Way To Purulia | Purulia | Part 1 | Know Your Planet | Travel

Purulia, West Bengal

The vast grassland on our right and the sun kisses the peak the laterite road ends its journey at the base of the hills; you cannot close your eyes without seeing. It just made us hypnotized.

Change of plan

I was excited for the day. It was my first ever “ride to travel” by two wheelers. I prepared for the day for long and premortem all the possible routes for our journey. The shortest possible route was via Arambag.  But the reluctance to follow the road by fellow riders gave another option. We chose the way via Durgapur. But when we chose the new route it added 50 more kilometers in our dashboard dials.

Unknown 13

The mobile screen was just lightening up, it was around 23:30, and dada told me to come out. I rode on my dada’s Royal Enfield Electra 350’s back seat. He pressed start switch, and she (Electra) started roaring. I waved my mom and Electra started her journey.

We were headed towards Salap Bus Stand from Domjur. Sitting behind was giving me full freedom to exploring and video-graphing. We halted at Salap for others. Within minutes they reached and we started again. 9 pairs of wheels, 13 others and we two were formed a group. They were unknown to me but know to my dada. Talking to people is not a problem, but its hold back to behave friendly. But it was the journey to make new friends, creating a new circle and ranging over an unknown area.

Night queen

July the month of Monsoon and the starry sky! We could not imagine. It added an extra feather in our journey. When we accelerated into the pitch dark then there was only one who followed us; The Moon. It enlightens the area where artificial lights could not reach.

It was around 1 am, we parked our mech. horse beside the road to refresh ourselves. Just 5 minutes; we started again and followed the road NH19, where it would take us. Again an hour long driving and reached Burdwan. I thought that the shop Adi Langcha Bhaban might be a patent one. Whatever it is, whenever it is, we all stop here. We took “too early” breakfast, jokes apart; took some snacks and boosted us to drive again.

It was not a race, so we followed each other, and maintain 60-70 kmph velocity. It was the night when all went for sleep except us, who were headed towards Purulia. The buttery roads and 3 lanes each for up and down moving cars made us Lewis Hamilton.

It is difficult at night to extend your eyes’ optical zoom; it seems like a black layer of non-existed particles all around us. Still, I was able to see some trees beside our road. Sometimes roads were lighted up by the roadside lamp post, sometimes a spark of lights came from roadside Dhaba, and sometimes lights came out from all the small holes of factory buildings.

When nights turn to dawn

We crossed several roads, many flyovers, bridges, leaving behind Panagarh Army Base and reached Durgapur. I covered myself with helmet, full sleeves; only my hand was uncovered. Suddenly I felt a cold water droplet on my palm. Oh! It started. But we did not stop for covering us with rain protector. We drove and it vanishes on the way.

From NH19 we took the road towards Durgapur Barrage. But we stopped to see what our maps showed us. At that time we took a break, getting down from Electra and started exercising to sooth my back.

I was not too brave that I would say “I will drive”. So, again I rode on the back. We crossed the Barrage. After covered some of the distance we saw the road divides the thick forest. Somewhere it was written that “Elephant Corridor”. But we didn’t face anyone.

We were heading towards Bankura. We saw red horizon at the East. It was 4:30 am. It was very fast, like a time machine; it took only 15 minutes to convert the dark sky to blue lighted sky.

Sun appeared for the first time in our journey; now we could see far and far away. It was too green. Actually, we live our life in brick and mortars, so when we saw these it took us to another destination.

The road is so clean and so smooth but only a few vehicles drove like lazy fashion. At that time rain came again, but this time it was showering. We put our rain coats and at-last reached to Purulia Town. We called the person from whom we had taken our documents for the hotel room. He had booked the dormitory in Niharika Ayodhya Hill Top on behalf of us.  

Ayodhya in front

We were the lone riders. We were thinking that where were all the motorable vehicles? Communicative roads were there but the lack of transport systems holds back the wishes of many travelers to come to Purulia. But no roads can compete with the road towards Purulia.

We entered the region, exactly Plateau Region. We saw the Highland, we saw Sal, Teak on our side. Rain stopped and the sprinkling rain made the green more greenery and Red laterite more reddish. We accelerated our flying car. Oh! How beautiful it could be; no one will understand this without taking a look at it. Ayodhya is in front of us and it freezes our vision there.

We were driving and we were getting closer of Ayodhya. At last, we reached there, from where hill road started which would take us on Hill Top.

One of the members

When we stopped in Burdwan, uncle gave me a t-shirt. I saw that everyone wearing the same t-shirt except me, Aunty and Paromita. It was ok for others two, but I was eager to get that one. At last, I got it and I wore it right that time. It was a great feeling. Thanks to Man Machine.

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