Some family celebrations at Asansol and some magical moments at Mandarmani

We were going on a family trip to Asansol, my 'Sosurbadi'. Its 'Annaprashan' of my nephew Ishaan. Saturdays are not off for Ani, so we decided I, with all the luggage, will pick Ani from his office and will go to the station directly. There's a reason why I am telling you all this. In the rush rush of packing, calling a taxi, picking up luggage and Ani... I forgot to pick my most precious thing "Nikon D60". So a week long trip without my camera.

The celebrations were good - first at boni's sosurbari and then at mine, me and dear hubby being the chief guests at both the places. Its Mama's occasion. For those who don't know, 'Annaprashan' is the occasion when the infant is first fed with food other than milk and Mama is the one who feeds the child. Loads of food, 'Adda', masti.... it was fun. It is when I am in WB that I reget being a vegetarian. They seem to enjoy various preparations so much. And for us veggies its just dal, aloo bhaja and paneer. Anyways, the occasion ended well. Ishaan seemed to have enjoyed his first meal as much as we enjoyed feeding him.

We still had some time in hand, so thought of a short trip somewhere around. Sis in law took no time to decide the place and finalize the plan. We were going to Mandarmani, a beach resort in Medhinipur district of West Bengal. Though summers ia not the best time to visit the place we took a shot at it. Firstly, The place will not be too crowded due to off season and secondly we will get the accommodation in comparatively cheap.

Four of us Tiu (my sis in law), Chintu (her husband), Ani and me started off on a Wednesday morning. The journey was cool until our little driver bumped the bottom of the car on a speed breaker. The steering got locked. Luckily there was a Tata service stations nearby so we got it fixed. After going little further, there was a road blockage done by some protesting villagers. We were told to wait for 1 hr. Anirban's 'khurafati dimaag' started working immediately. He went up to one of the most intelligent looking person in the crowd and starting talking. We were just observing him from the car. One nod from that person and we were on our way again. On inquiring, Ani told us that he told the man that we are a group of travel journalists from Delhi and are going to Mandarmani to do a story on beaches of West Bengal. Part of the information is true huh! In India can you imagine to get work done without a little lie. And whats the harm in it if it doesn't harm anyone anyways.


After this eventful little journey we reached the place, but the beach is nowhere to be seen. As I was told by one of the friends it is a adventure ride, one has to go through the sea to reach the resort. I was getting impatient to experience that. and woww... one narrow road led us to the magnificent sea. We drove on the beach around 4-5 kms to reach the destination. That was a wonderful experience.

The place we stayed at was right on the beach, and our room window facing the beach. We were told that the sea waves come up till the gate of the hotel on a full moon day.

We din't take any time to change and jump into the sea. Loll on the sand, let salty water wet your body and sound of crashing waves touch your soul - thats exactly what we did. It was magical, we spent around 2-3 hrs wetting our body and minds.
The night was even more hypnotizing. It was a day before full moon night. the sea at its furious best. Almost full moon, huge waves crashing, strong wind blowing, we could feel the magnificence of the nature. We could see the huge waves crashing right at the foot of the raised platform we were sitting at.

The same lolling and wetting went for half of the next day, and then was the time to say goodbye to the wonderful place, Mandarmani, much more than what I expected it to be.

PS - The pics you see above are taken from my Nokia mobile phone.