Wherever I go, whatever I experience there is one thought
that is always in my mind along with other fleeting ones. Will I be able to
blog about this? Well yes, I take blogging way too seriously, even though it is
not my profession (read I do not earn a single penny from blabbering crap here). During
my entire stay in the miserable town of Midnapore I tried very hard to
experience everything with utmost optimism so that I could come back and tell
stories about it. Human mind has its own way of processing things and memories
can more or less always be recalled with a certain degree of detachment and
sometimes with humour. So now when I look back at the events I can reminisce in
a more amusing tone. But don’t mistake it with my actual state of mind when I was
living those incidents.
I had a lot of expectations about our day trip to Jhargram. I
was eager to see the beauty of forest in monsoon. I wanted to
follow the trail through the woods that wound down to the bank of Dulung River. I
wanted to visit the ruins of Chilkigarh fort. Unfortunately none of these could
pan out, thanks to the heavy downpour that started immediately after we crossed
the Kangsabati River and about 5 hours later when we were reaching back to Midnapore town it was still raining as if it was the end of the world.
As ironical as it might sound the journey from Midnapore to
Jhargram turned pleasant and more scenic due to this rain only. The endless stretches
of paddy fields were looking greener with clusters of grey nimbus clouds
hanging over them. Kangsabati could barely contain her youthfulness in between
the two banks. Two staffs of our district office who were accompanying us were
telling us stories of 1978 how flood had come and washed the entire region
away. The names of the villages we were crossing were weird and unique –
Gurguripal, Kankabati, Kalshi Bhanga. The picture was pretty much the same. Log
huts, some were two storeyed, schools, market, and acres of paddy fields where
the plants had just been sown. After entering Jhargram the scenery began to
change slowly. Now we were running past clusters of tall eucalyptus and sal
trees. We had entered the famous jangal mahal of Bengal. We spotted a CRPF camp
on the way. Our guide cum companion told us how these areas used to be infested
with naxalites even a few years ago. Now they had retreated back to the forests
of Jharkhand and Uttarakhand.
When we reached the famous Kanak-Durga temple rain had
stopped. But the sky was looking gloomier than ever. Dark clouds had started
accumulating like premonition when we got off the car and started walking
through the narrow trail leading up to the temple. We were told that the trees
here showed a particular trait of being knotty and most of them had some sort
of medicinal value. The jungle was so thick at parts that it was feeling even
darker.
The temple was devoid of any human except for the two
priests relaxing on the stairs. They urged us to go inside and pay our homage
to the resident goddess. Even though it was named as Durga temple the goddess
did not appear to be nowhere like Durga. Instead the goddess had four arms and
she rode on what seemed like a donkey. As I said the place was devoid of any
human but it was full of other creatures. Dogs and lot and lots of monkeys. No sooner
than we stepped out of the temple rain started again. And this time it came
with all its might. We took shelter in the nearby tea stall looking helplessly
outside. One by one the monkeys disappeared from the view. We remained stuck
there and the rain continued.
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Can you spot the monkey? |
Dark had already begun to set in when we finally left the
temple premises and started out for our next destination – the palace of
Jhargram. Sarveshwar Singh Chauhan was the General under Raja Man Singh. In 1570 AD when Akbar granted Man Singh subedaari of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa he came all the way from Rajasthan to conquer Bengal. He defeated the Malla king, the contemporary tribal ruler of Mallabhum that consisted of Bankura, and parts of Burdwan, Birbhum, Midnapore and Purulia. Chauhan became the king of Junglekhand and took the title of Malla Ugal Sanda Dev. Here I have a little doubt though. As per historical accounts the old Malla dynasty lasted till 1983 AD. In that case was the Mallabhum region partly ceded to the new king, only the Jhargram area?
Built in 1931 the new palace is the resident of the royal family as well as a heritage hotel. We were already half drenched in rain and it was getting very difficult to manage umbrella in one hand and trying to click pictures at the same time. The palace garden was full of shrubbery and in the dark we did not dare to explore much in fear of snakes. We couldn’t enter inside the palace but we got to visit the two temples inside the premises. The rain was continuing in the same tempo. Halfheartedly we started our return journey. Maybe someday I would come back and complete my trip to Jhargram with the person without whom my journey was incomplete anyway.
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