Sagar Island

Woh kehte hai na, sab teerth baar baar Gangasagar ek baar.

Having lived in Calcutta for almost 21 years, we had never been to the Sagar Island and hence Gangasagar, the southernmost tip of Bengal, one of the islands of the largest delta in the world (Sunderbans) where the Holy river Ganges flows into the Bay of Bengal (Ganga and Sagar).

We left early on the 2nd of Jan, 2011, at 0730 hrs in a TATA Sumo. Reaching Gangasagar is a tough job. You need to take a bus/hired vehicle that'll take you to the Lot No. 8, also known as Harwood Point, which is about 75-80 kms from Kolkata. As it was an early Sunday morning of a fresh new year, the car was cruising blindly past Ganguly's home, IIM-C, Diamond Harbour among other places. The morning chill was hitting the face squarely and I was feeling the goosebumps.

After a duration of 2:25 hrs, we finally reached Harwood Point, a jetty on the Hooghly river through which one ferries across to the Sagar Island. The ferry operates every hour starting from 0500 hrs in the morning, though timings change frequently due to change in tides. The Hooghly river at this point is about 3.3 kms in length and at present there is no rail or road bridge connecting the two sides. The West Bengal Government, though, is planning to connect it with a road bridge at an estimated cost of about Rs 6000 million.

From the mainland

The ferry takes Rs 6.50 per person, but charges rocket up to Rs 50 during Mela time (which occurs in Mid January on Makar Sankranti). About 6-8 lakh pilgrims reach the Sagar to take a dip in the holy waters during the mela every year. We got ourselves three tickets and started to proceed towards the ferry. The freezing chill winds of the Ganges was enough to produce reverberations in the body and sent a chill down the spine every second.

On the island

We scrambled for seats and got them luckily. The ferry takes about 25 minutes to cross the river and the flow of the river made us zoom to the other side. We reached the other side, where only buses or small vans carry people to the Gangasagar. We shared an ACE Magic with another family. There is only one road that cuts through the heart of the island and there are a lot (and I mean lots of) of bumpers along the way. We reached Sagar in 45 minutes thanks to the sheer flying of the ACE Magic van (It's a pretty fantastic van, I must admit).

We then walked to the sea to take a dip. There are 5 roads at present leading to the shores, to accommodate the lakhs of pilgrims during the Mela. We were at Road No. 3, where the famous Kapil Muni Temple rests. It is about a km from the shore, and it is said that during the Mela, the waters of the ocean touches the feet of the temple, submerging everything else in and around the temple. The only source of electricity is from the four windmills constructed specially for the Mela.

Kapil Muni Temple

After taking the dip in the chill waters, and praying in the temple, we sat at a small hut for tea and lunch. Refreshing ourselves, we then left the Sagar. Sagar consists of lots of hungry dogs (and they are seriously very hungry), lots of beggars, and lots of bumpers along the road. On our return trip the ACE Magic was literally flying on the road, only just kissing the ground barely. It took us around 35 minutes to reach the jetty, where we boarded the ferry back to the mainland.

Crowd in ferry

The ferry was overloaded with almost 300 passengers, and we couldn't get a seat this time. The ferry was battling the opposite flow of the river and we could see a couple of oil rigs in the midst of it.

Oil Rig

As soon as we were reaching the shore, the ferry stopped and it was due to the sudden low tide that the ferry was unable to dock into the shore. Frantic people helplessly started talking and we couldn't do much than wait. Even though we could see the jetty at 50 meters from where we were and we could do nothing. There is no emergency evacuation measures there, and one has to wait only till the high tide comes.

Mighty Hooghly

All weird sorts of ideas kept coming in my mind, like sending a S.O.S Morse Code through the bells of the ferry, sending a S.O.S. through the smoke of the ferry, calling 911, praying the moon to affect the tides, updating my Facebook status (which I did), throwing ropes to the shore and asking pulling people to pull the ferry, among others.

Low Tide

Finally after a wait of almost 1:35 hrs, the tide did rise, and the ferry was shoved against another one, which was docked. Finally, we climbed through the other ferry and reached the jetty. Had a hot adrakh-ki-chai and finally was on our way back to our home ! The adventure didn't end there. The National Highway 117 is a single lane highway, which can hardly occupy two buses at the same time. There was a hell of a traffic jam, and we were caught in the jam for about 2 hrs. We finally reached home at 2100 hrs and had some garma-garam soup and finally slept off to a very tiring journey.

Directions

Even though the trip was physically and mentally very tiring, I and my parents enjoyed every moment of it and it is very rightly said sab teerth baar baar, Gangasagar ek baar !