A trip to Shantiniketan

A trip to Shantiniketan

Shaniniketan University Campus. Pic Credit: Shazia Khan

Taking time out from my action-packed monotonous routine, I decided to take a quick trip to Shantiniketan, West Bengal to attend one of my best friends' wedding reception. As it was at the final hour that I decided to join my pack of friends, I hurriedly dumped things in my bag and left home in an hour's time after making up my mind. I managed to reach the railway station quite on time. I felt the first surge of excitement the moment I saw my friends standing at the platform. The Bollywood style entry of a friend's girlfriend in a saree, that too minus any luggage, took all of us by surprise. She was coming straight from her office as she had cooked up some last minute emergency story to join us on the trip. And, I was thinking it's me who had done a cool thing by deciding to come on the trip at the eleventh hour. Anyways...

The train journey was a fun riot. In between all the laughter, incessant chatter and gyan sessions, I would peep outside to take a glimpse of the landscape of never-ending farming lands, villages and wonder about the life of people living out there. Is it easy or tough? Is it better than mine? What if I was a part of them and so on. Even during my childhood days, the most thrilling part of any vacation would be the train journey (Not that we used to go on too many). I still remember how the excitement would give me sleepless nights and I would start packing my bag a week in advance. And now packing bag takes only 30 minutes.

Listening to ghost stories and not paying much heed to the nasty comments of a grumpy insomniac passenger who was enjoying our conversation but pretending to get disturbed at the same time, we got down at Durgapur Station. The summers in this part of the state is hot and humid, so we quickly hired a cab for Shantiniketan, which was 52 kms away. The drive turned out to be dreamlike. Beautiful mud huts, ponds full of lotus and water lilies, tress on both sides of the road, women cycling with their face covered with sarees to protect them from the heat, CPM and Trinamool posters at every nook and corner, a person selling herbs on a cycle rickshaw and claiming to cure deadly diseases on mic and roadside vendor selling Salman Khan t-shirt for Rs 50. Poultry farming seemed a profitable profession out here as we spotted many poultry farms on the way, which looked surprisingly clean from the distance.

As we reached Shantiniken, the number of shops increased, many of which were shut as it was afternoon and afternoon nap is a must for every Bong bondhu (Bengali friend).

A nice guest house inside the Shantiniketan University Campus was booked for us. The campus area is a different world all together. The student crowd is nothing like what we see in Delhi Campus. Here the whole notion of 'coolness' lies in simplicity. Being in the campus and thinking that it is here where Rabindranath Tagore lived and wrote his poems and novels made me feel proud of my identity as a Bong. Like the name suggests, the place is a peaceful retreat. All I could hear once I reached the guest house and crashed on the bed, was the sound of birds' chirping. A perfect place to unwind and escape from the city life.
Next started the food frenzy. The rest of the time we were in the land of Rabindranath Tagore, all we did was we ate like 'henglas' (hoggers). Bengal is famous for its food and sweets; and for that extra love with which the food is served - "kichui too khao ni, aar ektu nao" (You have eaten nothing, you have to take more). The more the love, the more you are forced to eat extra till the time you lie down on your plate and say no for it.
The food was scrumptious. Starting from Beguni, Bengali style fried rice with dry fruits, misthi doi, macher ghonto, kosha mangsho, fish and no prizes for guessing - the pride of Bengal - 'Rosogolla'.

After hogging on food, we shifted our focus on the bride and the groom. I somehow enjoy the entry bit in a 'shaadi ka ghar' (Home where the wedding is taking place). Those who know you come screaming, give you a tight hug, welcome you with open arms and those who don't, scan you from top to bottom and inquire about you from others right in front of you.

After meeting everyone, we all went to meet the bride, who was too shy to deal with so many gazing eyeballs at one time. We wrapped up the meeting in 15 minutes and left for the guest house.

The shortcut to the guest house was through the garden of someone's home and they were more than happy to allow us to use their personal space. The garden had a small mango tree, guava tree, many other flowering plants and, a dog.


The evening reception was a simple affair, minus any 'show-sha baazi'. One of my friends got the bride ready and I happily took the role of her assistant. I somehow managed to sneak out in between to have 'phuchkas' and they were heaven. After phuchkas, we quickly came back, got ready and left for the reception. There was again food all around us. We left for our guest house quite late.
What followed next was usual non-stop chatter, which continued till late night. Next morning, I
along with two of my friends left at around 6.30 to catch a Kolkata local from Bolpur. From Kolkata, I had to catch a flight to Delhi, the other one had planned to stay back in Kolkata for another couple of days with her relatives and the third one had to leave for Bangalore on an official trip. We got in a local train for Kolkata from Bolpur station. While waiting for the local at Bolpur station, I had kullarh chai, chips and bargained with a vendor selling handmade bags. Though getting onto the packed local turned out be a task, we somehow managed to reach our reserved seats after pushing the crowd. At that moment I could not thank my friend enough for booking the local tickets a day in advance without even telling us.

I loved the train journey as one vendor after the other kept getting into the train from every station and we kept munching the next three hours. Lojins (local toffees), juice, jhal-moori, tea, daab, aloo chaat, paan, deem sheddo (boiled eggs) and what not. It kept all three of us busy and entertained.
We reached Howrah station bang on scheduled time and booked the pre-paid taxi from outside the station after standing in a serpentine queue for 20 minutes. After bidding adieu to my friend who was staying back in Kolkata, two of us left for the airport.


On my way to the airport, I stopped at one sweetshop to buy kilos of sweets for my family, and grabbed two mishti-doi for us. The old-world charm of Kolkata captivated me completely as I could not keep my eyes off from the roads, the buildings and even its people. I wished to stay back in the city for a few days.

Within an hour, we reached Kolkata Airport, and what I saw next left me pleasantly shocked. A world-class swanky huge airport. So when did this happen? The memory of the old, dilapidated Kolkata International Airport was too deeply eched in my memory. Admiring the pioneering move of the state govt., I could not stop missing the old beauty, don't know why.

After checking in on time, both of us grabbed hot coffee and sandwich and left for our respective flights as coincidently they were at the interval of only 10 minutes. One thought that really disturbed me while I was sitting at the airport was the promise I had made to my badi maa, who really wanted to come to Kolkata once. But I could not keep my promise and now can't do that ever. With her thought I said bye to the city, where I have never stayed but is still so much mine.