When the Going Gets Tough....

Well, to start with, the name of this article is way over the top! But with 'Laila' looming large and making all the headlines for the wrong reasons, and we were targeting to travel right into the eye of the cyclone on the weekend, and travelling with my sexagenarian parents, with my father being hyperglycemic and a hypertension patient, and our atypical 5 year old son to add to it, and,.... well that's all really. So, in effect, it was really a challenge for us, and it was not until the last moments of the Friday afternoon that we had finally decided to give our trip to Tajpur, one of the newest, beaches of South Bengal, yet to be commercialised properly, the Green Signal.

Lets start from the beginning really! We had planned a rather sedate weekend trip to Shankarpur, a calm sea beach near Digha, and away from all the commotion of a bustling sea shore. The train tickets were booked, and the preliminary talks with the Hotel we had planned to stay on had been done. But things started to get bumpy on the day we had to book the Hotel; we had to take the news that the whole of the Hotel was booked for some corporate meeting. I am personally a person who loves to plan ahead, and really work according to it, hence the thing I like least are surprises in the schedule. So, I was taken aback the most and had difficulty in looking for options straight ahead. But a group effort led us to look at the options.

1. Cancel the trip, and cancel the train tickets - No way, we have to go!

2. Look for some other place to stay - None in Shankarpur are worth staying for 2 nights over the weekend!

3. Plan back to Digha - Oh no, not Digha, again. I don't like the crowd that appears there every weekend!

4. Look for other places around - Tajpur? Never heard of it!So the research began.

Baba started the old fashioned way, looking through his books and the travel journal he subscribes to, and I delved into the Net. Not much was available in both about Tajpur, the best details was in a site named caravanbiking.com. Here is what they had to say;

Quote:

Incredibly, “A beach for yourself”. In fact, one may get a feeling of “owning” the beach. Tajpur is one of the most beautiful and lonely beaches in India. Tajpur beach is in the Purba Medinipur district of West Bengal, one of the southern districts. It is about 180 KM from Kolkata. It lies on the Kolkata – Digha route and just 5 KM from Chaulkhola near Mandermoni.
Tajpur is one of Bengal’s recently discovered tourist destinations that lies close to ever-popular Digha and Shankarpur. This beach is slowly becoming popular among the tourists. The casuarina trees, kissed by the gentle breeze at Tajpur is a soothing sight. If you want a beach for loneliness and peace, Tajpur is the definite choice for you.

Unquote

It seemed lucrative enough for us to replan and relocate our travel destination altogether!
The weekend before the trip, we got something more to cheer. The best selling local daily had a piece on Tajpur, describing its fantasies, and the latest attraction of para-sailing and kayaking that is happening there every weekend.

But the week started off with all the news headlines being hogged by "Laila"! And I was almost tracking the cyclone myself with all the Internet facilities available! How far it is from Bengal? What are the chances that it re-emerges in South Bengal with renewed vigour? These were the major queries that went across our discussions the whole day. Was the trip happening? Well in the Friday evening, as always, my father had the last say in the matter. We were going, Laila or no Laila, and as the chances were more for the latter, we were preparing ourselves for a drizzle in the seashore. So, Tajpur here we come!

We came very near to missing the trip altogether, as my alarm in the mobile misfired, rather, I almost blew it! I had set my alarm at 4:50 in the morning as we had to leave the house at 5:30 am to be safe. But since my alarm was programmed to go off only on weekdays, which definitely does not include Saturdays, the alarm did not go off! It was our driver who woke us up! And we almost ran out in our pyjamas, well almost!

We reached the station with less than half an hour to spare. My parents were at the verge of getting tense about our absence on time, as by knowing me, they were expecting me to arrive, like always at least half an hour before time. But, whew, we made it before the train started, actually with plenty (?) to spare. For a change, the train journey was as event-less as it may be, and possibly the only section of our journey which had no surprises.

We reached Digha on time, and the car from the Hotel was there to pick us up. After a pleasant half an hour ride we reached Tajpur, and Hotel Swapnapuri. Swapnapuri literally means dreamland. The first look gave me the feeling, "If this is a dream, who needs a nightmare"! It looked shabby, and pretty much under construction, as if it is yet to be officially open for public stay. But to my utter dismay, inside the main gate, it was crowded! An almost full situation.

And as advertised, this is the best place in Tajpur in terms of facilities. And the ad line flashed back in memory, 'Tajpur - Close to nature!' Too close for my comfort at least. Well to say the truth, we the civilised (!) people have got into the habit of living a civilised life so hard, that even a small slip from that base platform hurts us hard. Well, I had my excuses as usual for being complaining as I have said before, refer to the second sentence of the first paragraph.

The best news was that there was no Laila, and the weather was practically very romantic. The sun rarely peeped through the thick cloud cover. Yet it provided us with a grand sunset on Sunday. And there was an intermittent light drizzle, more like a soft water-spray! The only heavy rain occurred on Saturday night, and lasted for around an hour or so. And it added to the spice! The only down point was the humidity, and the lack of the normal strong sea breeze. But it was better than the summer sun belting down the vast expanse of the sandy beach.

The sea at Tajpur had three different views! One from the nearest point from Swapnapuri, one from the Mohana, and the last from near the 'baandh'. We visited the one nearest to the Hotel we stayed after a brief rest on the same morning. And we were pleasantly surprised. It had some strange uniqueness. The Water was extremely "muddy", yes muddy, with chunks of mud scattered across the whole of the beach which we initially mistook for pebbles. We came to know later that this was the result of a dredging operation of the nearby canal. So, straight away, bathing was out of question.

We came back to the Hotel for lunch, which was good, and actually the food was the best thing that the hotel had to offer, with the service they provided, and the effort they put to make us happy with the limited resources they had. The afternoon went about in a leisurely manner, and the evening with a stroll at the path around the jhaubon (Casurina trees). Dinner followed, and then the heavy shower to cool things off.

Next morning, after a heavy breakfast, we arranged for the local transport, a motor operated rickshaw (photo attached for easy understanding) to go to the Mohana. And it was a nice place, the beach was extended almost upto infinity, the low tide added to this emptiness. This vast expanse of emptiness was very fulfilling! There were no tourists on a beautiful Sunday morning, yet at a distance, across the canal on the other side, the crowd at Mandarmani was just visible. The weather also added to the charm, even at a late morning almost midday time, the surrounding had a misty effect due to the extra cloud cover and the heavy humidity. we left the place as the arrangements for the para-sailing and the kayaking(?) started. I was not interested, and have the same feeling as our dear old captain Haddock had about the dear old earth after his trip to the moon!!!

The Afternoon we went to the other side of the sea with our local transporter, where there has been construction of dykes, or baandh as it is locally referred to, is in construction, to protect the inland from Laila-like-situations! The sea was at its best here, choppy, with the high tide setting in. The beach was also less muddy. And the just at that moment a slight drizzle set it, which explains the raincoat that Debarghya is wearing.

The Evening came in fast, and the night followed faster. Next morning came, and it was already ready to leave. The initial complaining mode had somehow dissolved into the salty water of the sea to produce a satisfied contented feeling. The initial rage and disgust has mellowed down and metamorphosed in to a happiness which was catalysed by the calmness in the atmosphere. Well, as wisemen (Joan W. Donaldson and originally recorded by Billy Ocean, and recreated by Boyzone) said, When the going gets tough, the tough gets going! Did it mean that as the going at Tajpur was tough, we were going back from there? You will never know.....