Last week I took a mini vacation and went to a trip to the Sundarbans (the largest Mangrove forest in the world, formed on the delta of the Ganga and the Bramhaputra). I hadn’t realized that it was so close – Gosaba, which is the gateway to the forests is only around 2 and a half hours drive from my house. (we took a “package tour”, which minimized the hassles as we got a car taking us from Kolkata to Gosaba, and at Gosaba a launch was waiting to take us into the forest)

We arrived on a day when Cyclone Reshmi was approaching the region, and the first night in the forest was to put it mildly… interesting . Fortunately the skies cleared up on the second day, and for the next two days, we had an awesome experience, including one of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve ever seen in my life.

More photos in this Flickr set.

..and no – I did not see any tigers – we were busy hopping around from one watchtower to another.

Durga Pujo changes the face of the city, at least to a certain extent. Here are some of the things I came across while wandering around in the neighbourhood (all of these are makeshift structures, in case you are wondering):

Sometime I feel sad.. thinking that these will be pulled down by the end of this week . But, on the other hand, as they say, “আসছে বছর আবার হবে” (we’ll be back next year) .