Wednesday, March 30, 2016

A Day by the River at Geonkhali


West Bengal has several hidden gems for the last-minute traveler.  Some of these places are tucked away in a quiet countryside by the side of a river but in close proximity to Kolkata and connected by good motorable roads.  One such place is Geonkhali near Haldia- 105 km from Kolkata.  The mighty Rupnarayan and Hooghly rivers meet here and flow southward where it further meets the Haldi river before draining in to the Bay of Bengal.   There are traveler reviews available on the internet about the place, and I have visited it once many years ago to see a water treatment plant which operates from here.  I remembered the majestic span of the river and the Haldia Development Authority’s Triveni Sangam Tourism Complex at the confluence.  This weekend, I arranged for a booking there and started at 9 am from Kolkata.  The 50 km drive to Kolaghat along NH-6, the 29 km drive from there to Nandakumar Roundabout along NH41, then the 14 km drive along State Highway 4 via Mahishadal and the last 2 km along the river embankment was smooth and pleasant.  The roads are lined with greenery- both vegetation and agriculture- which makes it soothing to the eyes.  During a quick stop at a tea stall in a roadside market, a vendor educated me about how green coconut exteriors are getting a burnt look from cell phone tower radiation.  I have trouble digesting the theory, but I know that this is a widely prevalent belief and certainly makes for a jolly good conversation.  We reached by noon, perfectly timed to walk in to a ready room.  The Complex is located on the edge of the river’s turn in a very large parcel of land with lots of open space, plantation, a large boating pond.  However, the maintenance leaves much to be desired.  





Lunch was served within an hour- the beckty fish cooked with mustard tasted quite good.  After an hour of rest, we started off for the ferry ghat located near Geonkhali village market.  There are separate jetties in the vicinity for three destinations on the other side of the river- Noorpur, Gadiara, and Raichak.  We chose the Noorpur ferry.  The ferry was good sized, but the boarding method was a precarious plank of wood with a bamboo pole as hand rail- the latter being held in place by the boatman’s shoulder at one end and the stairs leading down to the river at the other end.  There was no jetty.  Since failing was not an option, we succeeded.  Looked scornfully at the mass of silt and water swirling underneath us and walked past the plank with the gait of a ballerina. 
The river is wide and it takes half hour for the ferry to cross.  The interface where the two river waters mix has good sized waves and very strong current. 









In the ferry, I chatted with a Muslim co-passenger during which the conversation meandered from the river to Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar’s greatness to an anecdote about a local legend named Mastan’ji.  More about him later.  We didn’t have a clue what to do on the other side, but we talked to a ToTo driver who agreed to take us around for a half hour tour of the place.  He took us to the riverfront by the side of Falta Special Economic Zone, where there are some hotels to cater to tourists and business travelers.  We had actually visited this place from the Diamond Harbor Road side many years ago.  The driver was a young local boy named Zakir.  It turned out that he was quite an enterprising fellow- he did a Seaman course from the privately run Maritime Education Training & Research Institute in Falta and now works in Gujarat for a shipyard logistics company.  He was on his home leave and bought the battery powered commercial car for his brother who would run it for livelihood.  The last ferry from Noorpur leaves at 7:00 pm, but we boarded an earlier ferry at 5:30 pm and reached back in Geonkhali side by 6:00 pm.  Just near the ferry ghat, there was a Sitala Puja Utsav as part of which singers were singing “Nam Sankirtan” was happening in a courtyard- the rendition was being relayed using loudspeakers in the neighborhood.  The voice projection of songs praising Lord Krishna merged with the excited announcement coming in from the other side of the market which has a dominant Muslim population about an Islamic musical soiree to happen the next day.  The Muslim van rickshaw puller who brought us to the ferry ghat had told us about it, and also said that in the night “Hujoors” will be coming.  When asked who they were, he said they are learned people of the community from the city.  The Hindu and Muslim communities live alongside each other, do business in the same market area, share each other’s pains and pleasures and respect each other’s choice of faith.  It was a welcome opportunity to form opinion first hand and was reassuring to see the strong fabric of social harmony, despite the alarmist portrayals regarding “intolerance” in recent times by the mainstream media and political activist groups.  We returned to our accommodation just in time for the India-Australia match, which turned out to be quite a humdinger. 



 

Rest of the trip was about photography of the river and village life, and about food.  There was a heavy dose of photography in the next morning from 6:00-8:00 am.  Some of the photos I liked are uploaded here. 












The chicken curry served in the night and the puri-sabzi served during breakfast were very tasty.  The culinary tradition of Medinipur district has always been strong.  The lunch of the next day was at a new place in Kolaghat which has come up just a few meters before the well-known Sher-e-Punjab Dhaba.  It is called Express Food Plaza.  It is amazingly spacious and surprisingly lavishly decorated.  The drive back took me little over three hours at a leisurely pace.  Ritz petrol gave decent mileage of 18.2 km/liter.




The closing anecdote of this article is about an interesting local person named Mastan’Ji.  He once lived in Geonkhali but left the place suddenly 10-20 years ago (no one remembers exactly).  I was amazed how well Mastan’ji is remembered by both Hindus and Muslims of the area with equal fondness and reverence.  In fact, he is equally popular on both sides of the river in Geonkhali and Noorpur.  I first learnt about him from a ferry co-passenger while talking about how Pandit Ishwarchandra Bidyasagar crossed the mighty Damodar river which was in spate.  He then mentioned that years ago there was this old man who lived in Geonkhali and who swam across the shores (the river is over a kilometer wide with sharp eddy current and it took the ferry engine 30 minutes to push us through) at ease.  Boats and ferries used to stop to offer him a ride but he used to wave them off.  He had gout, but that did not stand in the way of his miraculous swimming feat.  It was as if he was powered by the power of his faith as he played at ease with the mighty river.  He was a pious Muslim, who stayed in the market area, wander around, gave divine medicine to the sick, asked for clothes and food from the shopkeepers to distribute among the poor and needy.  Everyone loved and respected him; his wishes were obeyed by all.  He used to distribute sweets among children and asked them to pray to the Almighty.  I found the anecdote extremely interesting, and decided to check the veracity.  I then asked about Mastan’Ji to three other elderly people at tea stalls and other locations, two of them being Hindus.  All remembered Mastan’ji with equal reverence.  One even said Mastan’Ji could walk on water.  But no one is sure when and where he went away.  I dug out one of the followers- Sheikh Riyajul- who has named his shop after Mastan’Ji.  He was pleasantly surprised with my visit and queries, and offered information and tea to go with it.  He ended with a comment that if Mastanji was present today, he would have been much sought after.  Knowing about such an enigmatic local legend who will soon be buried in the ruins of time was the high point of my trip at a personal level.  Of course, as you can see from the pictures, I liked the river too J                                                                     

 



 

 

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