Ghatsila - Holi khela

The day I returned to Kolkata from Sikkim, I got a call in the evening from a school friend to meet up. I passed, since I was too tired that day. But others from the group, which now includes their spouses as well, met and called me to "inform" that I was going with them to Ghatsila during the Holi holidays. Not request, not ask, but inform! Being the only bachelor in the group has it's own "dis"-advantages :(

So anyway, we took an early morning train to Ghatsila, Jharkhand. It had rained there the night before making the weather very pleasant. We didn't waste much time and a quick lunch later went out to explore the area. First up was Burudih lake, a result of the creation of Burudih dam, a few kilometers away from the town. The "jungle" route was scenic, but not for those with a bad back. We did some paddle boating in the beautiful lake, and moved on to Phuldugri hills. Supposedly quite a number of movies have been shot there, but we couldn't really see why! We did some still photo shooting of our own there and came back to the town. We spoke to a lot of people, and almost all of them warned us not to venture out on Holi day. Apparently, it gets "nasty"! We were a little disappointed at this, since we wanted to see a few more places the next day. But once back to our hotel, we managed to drown our disappointment over a few drinks, and enjoyed ourselves with a lot of singing, eating and talking.
Burudih lake

The next morning, two of us went out to figure out the scene. We were quite surprised to see that at 07:30 in the morning, a shoe shop and a clothes shop was open - that too on Holi! We didn't find a single person with colors smeared on them! So we came back to our hotel, and discussed the possibility of venturing out. But instead of getting ready, we started playing Holi amongst ourselves in the hotel, and made quite a mess of ourselves and the common room. Meanwhile the streets were also full of people in colorful colors. We were pleasantly surprised to see that people weren't going bizzare with strangers on the road. The revelers would ask for permission and then smear gulaal (aabir) or water colors. When I went out to buy some more colors, two of them politely said "Happy Holi", and only put colors on my arm. We didn't see a single water baloon being thrown. The funny thing was, the drunk ones seemed to be more keen on throwing their own shirts up in the air and catching them than throwing colors!
It's ok if you don't recognize me

Post lunch we could have gone out, but since one of us was not feeling too well, we stayed back and rested. In the evening, we played a lot of dumb charade, and really got involved. As you can imagine, there were a lot of dumb-ness in dumb charade, and quite a few laughter champion moments. It went on till late in the night, but still, some of us got so involved, that they actually woke up in the middle of the night to jot down a few difficult movie names for the next day's play!
The hands that played Holi

The next morning, we went to visit the Subarnarekha river. It was more like a stream, and my guess is, it has a lot to do with the Burudih dam holding the water. We lingered there for a while, strolled for a while, had our breakfast, and came back to our hotel for some more dumb charade! Post lunch, we took the train back to Kolkata. Even there, we "adjusted" with others so that we could be in the same seat-cubicle, and played yet more dumb charade!
Subarnarekha river

Believe it or not, this was my first trip with school friends, and it doesn't get much better than this. I am already looking forward to more trips with them. The post trip party is next weekend, where we are sure to discuss a longer trip :)

15 comments:

Anuradha said...

Good to see you having loads of fun (the pic. says it all :) ) and back to your traveling days.. Enjoy !!

~ ॐ ~ said...

Teri Jeevansaathi.com ke liye foto mil gai mujhe finally :)

kitna achcha lag raha hai tu !!!

and I am glad that you had a pleasant surprise outside on the Holi Day...

:)

I am said...

Sounds like a full fun trip. Best wishes for more such trips. Cheers.

Subhadip said...

@Anu
:) And now I have loads of interesting movies to watch.. thanks to you. I owe you one :)

@Om
Hai na? Yeh pic to will-never-get-a-saathi.com ke liye ideal hai :P

@Tanu
Full fun, it was. Cheers :)

~ ॐ ~ said...

nai bhai... isme tere asli rang dikh rahe hain... teri aatma ke... moonh kala dil safed :)

perfect photo hai ye... :P

Butterfly said...

Its good that such a surprise trip came along the way of a person like you who loves to travel a lot. Wish you more happiness :-)

How long did it take to go to Ghatsila? And, the people there are actually so polite? Its hard to believe because Holi is very nasty here, in Kolkata.

RB said...

Arre kya sahi photu hai!! :)

And of course, the post clearly tells that you had lots of fun.

What's the next destination? :)

Reeta Skeeter said...

lol@ ur pic...good that you enjoyed!

Anonymous said...

i have done a road trip in entire damodar valley project..some of the areas are so beautiful and the best part is they are not at all crowded.......

great holi pic.......

Subhadip said...

@Om
:)

@Butterfly
Thanks. It takes a little more than three hours to reach Ghatsila. And people there are actually decent when compared to people here, at least when it comes to playing Holi.

@RB
:) Next destination is ... I don't know yet.

@Skeets
:)

@Deeps
Yup... that belt is nice and uncrowded. When did you visit this part though?

Anonymous said...

baapre... u had some fun i see.. n i was really scared seeing u dat way[:P] lols... i gues only eys were visible in ur whole face :D

but u managed to click gud pics.. i almost painted my camera wid all colors while taking pics though i cudn't take good pics as usual... :(

Sujoy Bhattacharjee said...

Yo there, Queen fan! That was a trip...who said that Holi was about drunken revelry? Dumb charades can be as much fun if not more.
With the kind of dipped-in-a-paint-drum picture, I guess the colours are still visible on your face.

Cheerio!

Subhadip said...

@Arpita
Yeah, even a kid there got scared of me and said "Bhoot"!! Can't blame you :)
There's always the risk of damaging the camera during Holi... but I think it's worth the risk.

@Sujoy
Thanks for visiting, and thank heavens you understood the Queen part... I have to explain too many people why it's "Bohemian Rhapsody"!!!! And no jokes.. I still have some color from Holi on me!

Piggy Little said...

marvellous photographs. really brilliant. i love the one with the hands especially. :)

neha

Subhadip said...

Thanks Neha :)
Welcome to my blog.