Today is the last day of this tour and we all know that. But we will cover as many places as we can. I have planned to visit SANTINIKETAN – SRINIKETAN – BALLAVPUR DEER PARK – KHOAI – JOYDEV – KENDULI. I know that it will be a big achievement if we can make these many places before we left for KOLKATA. So, we got up early in the morning and got ready within 8:30 AM. We bid our lodge owner and her wife and left for SANTINIKETAN. As soon as we reach there we found some hawker’s selling local Pit fired pottery (pora mati’r) artifacts. We immediately reached there and bought whatever we like.
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| Hawker's Stall |
Once the hawker delivered all the products we found difficult to take them for the rest of the 400 km, till we reach our home. But there is no choice; we have to carry all the artifacts. Rajdeep came forward and took one of our bag (now he will carry 2 baggage’s, one in front and one in back). I took the bag which Atreyi was carrying and she will now have to take care of all those Pit fired pottery (pora mati’r) artifacts as a pillion. So, it will be a tough ride for 3 of us. But we thought rather than thinking better to go ahead with whatever we had with. So, we entered into SANTINIKETAN. We have seen as much as we can and took snaps.
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| A local girl showing ear-rings made of seeds |
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| Tal Gachh - Ek Paye Dariye, Sob Gachh Chhariye, Unki Mare Aakashe |
We finished soon as NATURE was calling us J and left for BALLAVPUR DEER PARK. On our way we net with another bike lover like us who came from UK on his YAMAHA Offroading Bike. We had a chat. He offered us to drive his monster but we need to get taller (more than 6.5 ft) to ride his bike J. So, we did not take the risk and left for deer park.
To our utter surprise we came across with so many deer’s in front of us. We even did not imagine that we could see so many.
We spent more than an hour taking pictures of the deer’s. After coming out of the park we had a typical lunch. Each one of us have more than 5 eggs and Tea and biscuits. Surprisingly Atreyi and Rajdeep ate 7 eggs each.
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| The samll roadside stall where we had our egg lunch |
After having lunch we left for KHOAI. My target was to get in touch with BAUL’s and listen to their songs of Red Soil.
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| Amar Kuthi |
We followed the route through Red Soil from BALLAVPUR DEER PARK to KHOAI. On our route we came across to this house called ‘AMAR KUTHI’.
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| Road to Khoai |
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| Pulsar and CBZ on the road to Khoai |
BAUL: BAUL’s are a group of mystic minstrels from Bengal. The term BAUL refers to both a syncretic religious sect and a musical tradition used as a vehicle to express BAUL thought. BAUL’s are a very heterogeneous group, with many different streams to the sect, but their membership mainly consists of Vaishnavite Hindus and Sufi Muslims. They can be often identified by their distinctive clothes and musical instruments, such as the EKTARA. Though BAUL’s comprise only a small fraction of the Bengali population, their influence on the culture of Bengal is considerable. In 2005, the BAUL tradition was included in the list of "Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity" by UNESCO.
As soon as we reached there we got surprised to see that the fair (MELA) was over. I felt very sad that it is noon and we would not found any BAUL to listen to their FOLK SONGS. I asked a person visiting the fair and he pointed towards a big tree and told us we may found someone there. As soon as I took a turn towards the big tree, I got amazed to see that one BAUL was singing. Immediately we went there. Soon, I found that he was Jagannath Das Baul and won many medals in INDIA as well as in BANGLADESH.
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| Jagannath Das Baul in full mood |
We spent about 1 hour listening to his songs. He sang Lal Paharir Deshe Ja, Khanchar Bhitor Achin Pakhi and many more on our request. After having a long conversation he also requested us to have lunch with them on the next day. But we have to go back to KOLKATA so we promised him that next time we would definitely keep his request. We offered as much as we can to him and left for JOYDEB. He also told us the shortest route to follow to reach JOYDEB.
Following the path which Jagannath Das Baul told us, we reached JOYDEB very soon. We were enthralled by the beauty of the RADHAGOVINDA TEMPLE. But we are really unsure how long these kind of historical structure will survive as they are going through negligence for some decades. We took several snaps.
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| Radhagovinda Temple |
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| Radhagovinda Temple |
When locals found that we are so interested in the remains of the temple, they shown us a small lane through which we came across to another temple of RADHA KRISHNA. The construction was going on for this temple and I took some pictures (whatever I could manage).
Now, it was time to say Goodbye to THE LAND of RED SOIL. Clock was striking at 5 PM and we have to cover a distance of around 240 kms. So, we started moving towards AJOY river bed. We paid the toll as we are moving from BIRBHUM district to BARDAWAN. We enquired about that great teacher whom we met last time on our DURGAPUR trip. Everyone knows him there and stunned to see that we also knew him J. But he was not there. So, we just conveyed our love & respect to him and headed towards DURGAPUR via RAMNABAGAN WILDLIFE SANTUARY. On our way we took the following pictures:
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| Rajdeep with his old love .... |
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| Reminded us what we faced on Day 1 while returning from Kirnahar to Bolpur |
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| Near Durgapur |
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| Through my dream road ... just after Durgapur Muchipara More |
We drove pretty fast with full control of our monsters and reached home at 8’o clock. It seems that our mean machines are more happier than us after completing an unconventional tour which may open the path for other rider’s to have a look at first what we have already in our own state.
We got congratulations from everywhere after making this trip which probably hard to cover within a span of 3 days only J.
Please be in touch with my blog to know more on our upcoming tours and achievements. Probably we could hunt so more treasure from our very well known districts which now a days most of us are forgetting. Hope our ride will encourage more tourists to visit these places and will help their economy to grow as well with our’s JJ.
Life is too small. Enjoy it as much as you can J.
You can find all video's of this trip by doing a google search with 'birbhum on 2 wheels'. However, I am providing the links for your convinence:
For all the trips I made till date on Motorcycle / Bike / 2 Wheeler, please visit the following link:
