A Fortnight in Raichak

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The unit
The unit allocated to us was a one-bedroom apartment with a kitchen and a toilet. There was a 4- to 4.5-foot-long bath tub in the bathroom. In the kitchen, all the vessels generally required for Indian/Chinese/Continental cooking were available. The microwave was, of course, there. There was a charge of Rs.150 for the gas hob. We found the extra charge quite reasonable and went for it immediately. The living room was huge. It had a glass-top dining table, four dining chairs, paintings on the wall, and a sofa-cum-bed. The curtains were beautiful, and the colour scheme matched the sofa. There was a TV, but the reception was poor on most of the days. The number of channels available were less than what one is used to in Mumbai, but it hardly matters because there are a lot of things one can do outside.

There was also a beautiful, small semicircular veranda. On the outside, we could see large manicured lawns, trees loaded with dates (within easy reach from our first-floor unit). A welcome letter was waiting for us on the centre (tea) table near the sofa - a welcome drink also arrived shortly after. The person told us about all the important rules, timings, and facilities available. The person in charge of the reception had also done the same thing, and the attendant at the clubhouse also, we found, did the same. This was a very good thing, and we were happy that although the place looked huge (48 acres or more), we were almost ready for it on the first day itself.

The Arcade
This area of the holiday club has the reception, bistro (the small restaurant), the lounge, the grocery and the vegetable shop, and the housekeeping office. The reception has a small but very good collection of books – on yoga, cookery, philosophy, etc., in addition to fiction and books for children. There is a small collection of video CDs in English, as well as Hindi. The books can be hired for free, but there is a charge of Rs.200 for one day for three video CDs and the player.

The grocery shop has all the groceries, condiments, spices, coffee, tea, fresh milk bread, eggs, and butter, etc. Vegetables are available aplenty, but the fruits and sweets had to be ordered a day in advance. Sweetened as well as unsweetened yogurt was available on most of the days. The lounge had a huge TV and good sitting area comprised of cane-wood furniture. It was good to sit there if you were caught in the rains when near the arcade. All around the arcade, there are some private bungalows. There are beautifully made large figurines made of cement mortar at many places. Chairs and tables – some with games like carrom board on them are interspersed – one could order tea or sandwiches The view through the pillars - of the bungalows, gardens around them, bright big flowers, and the beautiful figurines and fountains made us come here nearly on all the days. Arcade is the place you would come to if you have to make enquiries.

The housekeeping
This was the highlight of the stay. The unit is kept clean. The people come twice in a day to do the beds – fold the sofa-cum-bed, etc. They even washed the utensils. For a small sum you find maids working in the nearby private bunglows who can wash your clothes in your bathroom (at rates much much cheaper than the in-house laundry) and also do the cooking. If you are going out, it is quite safe to leave the key. When you come back, you find the food ready and waiting for you. The staff is polite and professionally trained. There is a little language problem though. We were asking about the village life from one of the housekeeping staff who was raised up by Mother Teresa’s missionaries of charity. When he went home he brought for us a large bag of locally available fruit from his garden. Such is the love and warmth showered on you. The bed-sheets, the towels were always clean. The toiletries, including toothpaste, were replenished daily. The soap for cleaning the utensils was also replenished when required.

• Unit Type: 1 Bedroom
• Activities: Fair
• Amenities: Excellent
• Unit Satisfaction: Excellent
• Family Friendliness: Excellent
• Service: Excellent

We were surprised or, rather, shocked to see the dilapidated state in which the building was. We were standing outside a government institute which might have seen better days. The person at the counter was not especially interested in us, the reason, as we came to know later, being that the there were no vacant rooms. I just entered and told him that we had come all the way from Raichak to have a good Bengalee dinner, and is it the right place. He immediately retorted about why we had doubts. I said that the government staff these days are not dedicated, and if they make the dinner in a hurry, we would all be disappointed. He said that we must try.

The dining hall was dark, slightly dirty, and had big old tables and wobbling chairs. The prices in the menu were looking high for the settings. We kept our fingers crossed and told him to bring whatever was good and readily available. He brought mughlai parottas, fried bhetki fish, stuffed 'padol' (a green vegetable), gurma (gravy), potatoes with 'khus khus (poppy seeds), a chicken gravy cottage cheese in white gravy, rice, and fish curry. One look at the food, and our spirits rose to the levels they needed to reach. The food looked heavenly. One dip into the gravies - the taste was as best it could be. I have never tasted anythng which comes close to the taste of this food. Everything in it was perfect. We ate to our hearts' content.

Unfortunately, the place doesn't serve any desserts, but in Bengal, there is no dearth of sweet shops.

The shop has a nondescript kind of appearance, quite a disappointment considering the popularity of the shop. As soon as you enter the place through a glass door, you find some tables strewn here and there; there is a simple green carpet. The sweet counter is on the other end. We could see that there was another sitting area on the mezzanine. The person at the counter was a type of person who looked short on words. The sweets were looking quite ordinary - I think the reason could be that artificial colors are not used, and as I had read on the net, the ‘sweets are steamed and not made on red-hot ovens’. We were directed to go to the mezzanine. There the waiter brought the menu card. In the card along with the usual sweets like ‘Rossogollas’, ‘Rossomalai’, ‘Misti Dahi’, ‘Chamcham’ and 'Sandesh', there were some names new to me like 'Singara', 'Nimki', 'Lalmohan', 'Mihidana', 'Seeta Bhog', 'Jilipi', ' 'Darbesh', ‘Ksheermohan’. Seated on the table, we could now see the names but not the sweets. Waiter, though affable, was uncommunicative – "language barriers". So I took the menu card in hand and went down. There was a big rosogolla-like thing of the size of a small football - in a yellow saffron colored liquid - the name was Rajbhog. I was about to order it, but was stopped by a customer who looked to be connoisseur. He said that in KC Das you should take Rossogollas and Rossomalai. That’s what I did. One bite of the Rs. 6=00 Rossogolla and the Rosogollas taken at other places since childhood seemed to be made of plastic. The smell and feel of the fresh cottage cheese, the delicate engineering which led to exact seeping of sugar into the rossogolla, were very clear at the first encounter. The Rossomalai was soft, creamy, and succulent. It was not loaded with dry-fruits, colors, and sugar like many other places. All the sweets were light on the stomach too. Never in our life had we eaten so many sweet as we ate that day, but the stomach did not feel heavy at all.

When you read about the shop on the net, you feel that you are going to go for an up-market culinary experience, but that may not be the case. What you get here are simple, home-like hygienic sweets - whose recipe might have been passed from generation to generation. If the people at the counter knew a bit of Hindi or English so that they could have thrown some light into the history and the manufacturing process, it would have been a very good experience for us. It looked as though the owners are not aware how famous they have become outside the state also.

As we were looking for vegetables, we were directed to a hall, the entrance of which was through a small lane. When you are walking on that lane on each step, your mind says that you are making a mistake. But no sooner than we entered the hall had we found around 50 shops selling a variety of vegetables. One look at the veggies, and you can feel how fresh they are - may be straight from the garden. I must say that I did not have to purchase vegetable for next 10 days. The prices were very cheap; thanks to this market, we were able to have platefuls of steamed vegetables, soups, pastas, and noodles loaded with veggies all through our stay.

A nearby lane was having shops that were selling the groceries. There were lanes that only had clothes, and one of the lanes had lots of sari shops. The market is slightly dirty and smelly, but the cost at which you get the items more than off-sets this aspect. There are very good eating places in this area. Try Aheli at the Peerless Inn for highend Bengali cuisine and Alemia for Mughlai-style food. There are many sweet shops that sell fresh stuffed ‘poorees’ and vegetables. The hand-pulled rickshaws are available to take you back to the main road if you get exhausted or feel too dehydrated to walk. Licensed porters are available to carry the purchase. They come with you up to the bus and see to it that you are settled. We opted for the porter. I think he charged us Rs.20 for the service, which we happily paid.

Reaching the holiday club – The various websites proclaimed that it is 60km from Kolkata on an air-conditioned bus service (every 2 hours), and ordinary bus services (quite frequently) are available. When we called up the resort, the manager advised us against using the regular bus service, because it may get too crowded. The charges for the ordinary taxi were quoted at R7 per kilometer (for 120 kilometers), which was quite reasonable. He did not know the times of the air-conditioned bus or even the place where the bus starts. He, of course, said that it is in the heart of the city. Well, this expression did not have any meaning when I was in Mumbai. Later, I was to hear this expression again and again. We were then directed to the city office. A phone call there and we knew that the heart of the city is Dharamtala, or Esplanade, but still, the times of the A/C bus was a mystery. After a second phone call, we came to know that there is a bus at around 3pm and the fare is around 40 rupees. This information was sufficient for us. In Mumbai, the taxis are available for R4.50 per kilometer, so we decided that we would go to Esplanade from the Howrah station. Look for the bus. If we get the bus, then it is okay, but otherwise, we would try to negotiate charges with tourist taxi operator. If the charges are around R 500 to 600, then we would go for it. If they were charging more than that, then we thought we would call up the city office of the holiday club and get a cab from there and shell out R900 at R7 per kilometer.

Our inquiries in the train depressed me further. Either the people had not heard of Raichak or, if they had heard, they had gone with friends or as a part of their company trip. They were not aware of the air-conditioned bus service at all. Most of the residents of Kolkata in the train advised against taking the taxi directly – "go to the prepaid booth, or else you will be cheated." We knew that the prepaid service in India is valid only within city limits. Raichak is in the 24 Parganas south district, outside the Kolkata city limits and in another district. I decided to go by my earlier plan and go to Esplanade from Howrah now by prepaid taxi and then try my luck there. I must confess that since I was with my wife and child, I was almost ready to call the holiday club office from the station itself.

The Howrah station has two buildings called the old building and new building. The Gitanjali express train from Mumbai goes to the new building. The prepaid booth had a very big crowd. I was almost 60th in the queue. There was an equally big queue for taking the taxi once you get the coupon. This was when I thought of becoming adventurous – a spirit we carried about during the entire trip. Though I was told that all yellow taxi drives are cheats, I went up to one of them. This driver, I found, had not heard of the place. I almost decided that he was cheating me by showing ignorance, but as soon as I told him that the place is around 16 kilometers prior to Diamond Harbour, he became interested. I told him to consult someone and also informed him that the distance up to the resort would be, at the most, 65 km from the station and that I wished to pay around 500 rupees. He went hither and thither, and I must say he was acting cautious and was almost taking me for a cheat. I went to get my family and he went to gather information. When we met after 5 minutes, he said that he would take 600 rupees. I immediately said 550, and the deal was settled. He said that I should note the meter reading as well as kilometer reading, and that if the distance was more than 65 kilometers, I would have to pay extra. The taxi was not well maintained, but the driver ensured that it would take me safely.

We went across the river from the new bridge, where there is a toll of R10. As soon as we crossed the bridge, we got the Diamond Harbour road. This driver was a bit wary of me and wanted to confirm. I asked him to stop the taxi so that I could take out the directions mentioned in the RCI confirmation voucher. There he saw one taxi driver who looked to be his friend. I think he went to him for guidance. He came back confident and told me that the other taxi fellow said that if he is afraid, then he can give the passengers (us) to him. On the way, when the taxi slowed down, I casually asked the distance, and this fellow said something that was making the total distance more than 65km. But by now, I was fully confident and told him that I would pay handsomely for the extra distance. We became friends thereafter for the entire journey. The distance was 58 kilometers, and I paid him R600.

Thereafter, I took the instructions of the native people with a pinch of salt a habit for the entire period - and it paid. I learnt that the people of West Bengal talk about everything that is good modestly and everything that is slightly bad vehemently. They probably want you to take back only the happy memories. I must advise to, in West Bengal, make a lot of inquiries and have a spirit of adventure. The directions may seem to be quite cumbersome and difficult, involving lots of changes, but the end result will generally be satisfactory.

In some seasons, there is a launch service from Howrah to Belur Math. The same was not there in May. There are plenty of trains from Howrah to Belur. The journey time in case of trains is quite less but the Belur math station is a couple of kilometers away, so ultimately, it takes the same time whether you reach it by bus or by train.

The temple is beautiful but not of outstanding beauty. My wife is a great follower of this ‘mission’; there is a hall where one can meditate in peace in front of the statue of Shri Ramakrishna. I did not find the atmosphere as serene as many other ashrams of the same mission. This could be because our visit coincided with the death of the President Maharaj of the mission, resulting in a great crowd. There were a lot of scholars and saints moving around. I found talking to them quite interesting.

There is a big bookshop here, and there are a lot of books on ancient Indian scriptures and philosophy. The books are very nicely written, and I spent a lot of time reading them. I asked some questions to one of the saints for his views. This learned person not only gave his views but also presented me with four books written on the same subject. The math serves wholesome simple vegetarian food. The charges for this are Rs.5 only. There are regular discourses on a variety of topics. The details of these are written on the board outside the main temple. There are ‘aartees’ and ‘bhajans’ (devotional songs) also. The gardens in the math are nicely maintained. The river Ganges/ Hoogly flows by the side and looks magnificent. The room in which Shri Vivekananda used to stay has been kept in nearly similar shape. There are three more small temples and ‘samadhis’ of some disciples of Shri Ramakrishna by the side of the river.

My visit was fruitful, owing to the discussions I had with one of the saints. If someone is interested in a crash course on ancient Indian scriptures and thoughts then this place is highly recommended. They have a simple guesthouse that can be booked in advance. It could be better to write to the ‘math’ and arrange an appointment with one of the saints.

Luckily, the family in the adjacent unit also became interested and were ready to take the risk of getting stranded for some time at Diamond Harbour. The journey through the river was memorable: the river started widening, the greenery started becoming dense, the sun was looking like a red ball, and the horizon was covered in a plethora of colours, like orange, yellow, blue, and pink. There were small villages with villagers in tribal dresses on the way. Portuguese structures started becoming visible once we came near to the Diamond Harbour. It was an 80-minute journey on two launches. We were on the top (roof) of the launch, so we had an unrestricted view in all directions. The children had never experienced anything like this before and were thrilled.

It was dark by the time we reached Diamond Harbour. We had to make a choice to go back immediately or to eat at Sagarika and check how to go back once the dinner was over. There were four or five jeeps visible at the port. We decided to stay, thinking that we would surely hire one of the jeeps. The lonely ship in the port had put on all its lights and was looking like a happy bridegroom. There was silence all around--the only sound was of the water hitting the walls. We were sure that nothing could go badly on this lovely evening.

The hotel arranged a cruise on the river. It charged Rs.200 per person. We had done a longer cruise and had spent only Rs.15 per person. The experience at the Hotel Sagarika was a happy surprise. I wish to cover it separately under dining experiences. When we came out, it was 9pm, and there was not a being on the road. Now we were frightened. We kept on walking and met some drunkards on the way, but we could not make any inquiry because of language problems. Then we saw a bus going in the direction of Raichak. We just boarded that bus, thinking that we would make inquiries with the conductor. Before we could make any inquiry, the bus stopped at a petrol pump. Here I saw a seven-seater auto rickshaw. I asked him the amount he would charge to take us to Raichak, and he said something which sounded like 100 rupees. We all just jumped into the rickshaw. The roads were dark, and the only light that was there was from the moon and the stars above. The moon looked like a bright, heavenly, beautiful saviour from between the tall trees on either side of the road. I confirmed again and again that the driver had understood the destination and we had understood the amount to be paid. There was no problem, and within 40 minutes, we were at the resort. I think our children will never forget this trip all their lives.

As soon as you enter through the huge ‘gateway to the Fort’, the club is on the right-hand side. There is a huge terrace chessboard, a small discotheque (non-air-conditioned), a swimming pool, a gym, table tennis, air hockey table, sauna and massage room, etc., here. The activities include fishing, kite-flying, archery, cycling, etc. The swimming pool does not have a lifeguard, so care has to be taken. The staff is very helpful, simple, and knowledgeable. If required, they can be requested to take care when the kids are in the swimming pool. There is a small rent for cycling, but the friendly activity manager allowed us free use. The hotel gets a lot of guests in the weekends, so most of the activities of the activity center are done on the weekends. The weekends, in fact, keep you fully occupied. You start with yoga in the morning, and later there are water games, group activities, bird-watching, cookery classes, painting competition, treasure hunt, live music, and disco. I suggest that the visitors should visit adjoining areas on weekdays and keep weekends for the resort.

The Serena Spa offers various natural treatments – massage, Jacuzzi, herbal face mask, water therapy, and aromatherapy. The staff has been trained at their training center in Bangalore. The spa has branches all over the country. There are separate trained specialists for ladies and gents. The architect who has designed the spa must be a great creator. The place oozes out energy. There are two restaurants; the one at the ground floor was always closed. The one at the second floor offered buffet meals on weekends and a la carte on other days. There is a good choice of Indian and Chinese food. The Bengali cuisine was not available, the reason being that most of the guests are Bengalis who may not relish there own food, even on a vacation. We were told that on special occasions like New Year and Durga Puja, traditional Bengali fare is served. The high point, apart from the modern décor of the restaurant, is the terrace garden outside. The place gives a magnificent view of the expanse of the river, the boats and the greenery on the other side. The sunset is especially beautiful – invigorating.

The bar below, on the first floor, has a glass on the Western Wall. The same view of the river and the sunset can be seen through the glass while not missing your cocktails. The prices of the food, as well as the drinks, do not seem high if you are from Mumbai.

The lounge on the ground floor has a glass roof, and there are big, big beautiful paintings all around. Newspapers are available. There is a piano, which my daughter liked playing everyday.

Photographs of the Portuguese fort in-charge and his family, ammunition, swords and old umbrellas can be seen everywhere on the walls. They add to the theme of the old Portuguese fort on which the place is built.