A trip worth mentioning

It was a long weekend after a very long interval of time. Plans to do something special, probably do a road trip to somewhere close to kolkata, were on for long back. Few places that came into consideration were North Bengal, Sikkim, Shillong, Bhutan and even Nagaland. The last three never got a second consideration because of their unknown journey routes. We kept on discussing North Bengal and Sikkim for long but thanks to the elections and separatist movement in Darjeeling (Gunjan came up with these points) we dropped the plans to these two places. Even I was partly responsible for us not going there. My own travel plans to home was pretty undecided. Finally, one day before the Labor day, we decided that we should atleast go to some nearby tourist spot, and the first thing that came to our mind was Bokhhalli. That was going to be an outing after a long interval of time. Last time we visited Digha and Shankarpur (Gunjan was committed then, now he is committed to getting committed). Cab was booked, bags were packed, sunglasses were on and we started off for Bokhhalli. The journey was pretty descent barring a few nearly missed accident chances. We got a opportunity to have a look at the gates of the temple that we always aimed for IIM,Joka. A small ferry ride to cross the river and 40 more kilometers, we were at Bokhhalli Beach now.
We suddenly realized that we all were very tired ( I badly needed a place to release my pressure off) and we need a place to freshen ourselves. Hotel Babylon was selected for the purpose. We got the room at dirt cheap price. A nice breakfast followed the much needed freshening up process. The next destination was Henry Island. That was one good beach. You need to walk approximately one kilometer amidst bushes to reach the beach and I believe the walk was worth. White sand beach, full of Red crabs and four of us were the only living human species there on the beach. The view was simply awesome and the experience enriching. The next stop was Jumbu Dweep, the most interesting and happening part of the journey. This place was important for me because I knew this name since my childhood (My family Panditji referred to this name in the beginning of almost all the Pujas to represent India).
We hired a private boat (Jetty as they call it) and four of us started our journey towards JD (Jumbu Dweep). Intitally for some 15 minutes, we were in Ganga sailing smoothly. Clouds were on and cool wind was flowing making the journey even smoother. Little did I realize then that the later 40 minutes of journey was going to be hell. As soon as we crossed the river Ganga and entered the Bay of Bengal, the fun quotient started dipping. Initial 10 minutes were scary. The jetty was swinging in a simple harmonic motion and the swing was extreme. Two of the four were not at all enjoying the ride, which was me and gunjan. For the other two, rhea and anu, the ride was complete fun. I remember, me and gunjan were trying our best to keep our hold intact on the sole pole in the center of the jetty. I don’t know how to swim, but that was not the real problem. Even if I had known swimming I would not have been able to anything to save myself or others in case of accident (which looked pretty evident to me then). With every passing moment I was thanking god for keeping me alive for one more second. By then even the jetty driver started to enjoy my terror stricken face and most probably started to shake the jetty even more. That was for sure intentional. Even Sajal Sir appeared in my mind once for his most famous words “water water everywhere, not a drop to drink”. Drinking water there was never an intention. But the shear presence of millions of liters of water around us which looked more like some semisolid paste of water and sand ready to swallow whatever falls in it, made me remember all the good and bad deeds of mine of my lifetime. For the first time I started to believe that there might be “Darr ke aage Jeet” but “Galla sabka sukhta hai” is not the only thing that happens. Your pulse rate starts surging. You tend to sweat even in the windiest conditions. Pictures of your family photograph starts flashing in your head. You start remembering all the amazing things that has happened to you in your life. Finally somehow we managed to reach the island. Once again, we were the only people on the island (barring one stray dog, I wonder how he reached there). The thirty minute stay there was fun. For the first time I experienced water surrounding me from three sides. Mainland India was far away, not in sight. I enjoyed the return journey from JD a lot. The fifty minutes of return was calm, silent and non scary. I slept all through the journey leaving it all to god. In total, that was one awesome day of fun, the perfect kind to say alvida to kolkata which was my home for almost three years.