The New Nation - Internet Edition

Mohammad Shahidul Islam

The winter tempted us last year to beguile with a cost helpful West Bengal Tour. We knew the name of Digha beach dramatically. Once we had some pensive practices to envisage West Bengal through reading Desh and Shakti Chattopadhyay. In Chittagong University, we had a literary circle from where we publish little magazine and we had to meet giant literary personalities like Professor Dr. Alauddin Al Azad and Professor Maiukh Chowdhury for Bengali poetry or story. Honorable sir Maiukh Chowdhury encouraged us, while we wanted a poem from him, to go to Dhiga for writing poems ourselves. He disagreed to give us any poem further as always we disturbed him for poetry. He had been annoyed with us since we had lost his a newly composed poem once. He softly voiced; "you write your own poems, I would not give you any poem." We asked how? He replied" Go to Digha, you will find elements". We came to know first time Dhiga from Maiukh Chowdhury sir. The name was engraved in our heart. We spiritually anticipated visiting the place in times to come. But interestingly we never knew that Digha is a name of mind-blowing beach. We thought that it could be a place of literature fostering. Really Digha could make us full of feelings for poetry.

The story of West Bengal was not new to us as we had habituation with West Bengal Literature. From Chittagong, we could smell Dhaka City through Shanshur Rahaman. So, we firmly took West Bengal as another part of Bangladesh. 6th January 2006 Friday, our Dhiga travel started on one windy night from Shamoly. The bus anchored near by Kolkata New Market. Except some behavioral culture, everything is not very way from our homeland. It was about 10 am in the morning. The weather was gentle. Either we were sweating or feeling cool. We choose a middle class hotel named Hotel Shabnom. The receptionist bowed to us and handed out a key with an artistic ring where we clearly discovered an image of goddess.

We decided to go to Digha in the following morning. But why not Kolkata Sightseeing tour after lunch? We did not bother for sleeping or taking rest. Though it was really tough to travel Kolkata city by 4 or 5 hours. Because we had only 5 hours until sun set. Already we had collected much information of Digha and Kolkata City from Front Desk personnel Mr. Dipak Roy.

Kolakata is one of the most captivating cities of the world. This is a city of music, theatre, historical buildings and interesting side streets. The former capital of British India, Kolkata has grown into one of the largest metropolitan cities of the world. First we visited Victoria Memorial. It is sited near the Maidan[locally called Gader Math], the Victoria Memorial is an exquisite structure made of white marble built in the memory of Queen Victoria. On the death of Queen Victoria in January 1901, Lord Curzon, who was then Viceroy of India, placed before the public, the question of setting up a fitting memorial to the Queen. He suggested that the most suitable memorial would be a "stately", spacious, monumental and grand building surrounded by a wonderful garden.

We sat on the cemented bench on the bank of lake. We found some white skinned tourists were passing fantastic moments through gossiping and reading books. The cozy grassy land resembled Chittagong War Cemetery which was our weekly literary rendezvous. For the entry to the park, we had to pay 4Rs for each. At Victoria Memorial park we had been suddenly reluctant to see Kolkata's other sights. The scenic park was satiating our both eyes and tiredness that captured us almost 20 hours journey by bus. We could not be fortunate enough to enter the museum. The ticket was a bit costly for foreigners. We forgot that we were foreigners there; an alike part of Bangladesh. We straight went back hotel. We were preparing to have or enjoy a quite long travel to our scheduled Digha for which we had been instructed once to practice poetry and to fuel thirsty young souls.

We were informed that frequent Bus services to Digha are available daily. From the Shahid Minar and Howrah bus stations at Kolkata city, every half an hour, buses leave for Digha. The average travel time on direct bus services from Kolkata to Digha is supposed to take five hours. But our bus took us 7 hours as it was taking us saying direct service but it shaped local service in its way on. Any way, its intervals on many stations and places legally or illegally came to entertain us a lot. The far away villages looked from the bus personally enlightened me to produce 2 Haikus:

1

The green village

Becomes red in heart

Bucolic girls were swimming in the field!

2

Dewdrops from hemp,

date juice heartening

chicks on yard, sun rises.

We were doggedly hungry when we reached Digha, 187 km away from Kolkata. At the same time, different natural calls were gnawing tremendously. The weather humidified us. We felt urgent to have cool bath in the winter. We had an address from Hotel Shabnom to locate another one at Digha. So we paid no much time to get up a hotel beside the Digha beach. The spurring of shops and hotels around the beach is almost like Cox's Bazaar. In comparison, our development is better. But they are cheaper and cleaner.

Digha is a breathtakingly beautiful beach, a true paradise for nature lovers. The casuarinas plantations along the coast are so captivating! The calm sea is so charming! Indeed Digha is seven long kilometers of fun and frolic! The scenic beauty of this place is charming and luring. These trees apart from beautifying the sands also aid in reducing the erosion on the dunes. One can view both sunrise and sunset at Digha sea beach. The sunsets and sunrises reflecting off the salty waters of the Bay of Bengal are something straight off an artist's easel. The British discovered Digha, originally known as Beerkul during Warren Hastings time in the late 18th century. It is mentioned as the "Brighton of the East" in one of Warren Hasting's letters (1780 AD) to his beloved.

In 1923, an English tourist John Frank Smith was charmed by the beauty of Digha and started living here. His writings about Digha slowly gave exposure to this place. After independence, he convinced West Bengal's chief minister Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy to develop Digha as a beach resort.

It is fantastic to know that the sea is safe for swimming. So one may take a plunge! Close to Digha are the other tourist attractions like Chandaneswar, a renowned ancient Shiva temple; Shankarpur, a private beach with casuarinas plantations. For keepsakes and gifts Digha offers items made up of seashells and other local materials on the seashore itself. Then there are the renowned hand woven mats that are made of weeds are available in variety of colors. While shopping at Digha you just cannot skip the so very famous cashew nuts.

Our enjoyment in Digha was so mesmerizing. We savored coconut shrimps so cheaply; perhaps it will take us about 1000 taka in Bangladesh instead of 150Rs. We met some fishermen in their village. We talked to some broken faces of a broken neighborhood. They were the producer of heavenly shrimps. We produced another haiku:

Helmsmen; broken face-

sail for wide blue sea,

silvery fish, yummy!

Indeed Digha is another lovely sister of Cox's Bazar, Kuakata and Patenga beaches on the lap of Bay of Bengal. Thanks a million to Professor Maiukh Chowdhury Sir to sparkle the place for discovery.

Mohammad Shahidul Islam

Faculty

National Hotel and Tourism Training Institute,

Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation

National Tourism Organization

Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism.