Recently I was feeling very tired and I was not satisfied with my company.  So one day I left my company and decided to go for a trip near the sea.  I thought the best thing would be a short 2-day trip to the beautiful silvery sandy beach of Bakkhali, which is near the Bay of Bengal in West Bengal.  A short trip helps us refresh your mood and you start afresh with a lot of energy in your profession.  This is what I expected from this short trip of Bakkhali.   I remembered the famous line from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s ‘Rime of Ancient Mariner’:  “Water, water everywhere…. not a drop to drink.”

I decided to go with my father who works in a college at Howrah.  His life is easy ….rather easier than me as he works in a government sponsored college.  I  work in a private company where I work for 10 hours a day and in 3 shifts.  So after a continuous work of 2 years, I needed a break.  I needed a break badly and I was also not very much satisfied with the company.  I took this vacation as a breather and a rejuvenator in my life. 

I planned to stay in a Bakkali Tourist Lodge which is under the West Bengal Tourism Development Corporation in India.  I chalked out of staying there in the lodge for 3 days and 2 nights.  I embarked on my journey on 16th May and decided to get out of Bakkali on the 18th.  On the morning of 16th, I took a bus from Esplanade in Kolkata.  Esplanade is a wonderful place in Kolkata where there are lovely shopping malls, nice hotels like Grand Hotel and lovely music CD shops like Symphony.  There are also restaurants serving palatable foods of different parts of India.  There is a government bus terminus where West Bengal Surface Transport Corporation buses are  waiting for the long distance trips like Bakkhali.  The West Bengal Government tourism website link is:  http://www.wbtourism.com/

West Bengal tourism, holidays, hotel booking and package tours in West Bengal can be found from this website:

http://www.t2westbengal.com/

I packed my bags taking all the necessary items like camera, clothes, story books, and other things.  I also helped packing my father’s belongings.  I planned to get to the terminus around 6:30 in the morning.  So I went out from my home taking a small breakfast and some food in the journey to fulfill the hunger of the breakfast of 9 a.m.  I came out from my home at 6 a.m. along my father and went to the terminus.  I found the bus has less passengers at the terminus.  I bought tickets for Rs. 70 each.  I boarded the bus.  The bus has a typical sky blue color in the body with the words of West Bengal Surface  Transport Corporation written prominently in its body.  The seats are comfortable.  There is hardly any discomfort I faced along my 4 and half hour journey.  Bakkhali is 127 km from Kolkata.  The bus has a good speed.  Many people are boarding the bus in the mid way.  I passed beautiful green fields and I passed by many rural bazaars.  The heat is scorching at noon when the bus was passing through the open paddy fields on both sides of the metalled roads. We went through Behala and Thankurpukur.  We crossed the huge campus of Indian Institute of Management, Joka.  We passed by a big hospital at Joka.  We crossed a river called ‘Hatani-doani.’  Our bus waited near the bridge of this river.  Then I was surprised to see there is a large jetty which is carrying carts loaded with vegetables, buses, and cars.  One can imagine the strength of the jetty which is carrying such a huge load.  I had the fear whether we might get drowned.  But safely we reached the other side of the river and then we reached our destination. I wonder why they don’t build a bridge there. I reached the bus terminus around 11:30 in the morning.  I reached the lodge with my father with the trolley van which is the mode of transport in Bakkali.  In Kolkata, we have the rickshaw.  In this trolley vans, you can sit comfortably while in the rickshaw if 2 persons are obese, it is hard to sit comfortably.  Here more than 2, say 4 people can sit comfortably.    The roads in Bakkhali are nicely made and nicely metalled.   The local houses are mud walls with thatched straw roofs.  The buildings we see in Kolkata are only seen as tourist lodges.  There are lovely tourist lodges.  The government tourist lodge is costlier than the private ones but the food made in the government lodge is delicious!

Our tourist lodge has a large compound with cemented walls on the side of the narrow metalled road while the other side is covered with dense green jungles.  Two rooms are there, one is deserted and the other used to have a generator at the time when there was no electricity in the area.  This government tourist lodge was established in the year 1972.  The  rooms in the tourist lodges are partly full.  This is the off season.  According to the officials, the lodge is filled during winter.  As we enter the tourist lodge compound, one finds a cactus tree with thin needle like leaves.  This tree has medicinal properties.  There is a Madhabilata plant with lovely orange colored flowers.  There is a swing in the campus.  There is a big pond in the campus where the sea water comes and fills the pond during high tide.

The places of interest in Bakkhali have been listed in the government tourist lodge.  They are as follows:

1.       Frezerganj 6 km long beautiful silver sand beach.

2.       18-headed palm tree.

3.       Jammu island (from October to February by boat).

4.       Frezerganj fishing harbor.

5.       Henry watch tower.

6.       Mohana (3 km).

Bakkhali is 127 km from Kolkata located near the Bay of Bengal.  Its post office is Laksmipur Prabartak.  Its is South 24 Parganas, pin 743357.

After our lunch, we took some rest in the room.  The room is single with 2 beds and an attached bathroom.  There is a long corridor from where we can see the green gardens and the ponds and the jungles nearby.  We could hear the roaring sound of the sea which is very close.  We slept for about an hour and went out for a stroll in the beach.  The beach was big with water very far as it is low tide.  There are many ghost crabs and red crabs scattered around the beach.  The beach has silver sands and the sun is not so hot but the wind is not there.  But on the next day evening on May 17, there was pleasant cool wind.  On the morning of May 18, we got drenched in the rain on the sea beach.  As I was walking on the beach, I found a big ship probably used for fishing, which was deserted in 2004, the date of which has been painted at the body.   If  we go a little further, we can see the temple of forest goddess or “Bonbibi.”  The temple is built in the forest with tall trees.  The temple has a thatched straw roof with mud walls.  The temple opens in the morning at 6 and closes as the sun sets.  Local people take care of the temple.  The red crabs are seen everywhere on the beach.  They hide into their hole as soon as we approach them. All over the beach is full of small holes in which these crabs are playing a hide-and-seek game!   

On 17th May we visited the beach and took tea.  I took some photos of the beach.  We went to Frazergunj.  We visited the sea beach there and took the photos of wind mills.  There are beautiful green fields and wonderful places of fishing ponds where fishes are cultured.  We visited Henry’s Island Fisheries Project.  The entry fee is Rs. 5 and it is 10 km from the  government lodge at Bakkhali.  We visited the watch tower from where I took pictures of green forests and far away seas.  There is also a tourist lodge by government and it costs Rs. 500 per day.  We traveled in the cart pulled by a person called Jaideb who took Rs. 80.  We enjoyed watching ‘galda’ prawn, tangra, ‘bhetki’, ‘bagda.’  I took the photo of a eucalyptus tree.  This tree has wonderful silvery stem when the bark falls, it shines like silver in the sunlight.

After visiting Bakkhali and interecting with local people, I found that the local people go for primary education in the schools which are very small and they go to big town for further studies.  The profession in which the local people are engaged are as follows:

1.       Fishing.

2.       Mud-cutting.

3.       Green coconut selling.

4.       Grocery.

5.       Sea shell decorative items business.

On 18th May, I took the West Bengal State Transport Corporation bus, a very comfortable bus which took us from a point near the tourist lodge.  I boarded the bus at 12:30 p.m.  The bus started at 1 p.m. Inside the bus I met a German social worker named Maurice.  He is young man who can speak with my pleasant surprise, my mother tongue, Bengali.  He insisted me to speak Bengali.  I was simply surprised.  I was so happy to find a man who loves my mother tongue.  He stays in Bangladesh and has come to India for his trip to Bakkhali.  We also had the opportunity of listening to “ektara,” a one string instrument.  This instrument is made by making the pumpkin hollow and making it dry in the sun.  A stick is attached and a string.  People use their finger to strike the string and a tune is produced and singers called popularly as “baul” sing melodiously with this “ektara.”  It is seen when you visit a rural place of India.  In fact my trip to Bakkhali has been a wonderful experience.  It helped me surpass the monotony of my routine life in a back office.  I then came to Kolkata and submitted my camera reel to a photo shop for the preparation of photo which will be prepared within a day and I will share my lovely photos with my friends in ORKUT, MYSPACE, etc.