Taki – more than a weekend destination

Hello friends, Whats up. Hope you’re doing great. Since last week, I was seeking some escape from each day’s monotonous life. Life was becoming just like a disciplined system- fixed time for each activity, no loopholes. Thats the reason finding some new spots. So, Taki was the answer for that. Already you know core committee’s previous hangouts, the last trip to sabuj dweep also was a successful one. Like previous time, we planned the whole tour in just one night. This time we grabbed Ujjwal & preetraj with team,though Souradeep missed this one, for which we really missed him in this trip.

Waking up early & boarding a train, specially in winter we bongs know how tough its. Soumodipto wasnot an exception to this & he missed the train, which we planned. So finally we 4 grabbed the Sealdaha-Hasnabad local from Barasat station at around 10 AM. It was a great time indeed, four of us altogether after so much time- those old college gossips were again being started. We never took this railway track, so the station names were not so familiar, we only knew anyhow to reach at Hasnabad station or Taki Road station. We took some Kachuris as breakfast , so we were not in any hurry or activities related to searching for foods. Regular rice, daal may not be available, thinking so we bagged some chips, biscuits, oreo, different types of chocolates & cadburies, and other necessary articles what generally we need in tours.

It was around 11:30 AM, we stepped in Taki station- there boarded a cycle-van to reach guest house. Though we did not have any plans for night stay, so there were no bookings. Fare was cheaper as 15 rupees per head. Finally it was the ghat, a well decorated concrete ghat of Ichamoti river, being a well known picnic spot it was very loud environment, typically loud music were played, lots of people booked small amount of

meadows for their private picnic parties which we did not started to like & at that time it was a time to take wise decision what we should do. The template scenario was like- either we have to travel by boat ( boats would take you across the Ichamoti river, & all you could get some close look to Bangladesh border, but they were not allowed to take you to the opposite bank( BGB,formerly known as BDR, would prevent) or you need to hire a van-rickshaw to border, mini sundarban (I dont know the naming concept,but there are some mangrove forest).

We did not prefer any of these, rather decided to make our own terms, stories. Walking along the concrete roads just beside the river was really cool, as the gentle breeze of the idle river was soothing our tired veins. One cant simply ignore this type of natural beauties where nature was not manipulated much by human interests, otherwise I have seen most of the picnic spots were constructed just by spoiling the natural wealth.

The dark rich green leaves, fresh air & simplistic nature of local people simply could win your heart & you’ll be aware of this fact that you’ve come to a village. A river separating two lands must have a tight security there to prevent illegal acts, but here we did not find any clues, people having very friendly nature, most of them solely depending upon farms. We were making out gradually the bad politics – West Bengal & Bangladesh two different lands, different laws & orders, still the same language, same culture, same food habits & life style. Once this river had a free pass to all, now a victim – a border line has been drawn at the middle ,we have succeeded to share a river equally. Did we?

There are some BSF watch towers, which are generally used to supervision of the territory, not necessarily they all are protected. we found some are locked, & outside some notification as ” No entry without permit”, on other hand there were some watch towers kept open. Mainly this roads tourists dont take for walking purpose. Tourists come & hire a van-rickshaw generally. I wonder there are very few people like us who bear thoughts of exploration.

We spend some time at the nearby watch tower, it was messy & free to enter. At a height the scenic view was decent & picturesque. Ujjwal gave some idea to sit over the sunset, simply hanging our feet down the river. After 30 minutes, the walk-journey resumed & slowly we entered into the core village, having the true scenario of village men, huts, life styles, farming, abandoned & left houses, some burnt places, fields full of paddy & flowers, dusty roads. we surpassed some closed tea shops- may be the owner having some naps after his lunch over, the life is not at all so busy like Kolkata. As we appeared with ideas of photography, we had plenty of time there for framing objects. We interrogated local people about life there. basically at first I was quite unsure about the place regarding political stability, but life style here is very safe & no issues due to be a part of border region.

Having friends in your trip means there are lots of opportunities to be entertained. and you completely depend on things like some one would carry the water bottle anyhow after purchasing. You’ll always have models, stunt men ready for your camera shots. 😛 And when it becomes open fields, then there is no boundaries for the ultimate craziness. Roads started to became narrower & less concreted as we approached further. Suddenly soumodipta halted at a place where we found a party office. almost broken, left. There were some wall paints, some were manually drawn by some people with chalks- name of parties, abusive words. The doors were sealed temporarily with wooden blocks so that no one easily can not invade. May be there are some untold stories behind this place, some unknown characters are sleeping forever,whose karma remained unsung.

We walked along the roads, Taki municipality had placed some boards on roads directing the way. There were other travelers who booked van rickshaw, were moving very fast leaving us behind. some rickshaw drivers tried already to make us convinced to book their vehicle by telling- “still 2 kilometers remaining.” But they dont know who we are. 😉 we were passing some mustard farms behind & finally reached to the checkpoint where BSF stuffs would interrogate & take voter IDs, you need to register your name there as visitor. After again some walking distance, there comes the Golpata forest (a.k.a Mini sundarban). As sundarban & this place having almost same vegetation , there is a small mangrove forest here- the plants having their roots above the soil, as most of the time these lands get water. Here, coconut is very cheap, in 10 rupees , you’ll get a giant coconut with lots of water. Through the forest, you would get bank river, from where Bangladesh is visible in almost 1 KM. you can spend time here sitting, boozing, or having picnic with family, friends. No doubt, we spend a 1 hour here in relaxation, had the dry foods those we took along.

As we dont have the night stay plan in our itinerary, so we chalked out the return plan. On way back we hired a van rickshaw, as we had to board the train to sealdaha. “Rosogollas” here are really very tasty, as all the products come from this own village. Not only “Rosogollas”, we tried different type of sweets- “singara”, “Rosmalai” etc all in a very cheap rate than kolkata with quality taste. Even after boarding at train we chatted among us about the sweet qualities & took an oath to come back , for paying a second visit.

Tips to remember:-

• Carry voter IDs.
• You can hangout anytime of year.
• If planning with group, dont miss the chance to stay one night.
• Walk on feet is necessary if you want to experience something.