About Dhaka, and my Grandfather...

Have you ever missed someone you have never met? Wished that you were around the person for at least sometime, so that you had tales to tell to the next generation? And also pondered over the simplistic achievements of the earlier era and hoped that even a percent of their goodness was imbibed in you?

My relation with my grandfather is a culmination of the feelings above. He was from Bikrampur, Narayanganj. Tall, fair, dhoti-half shirt-shoes clad, expletives-speaking, stereotypical "bangal" of early 1900s, started his career in 1936, crossed the border in 1948 with my beautiful grandmother in tow as refugees. Grandmother herself was from Rangoon (Burma), moved to Dhaka during World War II, married and shifted to India with her husband. Their refugee certificates state them as East Pakistan residents.

Amongst the new professions of that period, my grandfather was a photographer. He learnt the art in Doss company (Azimpura, Dhaka). With the early horizontal black-box cameras and a few years of employment in Doll Studio (Park Street, Kolkata), he visited Burnpur for Industrial photography, following which the family shifted to Burnpur and opened the first photography studio in the small steel city.

I have heard innumerable anecdotes from Baba about his skills, the small shop with tin roof, his tools (one of the antiques still exist within the family) and the rented house where they stayed for 42 years! My initial memories also revolve around that house, where even I have stayed for the first few years of my life.

The feelings were rekindled recently when Baba was discussing the announcement of the discovery of the Higgs Boson. Satyendranath Bose's 1924 research that created the Bose-Einstein Statistics, build the foundation for Bosons. Bose did his research in Dhaka  and grandfather was his personal photographer. Baba still has the certificate given to grandfather by Bose, amongst the various other memoirs.

Grandfather's skills were not restricted to Bose. He had accompanied General Ayub Khan (later president of Pakistan) for three months in his camps. Manipur's Raja-Rani had offered him to move to the state after seeing his work. He had clicked Sharmila Tagore's childhood pictures, when her dad was posted in Asansol Railways. Asha Pareekh's bengali-style saree clad picture, and bit of still photography work with Meghnad Saha (as assistant still photographer) and photographer in Eastern Talkies is also in his list. And finally Nehru, when he visited to inaugurate Mython Hydroelectric plant (DVC). The list goes on, and I remember this few.

His good nature and professionalism is what people remember him by. Sadly, the small shop he had opened up burnt down and most of his works extinguished with it. Baba had to rebuild the venture from scratch, a loss he regrets till date.

Such times bring such a hollow feeling, an indefinable emptiness, to reach out and live the un-missed moments, get pampered for a few years, just to be able to recount the love, affection and simplicity of the person who passed on his genes to you. Wish he had known that his granddaughter will be on her way to the world! Lots of struggle and ups and downs later, he gave in to his health at the age of 51, ensuing another life of struggle for Baba, who was just 17 then. Well, that is another story altogether :)

The professional success of the period was more towards sustaining families. To pull through the emotional and financial burden of leaving everything behind and begin afresh in a new country. The unsung heroes, the common man, faded away to obscure corners of the hearts of family members. The dedication of the genre of that age was so profound, their art and intelligence was several strata above what we can ever imagine to possess. Hats off to what we call the older generation.

I have promised myself to visit Dhaka (and Bikrampur) at least once in this lifetime, as an ode to the man I am proud to call my grandfather. All I can say about him is that the yearning is going to live and die with me - the remorse of never having seen him and the complaint against God, for taking him away so soon! I guess even He wanted some nice portraits to be clicked :)

Trip to the land of clouds! – I

A much awaited and wondrous voyage to the Scotland of India – two days seemed so less.

I am talking about Coorg guys and after a long time, words fail me! Even as I write this travelogue, I am apprehensive that I won’t be able to do justice to the small town nestled in the hills.

For a change, we had made extensive planning of the places we would like to visit and on which days, where to stay (which we inevitably ignore every time), when to start exactly, and when to return – all courtesy my cousin. We were a group of five hence booking a Qualis seemed to turn out cheaper than taking a bus. At a decent rate of 6.5 bucks per km, we were quite happy with the deal.

After a lot of debates, we finally left at 4.30 am on Saturday morning (22nd Aug) with plans to reach the home-stay by 10 am. After reaching Madhekeri, we realized that our abode is another 30+ km towards Talacauvery (I’ll come back to these places again). With the hilly road conditions, it was almost 11 am when we reached Mount Grass – our home-stay – and received a very warm welcome and a hot breakfast by our hostess.

Even before site-seeing, the thing that really excited us was Coorgi food. It is a non-vegetarian’s paradise, and you need to be a complete foodie and a glutton to visit Coorg. Our hostess prepared a breakfast of dosa, a sumptuous lunch of fish and mutton, there was snacks in between and for dinner (hold your breath) pork and chicken!!! Of course the guys hogged to their hearts’ content, I went to bed without dinner after the heavy snacks.

One can comfortably stay and relax in Coorg for a week. An amazing backdrop of mountains with clouds creating a misty hat, the harvest green in front of your eyes, and the constant spring weather with mild drizzles, all you need is a book and your loved one with you. Trust me, you will just not feel like returning. We have already vowed to make a longer trip soon!

For a hastened site-seeing three days is optimal. To list down a few places – Talakavery, Dubare, Abby Falls, Raja’s Seat, Madhikeri Fort, Golden Temple, Nagarahole National Park, and Bhagamandala (Sangam).

I’ll explain each locale in the follow-up of this article. Till then relish the idea of enormous meals, lazy life amongst hills, reaching out to the clouds, a book, mild music in the background, and croaking of frogs and insects’ buzz at nightfall – heavenly combo!

Trip to the land of clouds! – II

A little delay in the follow up to our Coorg trip, but hope you can refresh your memory from the 1st part of the article. Yummy food, wonderful mountainside and cozy town, that’s all I can harp on again and again. So before you get totally pissed, let me take you to the details of the site-seeing that I mentioned last time.

As I said, we were staying in a home-stay which was just 15 km from Talakavery, it was the first place we visited the day we arrived in Coorg. It is the place where Cauvery River originates and every October on a particular day, water gurgles out of a hole in the ground.

Our hostess / aunty asked us to be there around 4 pm so that we can experience cutting through white fog and rain. Well, she was mostly right because the feeling of driving though sheer cloud is something beyond words! What we missed out on was the climb up 380 stairs at Talakavery. It supposedly gives a panoramic view of the valley below, which the cloud had completed shrouded.

I missed out Bhagamandala / Sangam before Talakavery, which is around 8 km before the latter site. Bhagamandala is a temple set amongst cloud covered mountains and overseeing the confluence of three rivers (though one of the rivers is hidden). The temple itself is very peaceful and beautiful.

Next day we went to Abby Falls, a dangerous but picturesque waterfall. It is known to devour quite a few adventurous ones every year if you are not careful enough. There is no direct access to reach the water, though a bridge is made across it and you can actually feel the water spray at you even when you are standing 100 feet away. All these sites have their own history and lore, so it will be quite interesting if you keep a tab on the trivia for each place.

Raja’s Seat or the sunset point is well-known for its expansive view of the mountains and the wide open greenery across the valley. Due to the on-and-off rains and the fog, we couldn’t manage to see the sunset but the columns of clouds over the mountains were a view in itself. It looked as if the fog is streaming down in pillars and trying to touch the ground. Plus the lush green is simply breathtaking!

Dubare forest, more famous for its elephants, is a place where you can feed the mammals, watch them take baths, ride them and play with them. I was really excited about the place since white water rafting is also present here. But tough luck, we reached the place around 3 pm and the elephant camp gets over by 12 noon. We asked around for rafting, it was 700 bucks per person for a 7.5 km distance and 1.5 hours of dashing across the water. But it started pouring and my desire to go for rafting also went unfulfilled.

Golden temple – my, what an architecture that is! Our initial plans were to skip it, thinking it to be just another temple, but we would have really missed out on the trip if we hadn’t visited it. Vibrant and colourful to the core, this Buddhist monastery reminded us of Sikkim or any North Eastern town. In fact the whole area around the temple was Buddhist settlement, which gave a religious and heavenly charm to the place.

We didn’t have time to visit the other two famous places – Madhikeri Fort and Nagarahole National Park – due to time constraint, but went to see the lighting at Mysore Palace on our way back.

We came back with lots of fresh, aromatic spices, tea and homemade chocolates in our bag. Overall, it was an excellent trip. Two days seemed so less! Three long weekends are coming up guys; the small town nestled in the hills is definitely worth a visit.

Link to our Coorg pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/sanjula.guha/Coorg2223Aug0903#

Into the Wild – II

The subject sounds like an animation movie sequel but I’ll only be concluding my trip to Sundarbans in this article. In the last article, I took you through how to reach there, the accommodations, and the time you need to take off from office to visit the land of tigers.

The best thing that I liked about Sundarbans is the vast greenery, clean blue sky, and the innumerable islands that form the complete forest area. It has around 200 islands, which are part of both India and Bangladesh. Then there is the rise and fall of tide, the water recedes early in the morning and by late evening, you can hear the gurgling of the water almost near the hotel where you put up.

A couple of items you should buy from the place are – honey and tiger paw prints. You get the purest of honeys in the area, fresh from the forests. The paws are imprints taken to determine the number of tigers alive in the area, as well as the sex of the beasts. These two things make for a perfect visit, a memorabilia of the place and a feeling of being as close as possible to the ‘wild’.

Amongst the places to visit, there is a museum at Shojnekhali, Hamilton’s bungalow in Gosaba, tower at Sudhanna Khali from where you can see the animals at large, and Sonakhali where there are some guest houses and small shops. Barriers and check points stand tall in Sudhanna Khali from where you might get to see some deer and if you are extremely lucky, a tiger. The most adventurous part is that all these spots can be reached only through water body.

And don’t think that your day of fun ends at sun-down. If you are willing to take a little pain, you can contact the Forest Officer and obtain permits for tiger-watching at night. But the chance of catching one in action is almost nil. You can also spend the evening around a nice and cozy bonfire with a guitar and a bottle of beer.

Sundarbans is a haven for bird watchers and photographers. Migratory birds are pretty abundant here, displaying their multi-coloured plumes. The sunset and sunrise gives picturesque view of the extended Bay of Bengal. The golden reflection of the sun poses a fantastic catch for a photographer.

A word of caution: drink safe. Even though the place is a government aided tourism haunt, the water used for cleaning utensils in the boats is from the river where all these steamers function. Also, if you are sea-sick, you might come back with an upset tummy, so keeping some medicines and bottled water at hand will be useful.

I know too much packing and planning ruins a trip, but trust me, for some trips you have to have prior knowledge to enjoy a comfortable and fruitful holiday. Sundarbans is one of those. Have fun!