The one where 'we wait for 3 hours for Chitralekha to show up'

27th September 2009. A 6.00 am alarm gets me up and ready to shower and leave for the Sunderbans. Tigers are roaming about in my head - I am aware that there are extremely slim chances of anything happening but I can't resist the idea of seeing a true blue Royal Bengal tiger. I have seen so much footage of the place and well anything can happen.

T joined me at this stage. For those who came in late, T is my travelling companion for this trip. We have a comfort zone and I am not fazed by the fact that I am traveling with this boy alone. During the course of the trip, people get fazed which was super fun to see...people are sooo curious...anyways that is a story for much later.

We left the Tourism Centre on time and our guide spoke only in Bengali on the bus. We asked around for translations and thus met a very nice family from Hyderabad - all Microsoft :) It took us little more than 1.5 hours to get to the pier where we had to board our boat...


Then began the long interminable wait. 3 HOURS! :o Hot sun, let me correct myself, hot, sweaty sun and it didn't really matter how many liquids we drank honestly! The sweat poured off us even in the shade...highly aggravating and our guide - all he had to say, 'Medem, the boat is coming'. Bloddy it had been coming for the last three hours man!

Well I gotta say the three hours gave me these shots so I won't crib too much :) The boat showed up - Chitralekha in all her glory.


Our journey began into the Sunderbans - beautiful, lonely and serene. It fills you with peace and makes you marvel at nature.


We witnessed the after effects of Hurricane 'Aila' where sandbags had been placed to rebuild embankments. We got people waving at us ...yaay.. :"D Great evening and a lovely sunset full of forked lightning, dal chawal and riotous pink colours against a dark blue sky....