 |
| 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.
