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Posts Tagged ‘sankarpur’

  1. Sankarpur forestmare

    January 2, 2014 by Sunit Nandi

    So my previous post was of a pretty recent adventure. Now, I’ll be narrating you an older adventure that took place in July 2013.

    It is 6 July 2013. A time when the second semester was over, and our family was spending time with relatives at Digha, West Bengal. As usual, it was one of those boring days when we had nothing to do.

    Me and dad travelled to Sankarpur, covering the route partly by bus and partly walking. Sankarpur beach isn’t as popular as Digha or Mandarmoni, so the crowd and rush is absent. However, on that day, there was a huge crowd in the path that connects the road and the beach. The CPI-M (Communist Party of India – Maoist) had gathered a huge rally and its local leaders were addressing the public. After a lot of jostling the people standing around, we reached the beach. On the way we saw lots of fishing boats docked on the bank.

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    It was almost evening as the sun was setting. We began to stroll along the beach, watching the clouds making beautiful shapes in the sky. The bright sun and the pretty clouds seemed to be playing hide and seek as it was setting. Looking down at the beach, we saw crabs coming out and going into burrows in the ground. When seen from a distance, crabs on the beach look like flowers growing on the desert.

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    We know that Sankarpur beach area is surrounded on three sides by water and one side by the mainland. So we thought it would be a really nice idea if we walked along the shores and made a round-trip of the beach. We continued to walk until we reached one sharp corner. Taking a right turn, we saw that the beach wasn’t sandy. It was rocky. We took an inner grassy trail. It was distinguishable as a trail only because of footprints and wheel marks of bikes. Slowly and slowly, it began to get dark.

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    Upon walking further, the trail approached a fork, one leading to a pond, and another to a forest. Now, one doesn’t make a round-trip of a beach with a pond. It was a no-brainer to enter the forest. Hence, we entered. But soon enough, the trail was gone. We got afraid. We started finding for trails randomly. But we realised we were lost in the maze of thick vegetation. I was breaking down, almost about to cry and dad was tensed. But we still walked trying to figure out a way to get out. I was having memories of mum, my relatives and my friends. We walked aimlessly for a few moments. It was getting dark. Then dad decided that finding a trail isn’t the solution. We needed to exit the forest. So dad just walked to what seemed like an edge of the vegetation and screamed, “Son, jump!”. I just followed him and jumped.

    I was falling down a small cliff and soon I was ready to hit the ground. So I prepared myself for landing. I landed with a loud thud and dust flew around. My left leg began to ache. My dad signalled me to walk along with him. Finally, we were out of the forest, but still unsure how to reach the road. But luckily, we got back on a trail and began to walk. I was trying very hard to ignore the ache and continue. Then we entered a fishing colony. We asked the fishermen directions to reach the road and then they showed us the way. We travelled though the colony alongside the huts and fish drying fields. In an hour, we made a whole round-trip of the beach area and were back again on the path between the beach and the roadside.

    The ache on my left leg became worse, so we boarded an engine-rickshaw. The rickshaw was crowded with people returning from the party rally. After a while, we reached the roadside, boarded a bus and headed straight to Digha.

    The whole experience was so terrible and I could not sleep properly that night. But I’m happy because I am no longer afraid of entering forests and I also have a tale to recount.