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
