Utterly Shocked In Tajpur!

 It was Independence day and everyone was planning a ride, the big glorious ‘Independence Day Ride’. Partly because everyone had a holiday that day, well in lockdown most people are surviving a long holiday anyway. I didn’t have a holiday on independence day, neither in normal time, nor in lockdown time. My bad luck. But my weekly off from job happened to be the day after independence day. So we planned our big ride on 16th. This time our team consisted of me and my brother Piku.

At 1000km mark

On 16th morning as I was riding back from Santragachi, I couldn’t help noticing so many people are out riding, some in small groups and some in big groups. After reaching home I quickly packed our bag, put on our riding gear and hopped on ‘Safed Hathi’ my Himalayan. Within 15km the bike hit its first 1000km mark. So I stopped to record the moment. I took picture of the ‘cockpit’. Thanks to Royal Enfield, my dash was so fogged up that the odometer reading was unreadable. It kind of made the photograph very personal though. Whenever we would see the photo, only we two would know that 1000.00 was written under that fog. Anyway weather was good with lots of cloud in the sky which made the photographs interesting.

We have miles to go.

Tamluk to digha road, everyone knows how it is. But that day, number of bus and truck was less which was a relief to us. But there were numerous tourist vehicles and bikes. We wondered how many people are going to the sea! It really didn’t felt like lockdown at all. So over a cup of tea, we discussed about our final destination. Tajpur was always my favorite destination among the beaches of Purba Medinipur. Partly because of its water color and partly because it stays a bit less crowded always.

At Tajpur but Chandpur side

All the sand washed away

An alien landscape

We reached Tajpur in due time. Road was bad between Narghat and Bajkul as road construction work was going on. But surprise was waiting for us at Tajpur. First we went to Chandpur side. A huge wall made of wooden log separated the beach from the road. We climbed up and over the wall and the beach looked like some alien planet surface. It was looking eerily beautiful. But sad thing was that soil erosion was wreaking havoc. All the sand from the beach washed away and we were actually standing on clay. But this was not the surprise. After spending sometime we decided to visit the old beach of Tajpur, which had all the shops on the beach.

The famous Tajpur beach

Sandy beach looked like a mirror

A few weeks back when we went to Mandarmani, there was no tourist. We were the only people there except a few local people. But this time Tajpur was so full that we were struggling to find a spot for our bike o park. The beach was full of tourist and cows. We spotted a vacant table in a lonely shop. But within an hour the shop became jam packed. It was a very much concerning situation at this covid times. So we grabbed our stuff and left the place in search of peace.

Our piece of heaven

When you have a bike which is “built for all roads, built for no roads”, finding peace become relatively easy. We spotted a narrow path in between the bushes and followed that. After negotiating some water filled ditches and fallen trees, we found our personal piece of heaven. A slice of lonely beach bordered with casurina plantation. We can see the crowed in the distant but cant hear them. We just sit and enjoyed the solitude there. Red crabs started to come out form there burrows. Once upon a time tajpur beach stayed carpeted with red crabs but now you really have to look for them.

At Narghat bridge

After a few hours we started return journey. We reached near home even before sunset but we really did not wanted to go home so early. So I parked my bike at my newly discovered sunset point. The sunset didnot disappoint us. We watched all the other bike groups that were riding, passed us one by one. A few stopped to capture the sunset there also. Then it was time to go home. End of a very fulfilling day.