dangerously. Of course I also told the driver to take it easy but complaining straight to the bosses is a little unfair. It is also true that I have travelled for thousands of kilometers in different parts of the Himalayas by bus and am quite inert. 

I think the drivers in the plains drive a lot more recklessly than the mountain drivers. But newbies to these roads wouldn't understand these nuances in driving.

The next set of drama happened when it started raining very heavily. This was around midnight. The two buses pulled up under the canopy of a closed petrol pump. Several fellow trekkers, I found were too scared to move forward in that inclement weather. The drivers also started saying there were a few landslide zones and were reluctant to drive in the darkness. I guess they wanted to take a nap, which is a reasonable need. In fact a sleepy driver is a very dangerous thing anywhere.

After much back and forth discussions and some frayed tempers it was decided that we would stop near a hotel and start early morning. All the passengers in our bus were willing to move forward. The other bus had everyone voting for a halt for the night. 

A few went and checked into the hotel. I thought it would be stupid to rent a room for 3/4 hours only @ Rs 1200. I slept on the floor of the parking lot of the hotel. It seemed a perfectly nice and well paved place for me to sleep. I have absolutely no qualms about such improvisations. 

I was a little upset with the timidity of some of my fellow trekkers. I later realised that they were mostly not only novices in terms of trekking, many were seeing Himalayas for the first time. They are from the drier regions of the country and have never even seen a proper rain. So naturally they got frightened. It is my mistake that I chose such a beginners' trek. Obviously my fellow trekkers in such a trek would be beginners.

Ironically enough the rains stopped when we decided to stop. And throughout the night we saw many vehicles plying in both directions. Going and coming to and from the so called landslide zone. 

Next morning we started again at around five-ish. We reached Rishikesh at seven or so. I spent the day sleeping in a hotel next to the TTH office and came home the next day by plane. I was originally booked in a train after two days. I cancelled it and booked a flight to Calcutta via Delhi.

So there ends my story. Now is the time to plan for the next trek. 

Planning for Valley of Flowers

I finally pulled the trigger on a trek. Just booked a train ticket to Haridwar followed by a slot with Trek The Himalaya for a Valley of Flowers trek. The journey from Calcutta starts on 18th July by Upasana Express (AC 2 tier) at 1 pm. I reach Haridwar on 19th July after a 26-hour journey. I stay for that day in Haridwar - a city I went with my parents back in 1976 and have fond memories of. Next day I go to Rishikesh and spend the day seeing the town around. Next morning, that is, on 21st July our journey starts at 6 am.

Day one is spent entirely on the road going from Rishikesh to Pipalkoti. I am told it's a 9-hour drive. Next day is a mix of drive and trek to Ghangria. The actual trek happens the day after. It's a day trip to the Valley of Flowers and back. Next day is again a day trip to Hemkund Sahib - a famous Sikh Gurudwara. The next day one comes back to Pipalkot (trek and drive) followed by the return to Rishikesh. I am yet to book the return ticket. 

My next priority will be to book the hotels in Haridwar and Rishikesh. For Rishikesh I will ask the trek cooridnator Ajay 7351523841. For Haridwar I am keen to stay at Jaipuria Dharmasala. That is where we had stayed in 1976. I remember it as being very neat and clean with excellent simple vegetarian food. It is right on the river bank with a railing around the private ghat of the hotel to take bath in the river. Haridwar incidentally is a vegetarian city. I am looking forward to its malai. Have to find out some traditional shop for them, like Pagla of Benares.

I think I first heard about Valley of Flowers trek while going to Langtang Lirung in mid 80s. Back then Pindari, VoF and Har ki Doon were popular treks for newbies. In 1998 Monisha and I went to Pindari but the other two remained elusive. 

In February this year I had gone to North Bengal bird festival and happened to hike to Rovers Point from Lepchakha. It's a short but steep hike that took us about an hour or so to cover. While coming down I had excruciating pain on the outside of my right knee. It took me double the time, if not more, to just walk down to Lepchakha. This is the same pain that had affected me during my cycling trip to Darjeeling. 

Of course I was out of practice for a long time and was dehydrated, which perhaps exacerbated the problem. After coming back I have been working on my legs on and off but also wanted to go for a short trek to check out my knees. But this is high monsoon and walking in eastern Himalaya is fraught with the dangers of heavy rain. So VoF seemed like a good choice. Rain here is also a threat but monsoon is the only time for VoF in any case. So I chose it. I am not going to take my long lens. Just the short lenses and the GoPro.

The fact that VoF is now in the UN World Heritage sites list (under the natural category) also helped me pull the trigger. I am very interested to tick off all the sites from that list. Among the natural sites I have only Great Himalayan National Park and this left. The others in the list that I have been to are Sunderbans, Kaziranga, Manas, Keoladeo and Western Ghats. The GHNP can be covered in a trek to Pin Vaba trek. Let me see how the knees behave.

I will now make a list of items to take for the trek.

Upper 

UA t-shirt - 1

Lee full sleeve - 1

Columbia Silver Ridge - 1

Bobby's black full sleeve - 1

Max spare t-shirt - 1

Lower

Blue Kappa - 1

Marmot - 1

Levi's brown corduroy - 1

Grey Slazenger - 1

Warm Garments

Blue Columbia upper inner

Columbia lower

Babusona jacket

Marmot jacket

Columbia rainpants black

Rain jacket (either Chenka's or buy from Columbia)

Accessories

Army cap

Rab buff

Gloves - outer and inner

Sandals Benetton

Inner Garments

Technical wool socks

Teco woolen

Normal sports socks - 5 pair

Briefs - 5

Vest - 3

Toileteries

Soap

Tooth paste and brush

Electric razor

Toilet paper - 1 roll

Vaseline/Nivea - 1

Medicines

Medical kit 

Electral - 10 packets

Electronics

Mobile phone

Charger with both cable types

Power bank

Torch

Watch

Ear phones

GoPro

Canon R7 with macro and normal lens

Equipment

Sleeping bag

Sleeping bag liner

Walking stick

North Face bag

Deuter red bag

Salewa Boots

My final packing list

Sunday, 9th July, 2023

I had almost given up the idea of going to the VoF trek. First there is this constant threat of monsoon and road blocks. Then there is Raja's daughter's birthday celebrations. I wasn't too enthusiastic about joining the trek. I had not even booked the return ticket. I think somewhere on the back of my mind that cloud burst accident is also playing its part. So many people died in that catastrophe. 

Finally yesterday I called up the trek coordinator about cancellation. He said if you want you can always cancel after paying the charges as per our policy (they'd give an 80 per cent voucher for some other trek), but road blocks are not there. All groups are going fine. He also asked me to join the whatsapp group.

After this talk I felt good and joined the wa group. I somehow felt connected and the urge to go got revived. Soon I booked the return ticket. I got confirmed booking only on 29th July. This means I will be reaching Calcutta on 31st July. Will be quite an ordeal to travel for 32 hours by train. Let's see. 

There are a few Bengalis in the group. One of them is a lady Shilpi Chowdhury. It was funny that initially she thought I was way junior to her. I don't know what made her think so. Because I don't have any profile picture of my own in my wa id. It's my mother's face there now. I did it after she expired on 9th May. 

There is another Bengali boy from Andaman. Two more guys are there but they are possibly from Tripura. Not that I always look out for Bengalis in such groups. I much prefer the Bangaloreans or Bombayites. 

Meanwhile, I bought the Columbia raincoat off Amazon, using vouchers. I have no idea how effective it is. Mampu's Marmot I found fits me quite fine. I am in two minds which one to take along. However, I have to check how well it will fit me once I wear the hiking layers. 

I am working on my leg strength and hoping that things will be fine. I am particularly working on the glutes and they have indeed responded positively so far. I have even started doing pistol squats. Not that I can do them perfectly but I am trying. I am sure if I keep at it I should be able to do it perfectly in a month or so. Of course it requires strength but it is more about balance than strength. 

I so wanted to buy the Eric Shipton book on Nanda Devi but it is prohibitively expensive. More than a thousand bucks. Absence of a good, easily accessible public library in our country makes it so difficult and expensive for us. Even the trade of second hand books is in the hands of the unorganised sector.. Very sad. 

July 30, 2023

I am back from a successful completion of the trek. We came down to Rishikesh on 27th morning. On 28th I took a flight to Calcutta from Dehradun and reached the city in the wee hours of 29th. I had cancelled the train ticket. Because otherwise it would involve staying there for two more days and then two more nights in train. In fact I would've reached tomorrow morning. 

I shall be writing a seperate blog about the trek and give the link here.

At Hemkund Sahib. 25th July, 2023

My Orchids

My friend Pradip Pal got me addicted to orchids. I had bought a couple of very small dendrobium orchids from Mukherjee Nursery in Shikharpur, when I went there with him in 2021 for the first time. I guess it was in the month of July or August. In the winter of 22-23, that is after about a year and a half, they finally flowered and I really fell in love with orchids. 

Now I wanted to have more orchids. What is there to not love orchids? They are not super difficult to grow and Pradip is there in any case to guide me. All they need is a little patience. Some of the varieties bloom in abundance and stay fresh for weeks on end.  My first big success had some 13 yellow and maroon flowers simultaneously in bloom for more than a month. And I had brought this plant home as a little baby.

The first bloom that hooked me

My first stop in my renewed enthusiasm was Click Orchid, again introduced by Pradip (or Pal Babu, as I call him). This is a very well organised orchid nursery in Siliguri with a very good website. I ordered for three dendrobium seedlings from them. I think this was in January 23. They have been repotted in earthen pots that Monisha and I bought from Behala and they have settled down just fine in this Calcutta weather. The names are written in small paper tags. They are Aridang Green (this is the most robust), Airway Blue and Juree Red.

Click Orchid is a very dependable nursery for orchids. They send the plants very well packed and are reasonably priced. Every packet comes with a starter kit of food and fungicide. They are also generally available for guidance on whatsapp or phone. I went for a repeat trip to Mukherjee in February looking for a pair of phalaenopsis. I ended up buying two phalaenopsis, another dendrobium and a vanda. But these were not seedlings. They were matured plants. The phals in fact had buds and flowered soon. Both the phals turned out to be of the same variety - purple. Mukherjee never told me the precise name. The vanda and the dendrobium are yet to bloom but they are anything but seedlings. I don't regret buying them because they are doing fine. But I wouldn't have bought them if I was buying online and alone.

Mukherjee's Phalaenopsis

So I remained on the lookout for seedlings because I was not satisfied and still didn't get what I was looking for. Orchid sellers generally push the grown up plants because they are more pricey. It is nice to have a few matured plants around the house, to be honest. That way you have some flowers blooming all the time. But I still wanted my seedlings, like the original first lot of dendrobiums were.

The challenge and satisfaction of growing a plant from its baby stage to flowering stage is something indescribable. I got lucky with my search a few weeks ago. 

First I found phalaenopsis seedlings with Click Orchid in early April. I ordered for three of them and they are right now on my bedroom window sill. I have kept them in their original transparent pots. They are on an old newspaper lest water seeps out. Since they are in sphagnum moss I am not watering them every day. They don't need it. In fact too much water might be harmful for them.

They have sent them to me in nice transparent pots, names clearly mentioned through code numbers (for decoding one has to refer to their invoice). The plants are in sphagnum moss. I am sure they can stay here for a year or so. Must check out with them for a clarification on this later.

The Click Orchid Phalaenopsis

Since I had a grown vanda hanging in the balcony I also kept looking for a few seedlings. I found them on a facebook group from a guy called Thampy Ap, who is from Kerala. I ordered for just two because this hobby is getting to be quite expensive for me now and I have to control the urge to spend. The Mukherjee trip cost me Rs 1700. Click Orchid so far is like two thousand rupees or so. Thampy charged Rs 250 for each vanda plus Rs 125 for courier. So I have already spent around Rs 4000 which is a lot of money. 

Thampy also seems to be a nice professional guy. A little non-responsive to messages but he packed quite well and labelled the plants nicely. I might buy a few more from him in future. His number is 7012657727. He is from Pathanamthitta, famous for Sabarimala temple. 

When Thampy advertised he just put a number against the flowers. From that I ordered for 2 and 7. One was blue and the other purple. Now I find the plants are labelled as Yano Blue and Pure Wax Blue. This Yano Blue is much larger with good rooting system. In fact it looks like two plants. They are in small baskets. 

I have kept them hanging off the bathroom's towel rod with galvanised wire. It was quite tricky getting them to stay erect. I also bought two larger baskets from Thampy for Rs 25 each. I intend to transfer the plants into them later. Before that I need to have hangers, which I ordered for from another Keralite called Sadanandan. His number is 9947520667. He is charging Rs 25 for each. I am getting ten of them plus courier of Rs 80.

Pure Wax Blue

Yano Blue

So that's my collection of orchids as of April 23. Two adult dendrobiums (from Mukherjee), three seedling stage dendrobiums (from Click Orchid), two adult phalaenopsis (from Mukherjee), three seedling phalaenopsis (from Click Orchid), two seedling vanda (from Thampy), one matured vanda (from Mukherjee) and one matured twisted dendrobium (from Mukherjee).

Sounds of Kakrajhore

The Spotted Owlet 

The Buru Sadam property where we stayed in Kakrajhore has three Mohul trees just outside its fence. After 5 pm on Sunday, our second day and the only full day of our stay there, I saw an owlet flying from one tree to the other. I went there armed with my camera but soon realised that it was too dark for any photography. I couldn't even properly see the bird.

It started calling in a harsh tone towards me. It was also looking straight at me with a quizzical look and bobbing its head up and down in a comical way. I should have immediately identified the bird because I have both heard and recorded this call before. It was a spotted owlet. But at that time I remained confused. 

When I was convinced that photography was impossible, I quickly went back to my room and brought the recorder and mic. The bird had flown back to the farthest tree but it soon came back to the front one and allowed me to record its call. 

I knew it was an owlet but was confused between jungle and spotted. Funny. I have both the recordings of these birds on Xeno-Canto. And even here in Kakrajhore I ended up recording both. While I could see the Spotted, I couldn't see the Jungle. It was calling from some distant perch in the forest. 

Here are both the recordings.

Kankrajhore 3=5 February 23

Kankrajhore is a small tribal village in the extreme south west corner of West Bengal, now in Jhargram district, bordering Jharkhand. It has about 4/5 places for tourists like us to stay. Resorts, you may call them. Other than that it has nothing. Absolutely nothing. Not even a small tea shop. For the three days that we stayed there we didn't see any commercial transaction happening anywhere. 

By our conventional standards it must be very poor. But I do not think the conventional standards or benchmarks for evaluating poverty and wealth should be used to judge the quality of life of the tribals here. The question is are they happy? We didn't stay there long enough to find answers to these deep questions. But the local population didn't seem very unhappy. Or it would have shown. 

Kankrajhore, it must be mentioned, was in the grip of a very violent Maoist movement for decades. Except for security forces no one went there for a couple of generations. Naturally, it is quite detached from the rest of the civilisation which I think has done it some good. Kankrajhore still retains its traditional way of life. It is reflected in everything around and most particularly in its traditional home architecture. You will thankfully not see a single ugly concrete building in Kankrajhore. All the village houses are traditional tribal buildings.

Phone connectivity is non-existant except for Jio. Perhaps BSNL also works but no one uses it any more. 

But what it has in abundance is natural rustic beauty and simple local tribal folks. It has silence. Something that is very rare in India these days. Kankrajhore is two kilometers away from Amlashole - a village that hit the headlines  a few years ago for hunger deaths. Locals say it was a hyped up incdient. The deaths happened due to consumption of poisoned country liquor.

Coming back to our trip - four of us went there for a very short weekend trip in the first week of February 23. Rituparno Majumdar, Prabir Mukherjee and Suman Das. Ritu is a geologist from Jadavpur University and now the eastern India head of Indian Bureau of Mines. He is quite junior to me. Prabirda is a retired government servant in his mid-sixties. They live in the Dum Dum area. Sumon is a financial adviser who lives in Garia. I got to know two of them - Sumon and Ritu - at the BWS Majua camp. Prabir-da came through Ritu. Two more persons were to go but were last moment drop outs. Sukanta - Ritu's neighbour and Shankha of Asansol (I knew them from the Majua camp). 

As things turned out I had to take my car out and do the driving duty. I gladly took the opportunity. I like to stay in control of my mobility. Sumon being a Garia-ite came to Rashbehari Morh and we proceeded towards Salt Lake Sector V to pick up Ritu from his office. We would pick up Prabirda from the airport area. Our target was to leave the city by 1-1.30 pm. I was a bit nervous about it because I do not like driving in the night. My speed suffers. And Kankrajhore would certainly take at least 6/7 hours. 

Ultimately all worked out fine and we reached our destination - Buru Sadam - before eight, despite the delay in starting off and the Fastag card fiasco where I was told at the toll gate there was no cash in my card (it's a very complicated process to fill cash into the card with 30 vehicles lined up behind you). Our route was like this. Calcutta - Kharagpur - Lodhashuli - Jhargram - Daijuri - Binpur - Shilda - Belpahari - Kankrajhore. The road condition was good. Last year after the Pujas we went to Ajodhya hills by taking a little different route. We chose to go via Kanak Durga mandir which is a left turn just before Jhargram. That route goes through beautiful jungles. This route, straight through Jhargram, is less desolate. 

The last bit from Belpahari to Kankrajhore - a distance of about 22 Km - was through a narrow road. On this road we stopped at a small hamlet called Bali Chuwa for tea. It was totally dark all around and only the shop had a small light but at least 10/15 locals. They gathered around us asking various curiosity questions like where we were coming from and where we would go. All of them were very obviously drunk and were  reeking of country liquor. 

There was a white cock there with one of its legs tied with a thin rope to the pillar. I asked if it was a fighter cock - cock fight with blades tied to their feet is a very popular sport among the tribals. The owner picked it up and said yes it was. There was some silent pride in his yes. Others were all praise for the cock saying it had won many fights. It was a winner. The owner quietly left the place with his cock in his lap as a mother holds her toddler. I was later told by someone else that here people are very protective about their prized possessions like a winner cock and they are also very superstitious. He possibly didn't want any jealous, evil eye to curse his cock and he thought I might cast some spell on the cock. Which is why he probably left.

Here I also met a youngish boy in his early twenties. He had a very nice athletic build and was wearing a jersey. He asked us where we were from. He said, "Oh Calcutta. I had just been there yesterday." I said for what? You went to play in some tournament? He said no I had an interview near EZCC. Now I got a bit curious. I said where did you have the interview? He said TCS. This was a jaw dropping moment for me. You have no idea how incongruous it sounded in that small tea shop in the middle of that darkness - both literally and figuratively. The boy soon disappeared somewhere behind the tea stall. 

I wished him well mentally  and after finihsing the extremely sweet tea we left Bali Chuwa. Our next stop was at Udul Chuwa. Another little hamlet. Here we saw a small sweet meat shop. We stopped to check out what they had. Two ladies were frying fresh goja. We had two each, fresh off the cauldron. It is perhaps the most delicious goja I have ever had. They didn't have rosogolla, as milk is in short supply they said. But someone showed us another shop which apparently seemed locally famous for rosogollas. We went there of course. The rosogolla turned out to be not that great. It tasted more like a soft danadar. 

Udul Chuwa had a small primary health center and these shops. Nothing else. We continued our drive through the pich dark road. A few motorcycles passed us from the other side and perhaps the odd car or two. There was nothing else. 

Buru Sadam is a small property being run by a young man from Jhargram called Kaushik Singha Biswas (8918952236). He studied in Ramkrishna Mission and is very pleasant to talk to. His hotel/resort/homestay is quite new, having started during Durga Puja of '22. It has two cottages with sleeping arrangements for four in each room. There are three permanent canvas tents as well that are slightly cheaper. The system of leaving open space for guests to put up their own tents, as is very common in the west, has still not caught on in India. 

Being new, the property is yet to have its own wooded areas or any major greenery. Kaushik has planted some trees. Hopefully in another few years it will not look so barren as it does now. The land used to be a stone quarry in the past. Bringing up a garden here will not be easy for him though. We advised him to try with local trees like saal and segun. I think he could do with some specialist advice on what to plant and how to take care of them. He is trying with Australian trees that can seriously jeopardise his water table underneath. I hope he can work it out for himself. He is a first generation hotelier and we must encourage such entrepreneurs. 

He seems like a bit of a reluctant entrepreneur. He doesn't have whatsapp or facebook and is generally absent on social media except for an instagram account. I don't really know how good that is for his business in today's world. But he was extremely coopoerative over phone when I called to understand the motor route to his property.

The cottages are built in the traditional local style and are quite tastefully done. They have decent, clean bathrooms with geysers. There is a dining room with spartan arrangements. There is ample space for parking. And it is just ootside the main village. As you come from Belpahari, it comes on your left hand side before the village.

Birding in Kankrajhore 

We had gone to Kankrajhore with the specific objective of birding. We wanted to see a certain owl, to be more precise. The Brown Wood Owl. It's not a very common owl. It's rather rare actually. In fact scores of birders from all over West Bengal and perhaps outside have come to Kankrajhore to see it. The owl can be seen in a particular wooded area there around dusk. When we arrived it was well past dusk but in our enthusiasm we went ahead to check out the place even late in the evening. It's about two kilometers from Buru Sadam, near a Shiva temple inside the forest. There is an eerie feeling when you reach the old temple in the middle of the jungle. The owl was calling from a tree nearby but we couldn't see it. After more than an hour of desperate effort to see the single owl we gave up hope of seeing it came back walking. 

An almost full moon in a clear sky showed us the way. We had to cross a small rivulet of sorts on the way to the temple. The walk in itself was very pleasant and made our appetite strong. We gorged on the very homely and well cooked food with country chicken (as opposed to the broiler chicken we are used to) and daal and some tarkari. All this was served with a lot of homely care.

There was a general helper whom Kaushik was calling Khuro (uncle). There was a male cook and a female maid to wash the plates and utensils. They were all very polite in the typical tribal tradition that makes them so loveable.

Incidentally, we were the only guests at the property which made our stay all the more pleasant. 

Next morning after a hearty and simple breakfast we went straight to the temple area. In fact that's the only place for birding in Kankrajhore. We saw a couple of Malabar Pied Hornbills, grey hornbills and a jungle owlet. Many Alexandrine parakeets were flying around. They are all very vocal, as usual. This is the time of the year when they pair up. Of course there were rose ringed parakeets also and other usual suspects like red vented and whiskered bulbuls. 

There is a narrow and winding jungle path that leads upto a river. I think it is the same river that we were crossing from another side while coming to the temple.