Its Rocking!

As the bus started moving, I waved my hands even more eagerly at my parents. They waved back at me. Then, slowly, they started disappearing from my view...From that moment, began my life's first out-of-station tour without my parents. Not being able to see them anymore from the bus windows that day, things seemed a bit uncertain to me. But, as I moved further and further away from home, I discovered a new kind of joy...



Every year, the Class XII students of only the Humanities stream of our school are taken for an excursion. This year, it was our turn. :-) The 25 odd students(20 girls and 5 boys) of our class were taken to Adra in Purulia distirct of West Bengal. There were five teachers with us. In the first paragraph above, I have described how I had felt when we had started off for the tour from our school in a bus. But, gradually, everything looked very bright. We all enjoyed our journey immensely. Some of my classmates were singing, some were enjoying the view outside while others were just gossiping. After some time, I felt that being among these people for the next three days, will mean a lot of fun. After all, a trip with one's school buddies, while being at school, comes hardly once in a lifetime!



I and my closest friends in this class, Shreyasi, Amrita and Rinita, had occupied seats at the back of the bus. In fact, quite a few seats were empty and so, we kept on changing our places.After a six-hour journey, we reached Adra past 3 p.m. There, we entered the community hall of the South Eastern Railways which would be our home there. It was late and we weren't even allowed to wash our hands properly so that we could have our lunch as soon as possible! The food was good and much better than our expectations. There was rice, dal, potato fries, fish curry and even chutney. Adjoining the community hall were a few dormitories and toilets. We entered the biggest, but stuffy dormitory ,which had been allotted to the girls and selected our beds. There were around twelve mattresses arranged on the floor with bedsheets and pillows. After resting for a short while, everyone again started getting ready to go to the place where tusser handloom works are made. Our teachers were pleased as we got ready on time. First, we had to walk through the town of Adra to reach the autorickshaw stand. Everyone(no exceptions here) in the town was staring at us as we walked as if they had never seen so many people(or girls) together before. At the stand, four autorickshaws were hired and we went to the tusser handloom shops. The autorickshaws there are also different and I, along with my three friends, occupied the back seat, which is almost like the back seat of a Tata Sumo car.


As it was evening already, the place where the tusser sarees and other clothes are made, was closed. But, a man at one of the shops selling the handlooms, offered to explain to us, the process by which the clothes are woven. It was an interesting session, at the end of which we returned to the community hall. The return journey was spooky as the road was completely dark, with thick outgrowths of bushes on either side and the occasional flashes of lightning gave brief glimpses of excellent hiding places for anything and anybody among those bushes...Later that evening, a few of my classmates sang to the music of one of our teacher's synthesizer. The songs that they chose were those sentimental ones that talk about friendship and everyone seemed to listen dreamily. But, after dinner( rice/chapati with egg curry), the dreams ended temporarily for me as I didn't get a wink of sleep at night because of various reasons. I tried hard but the circumstances didn't let me sleep even after the day's long journey...



We were supposed to start getting ready by 4.30 the next morning and I was among the first people to do so. Later on, I borrowed one of our teachers' cellphones and called my parents. I narrated the happenings of the previous night to my father but, as soon as I heard my mother's voice, I burst into tears. I still don't know why I did something so silly...Not having slept the night before, I was also feeling sick and decided to skip breakfast. Things began to look up again as I slept a bit in the bus on our way to Chittaranjan Locomotive Works, a two-hour ride from Adra. It was there that we worked on our project. We were shown around the Loco Fabrication and Assembly Shops by two guides. It was a unique experience and we saw how a complete engine is made after the assembling of its different parts and the construction of its body. Questions were also posed to the employees about the plant itself and about their own living conditions. Besides the plant,the Chittaranjan township itself is also huge and we had lunch at one of the restaurants there. That, according to me, was the worst meal we had during the whole tour. By that time, I had already shaken off the morning's disappointment and sickness because we had all worked together at Chittaranjan and the cooperation had lifted my mood again...



We returned to Adra in the early hours of the evening and afterwards, had a blast at the campfire. Everyone danced in a circle around the fire and there were individual performances also. Each and everyone was in great spirits and even the teachers joined in the dance! The dinner that night was also very good , considering that there was mutton. But, at night, with our teacher's permission, my three friends and I shifted to the stage in the hall for sleeping. We took our mattresses and pillows there and the place was surprisingly a lot cooler than our dormitory. We had to use blankets and didn't even need the fan after a while. We had a deep and good night's sleep.



On the third and final day, we bid goodbye to Adra and headed for Maithon. Maithon is a lovely place with grren hills and a calm river. We also saw the famous dam at Maithon and took lots of pictures. The lunch, again, was not so good but we had a good time in the park adjoining the hotel where we took our food. On the way back to Kolkata, the bus stopped at Shaktigarh. This time, we all bought the famous sweets of Shaktigarh for our parents. But, after leaving Shaktigarh and crossing Dankuni, another important place, we heard a massive sound and also saw a spark. Some people thought at first that Maoists had attacked the bus! Thankfully though, it was just a burst tyre. We were forced to get down from the bus and wait on the highway as the tyre was being replaced. But, even that was fun! I guess, that happened because there were so many of us together. Otherwise, being in a group of three or four and being forced to halt in the middle of a highway and watching daylight fade to give way to evening,definitely wouldn't have been a funny experience...



When the bus again entered the school premises at around 7.30 that evening, we saw our anxious parents waiting. I was delighted to see my parents again and enter my home again although I had been away from them for just three days. But, those three days had been entirely different from all other days of my life and had provided a rich and lively experience .In addition, it had also brought new thoughts to my mind; thoughts which have still not stopped intriguing me. Yet, one common feeling that all my classmates and I share about the excursion is that , 'Its Rocking!'

p.s. I couldn't upload pictures today because of some stupid error. Will try to upload them in the next post.:-)

A different Puja

I spent a great Durga Puja with my parents this time. Its true that this year's Puja vacation wasn't as good as last year's one but it had its own share of surprises.

On the first Puja day, Shasthi, my parents and I decided to leave for Digha the next day. Digha is very near to Kolkata and it takes about four-and-a-half hours on bus to get to Digha. So, things took a new turn altogether and preparations were made as quickly as possible. At first, we hadn't expected to get rooms in any hotel but luckily, we could book one. We also thought that the best course would be to go straightaway to the bus stop the next morning with all our luggage. After all, many buses leave for Digha everyday and we would surely get three seats on any one of them...

But, a shock awaited us at the bus stop the next morning . After cutting the tickets, we were told that our bus hadn’t arrived yet.We and the other passengers were asked to wait as the bus was trapped in a traffic jam and would be late. But, even after two hours when the bus did not arrive and the people at the ticket counters were flooded with querries, out came the truth. A trailer had broken down on Kolaghat Bridge, a very important bridge on the way to Digha. It had blocked the entire bridge, thus stopping all vehicles from crossing the bridge. No steps had been taken to remove the trailer and the vehicles trapped there had caused a 12km long traffic jam. Hearing the news, we knew that we had no chance of going. Even if our bus arrived, we would get stuck in the jam on the bridge. So, we were feeling really dejected at that time. But, an elderly couple, who had also booked seats on our bus, told us that we should still try to catch a train to Digha because going home would be highly disappointing and would spoil the rest of the Puja days. Their enthusiasm raised our hopes again and we agreed to share a taxi with them on our way to the railway station. First, the five of us cut tickets to go to a place called Mecheda on a local train. Our experience while boarding the train was very bad because the crowds were constantly pushing and I had a tough time pulling our trolley suitcase. Looking back though, I realize that I had done a pretty neat job with the suitcase that day…

Anyway, a little more than two hours later, we reached Mecheda and then, hired a car to go to Digha. When we finally reached Digha at around 3.30 p.m., we were tired but very very happy. Some moments later, we were also forced to thank the bus authorities , whom we had been cursing till then, that our bus had not arrived. This is because we rang up one of my aunts, uncle and cousin who were also supposed to be coming to Digha that day and they told us that they were still trapped in the traffic snarl on the Kolaghat Bridge! They actually reached Digha later that night past 11 o’clock. If our bus would have arrived on time in the morning, one of our Puja days would have been totally spoilt. …We had been so lucky!

The stay in Digha was good and we took walks on the sea beach and also met my aunt. We visited some nearby places like Mandarmani, Talshari and Udaipur. They all had a common attraction and that was the sea. Personally, I thought Udaipur was the best. We also went to the place where the Subarnarekha river meets the sea. But, the good food, specially the breakfast, came as a huge relief.