Sunday, October 24, 2004

At Kolkata.

The train was late by 2 hrs. When we reached Howrah station. But it was a happy journey.

Saturday, October 23, 2004

Packing

The packing started. We are boarding the train tonight. Today is Dussera. On this day Ravana effigy is burnt. Our train was at 8:00 pm from Hatia, and the station was 15 min from MECON quarter. Still we decided to leave MECON at 6 pm. And thank god we took that desicion. Due to Ravana badh all the autos were booked, and the roads blocked by stream of people. It took us 1 hr to cover a distance of 15 mins. Just imagine.

Friday, October 22, 2004

At Ranchi.

We booked another car and went to visit falls around Ranchi. The first one was Hundru Falls.Hundru falls is about 40 km. aways from Ranchi town. The Swarnarekha river falls from a height of 320 feet making a wonderful scene known as Hundru falls. During rainy season it takes a formidable form. To view the falls one has to alight the steps. And how many ? Well one has to go down 736 steps and one small bridge.
After Hundru we visited Jonha falls. Jonha is 36 km from Hundru. It got a newly built road. There is also a hospice Tourists rest house which accommodates Lord Gautam Budha’s temple. This falls is named after Gautam as Gautamdhara. Here one can alight the steps and can go so close to the fall that it could be touched. This one looked much better than Hundru, as the falls is much broader. River Ganaga Nala flows to form the falls.

Thursday, October 21, 2004

At Ranchi

Decided to take rest. This was a rest day. So, we spend singing songs, listenig to songs and playing indoor games.

Wednesday, October 20, 2004

Way back to Ranchi

We started our journey from Netarhat at 10: 30 am. On the way we stopped at Birsha. This place is 25 km from Netarhat. Birsha is a place on Koel River river bank. The place could be viewed from our hotel at Netarhat.

Tuesday, October 19, 2004

At Netarhat.

156 Kms from Ranchi is Netarhat, the queen of Chotanagpur. The name Netarhat has a history behind it. During the British periods, the British soldiers were looking for a cool place. While doing the survey they came upon a area in the hills, covered with dense forest and small streams. Seeing the sight they were very happy, and described the place as "Near the heart". The phrase "Near the heart" gradually got transformed and took the form Netarhat. It is situated at a height of 3,7000 ft above sea level and is a hill station of Jharkhand. Netarhat is a beautiful resort during summer. Dense forests, serpentine roads, cool bracing breeze, moonlit nights truley makes it near the heart.This place is an out of this world experience.

We reached Nerathat around 4 pm. The journey was quite long more than 5 hours. This is mainly due to bad roads. We boarded at Prabhat Hotel, a Jharkhand Tourism hotel. We had our lunch, and then took the car to Mangolia Point. This is a point from where one can see the sun set.
The most stunning thing of Netarhat is the silence. The place is amazingly silent after sunset.

2nd day at Netarhat.


The sunrise point was from the hotel where we had lodged. From the balcony we could see the Koel River flowing downhill, and the range of hills. Amazing view. After breakfast we visited Netarhat Dam, and Netarhat lake. Both were 2 km from our hotel, so we decided walking through the jungles. The lake serves as water reservoir for the place.
Far off from Netarhat, one can visit many falls. Among them are Lodh Falls (70 kms from Netarhat) and Sadni Falls : (35 kms from Netarhat). we had a problem with disel. The nearest petrol pump from Netarhat is 55km away at Ghagri, on Ranchi - Netarhat road. And since there was a shortage of dilsel in our car, so we decided to visit Sadni falls. To visit the falls one has to cover jungle, then bauxite mines (now owned by HINDALCO), then again the jungles. Let me mention that the jungles in Netarhat is so dense that sunlight can hardly penetrate. Also the road condition is poor,( on the way we say people re-building the roads, they should be over in another year). After travelling 30 kms we came across a team of workers. And since the road conditions were detoriating drastically as we were approaching the spot, so we decided to stop tha car and ask the supervisor. When we put forward our query, he recommended us not to go. As the place is disturbed by the extremest. In last 5 years not a single tourist went there. So, alas we had to turn back. It was very sad that we couldn't see the falls, being so near to it.
In evening we went to see Upper Ghagri Falls.


Sunday, October 17, 2004

Ranchi

At Ranchi.
The train journey was good enough.It was quite cold. Actually, Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand, is set on Chota Nagpur Plateau, quite a pleasant place. The Gypsy was waiting at the station. We boarded the car and was headed to MECON staff quarters. My pisha (uncle) works at MECON.We are not supposed to meet them, as they went to Mumbai. So the whole quarter belonged to us. A huge quater was waiting for us. Spacious rooms with huge balcony. The best thing at Ranchi is the sound polluton was less, and my ears were getting good rest. After lunch we went to one of the posh locality of Ranchi, and booked a car for our onward journey to Netarhat.

Saturday, October 16, 2004

The Journey Begins.
Our puja trip starts today. Our means we (my family) and my maternal uncles family. We are going to Jharkhand. A new state in eastern part of India. We will board Ranchi-Hatia Express and travel to Ranchi. The train is scheduled to leave late night.