EcoPark

 One place we had in the list to do from day one was the Eco park. We had mixed opinion. 

Finally after visiting Gangasagar reached Eco park the same evening. Lo and Behold , she welcomed us with rain shower, after a day spend in scorching heat. 

It was beautiful to see the 7 wonders and take pictures in front of them. 

Even better was the walk around the lake, and into the island. Looked very beautiful at night, with a view of Eiffle tower and places around. 

Driver told us all was paddy field, they took mud from some places increased the height of other places and low area they made lake. 

Wanted to try to get on Biswa Bangla Gate and have food there, but we had to book online. So returned home. Trying all the different sweets at Gate 3 Mishti centre had made our tummy full already. 

Gangasagar

It's morning,  you see the Sunrays by 5 am. Started my solo trip to Gangasarar at it was like 8 or 9 am in Kerala. 

Option was two, Ganga Sagar vs. Sajnekhali choice was obvious. Had always wanted to see the point where Ganga go and meet the Bay of Bengal. The intersection of river and sea. Well we know there is another branch of Ganga flowing to Bangladesh with the name Padma and meet Bay of Bengal in Bangladesh too. 

If we look at , it is just another place where river meets the sea, but this is the place where Ganga water presumed to be sweet, not polluted with all the waste from different places, becomes salty. 

The Sagar Beach is located on the tip of the Sagardwip, which is popularly known as Gangasagar to most pilgrims across the world. The beach is flooded with lakhs of tourists every year as they make their way to Sagardwip for a holy dip in the Ganges. Apart from being part of an iconic religious pilgrimage, the pristine beach is a calm, soothing place to enjoy sun.

Gangasagar Mela is held at Gangasagar, Sagar Dwip. The place belongs to South 24 Parganas district, West Bengal. The Mela is organized around Kapil Muni's ashram. The site of the Mela is on the banks of the confluence of the Ganges and the Bay of Bengal.

Kapila Muni Ashram at the other end on the Island is the point of worship. 

Took a taxi , then ferry, then bus and then toto for the local sight seeing, and returned the same way. 

Interesting this is there were no cars that I saw on the road, either in my 30 kms each to and fro...bus drive or in my walk around in ToTo. 

'Subh teerth bhar bhar Ganga sagar eak bhar'.

The other option was Sajnekhali is the gateway to the Sundarbans and houses the head office of the Forest Department, covering approximately 6,110 hectares of land under Gosaba Block. The watchtowers remain the most popular because of their proximity to the resorts in the Sundarbans area. A panoramic view of the Sundarbans can be seen from the Sajnekhali watch tower, which is a natural delight. A nature interpretation centre, a Bono Bibi Temple, and a crocodile park are built in the Sajnekhali watchtower complex. According to the 2004 government census, 27 tigers have been spotted in the area. Apart from tigers, the Sajnekhali forest also offers shelter to animals like fishing cats, wild boar, Macaques, flying foxes, Chital, Pangolin and others. The most sought-after sights that a bird watcher can witness are the seven colourful species of the Kingfisher, the White-bellied Sea Eagle, Plovers, Lap-Wings, Curfews, Whimprels, Sandpipers, and the occasional pelican.

Return was to the other end, Ecopark. Speaking about West Bengal's politics, people and places. 

Saw the beautiful Swami Narayan Temple enroute. 

Saw the way to Gangulai's house at Behala Chowda, the driver told his experience of taking Ganguli's friend to see and bride and he had thought Ganguli accompanying him would be good, but it turned out that he whole attention was on Ganguli and nobody paid any attention to the boy. So the decision to take Ganguli proved wrong...

Saw Aamthala main market, Ghadiyahatt - Punjabi shops are good for shopping. 

Howra Bridge - Navanou building is were political discussions happed since Mamta Banerjee took over,  before that it was Writers building during communist govt Dalhousie.

Mamta Banerjee is a doctor, lawyer, painter - her painting would be auctioned for crores untill the constant buyer and business man was jailed. Spoke about  Subrotho Sen, Ranjan Ghosh, Mukul Roy, Subendhu Adhikari, Abhijith Ganguli and her own Abhishek.  Sanjeev Goenka - owner of Electric city; Harsh Neotia, Nakoda Musjid, Trump building with swimming pool up. 

As we reached the New Calcutta, said that 6 Baligunj palace was good place for authentic food, it is the name of the place where the first restaurant started but they have branches all over. There was a famous Coffee house song during olden days, people gathered to talk and discuss. Calcutta railway station was in North Calcutta. 

We went through Salt Lake City. Sector 5 was were all IT companies were situated. Biswa is world, Sarani is road, everything constructed new is Trademarked as Biswa Bangla. 

Saw the Biswa Bangla gate and the  Biswa Bangla Sarani

 As rain welcomed us and we reached Eco park Gate 4, passing through other three gates, Vivekananda town hall, constructed like the hall where he delivered the Chicago address and the Wax museum. 

Nature - Balance - Water

 Nature is a beautiful example of balance.

When it rains for 5 days straight, the clouds don’t apologize to us for a lack of balance between their drops and the sun’s rays.

When the wind blows, it doesn’t apologize for taking some sort of balance away from the stillness of a wind-less day.

Nature does what it needs to do and is fully present when doing it. That is balance. Simply being here now in whatever we are doing.

Everything we do in our lives is a spiritual practice, if we are present in it.

The moment we begin to try and fix a situation in the past or obsess over the planning of one in the future, we lose balance. We act from a place of guilt, or shame or fear... “I should’ve done that, I wish I’d done this.”

A lot of our anxiety comes from how we think it is supposed to be. Acceptance of just how it is, then, is beautiful balance 😊

True beaches and water 💧 do help bring more tranquility.

And as Achan would always say, for a torrential rain for days, just one sunshine is enough to keep the balance. 

No wonder settlements are on water banks.