Digha compensation

Last monsoon, during my daughter’s school break, I made the bad move of giving her a hair cut against her wishes. She is unreasonably attached to her shoulder length hair, dreams of being Rapunzel when she grows up and gives me a hard time every night. Our bed time ritual of hair brushing becomes a struggle for me and being a firm believer in silence speaks louder than words, Noni winces, grits her teeth and wordlessly help me in untangling her locks.

This lead to the disastrous decision and Noni sulked, moped and in general gave me a hard time. She is a very smart cookie and knows of different ways to get her work done, this time it was to make me feel really sorry for my act. Spot our docile little dog fell prey to her devious ways and everyday I would see him getting dolled up with Noni’s hair accessories (since she did not need them-her reason). I felt sorry for my Spot and for the sake of his well being, took my little devil out for a quick getaway.

We chose the small coastal town of Digha and one fine morning boarded the Tamralipta Express train from the iconic Howrah station. The journey took around 3 hours and we napped all the way to Digha station. It was raining when we reached there and the tiny station resembled a hell hole. Chaotic, mud splattered and crowded with rude, pushy hustlers, it was extremely unpleasant. We lounged at the waiting room till the rain stopped and finally came out to look for transportation to reach our hotel. Since the bulk of visitors had left, the station was again quiet and empty of touts. Squelchy mud stuck to our shoes and Noni as usual clung to my lap like a monkey. We finally hired an auto rickshaw, fell back on its wide berthed seat and hung for our lives all the way to the hotel.

The driver weaved and swerved dangerously whizzing past cows, flat topped people covered cycle vans and cars. Small dingy restaurants lined the lanes and we certainly did not like what we saw. But being the most easily and quickly accessible sea resort from Calcutta, we had no choice but to opt for it. Located around 187 kilometers away from Calcutta, Digha was discovered by the British. It was known as Beerkul at that time and in 1923 its pretty casuarina lined beach off the Bay of Bengal charmed the British tourist John Frank Smith enough to take up his residence there. He wrote about Digha from there and slowly this sleepy little hamlet’s popularity spread like wildfire.

Warren Hastings, the first Governor General of Bengal loved Digha (or Beerkul as it was known) like most of the English officers stationed in Calcutta and described it as ” Brighton of the East” in a letter to his wife. Still today Digha remains the most popular seaside resort for Calcuttans and at times becomes too crowded. But nowadays hardly any trace of its pristine rural beauty remains and it has sadly morphed into a place where Calcuttans come with/without families to let their hair down (at times leading to excessive drinking, creating public scenes and rifts). Unplanned tourism has made Digha a crowded, albeit a bit unpleasant place and erosion has caused huge boulders to be placed along the beach making swimming impossible. Once a beautiful safe for swimming beach, Old Digha has got completely ruined while the New Digha beach is still passable.

We checked into a neat little Roofer’s Pearl Hotel and lazed in our room till early evening. Swimming was out of the question as lecherous drunken men loitered on the beach and bums hovered around to bother us. So we did what were the only options available to do in Digha-walk along the promenade, watch big crowds of fully clothed families swimming in the sea amidst colourfully clad street walkers, drink shiny green tender coconuts and shop for hand woven weed mats (called madurs), conch bangles, shell jewelry and eat massive amount of fresh fried sea food. Night pounced in fast and we spent the night listening to the roar of the waves, counting stars and watching the antics of Doraemon, the robot cat on TV.

It rained sweetly all night but the dawn broke tender and beautiful like a seashell. We rose early, hit the beach, swam and played ball. It was very beautiful in the wee hours, with only bird calls filling the casuarina forests. Boats bobbed and fishermen dragged nets heavy with glistening catch. The sun rose slowly killing its nearly virginal beauty and crowd poured in from all sides. We left the beach, had a lazy breakfast and left for Shankarpur.

A pretty quiet nearby beach, Shankarpur was empty, long and had silky soft sand. Turtles lay eggs in holes, seagulls cried and crabs crawled all over. A long protected forest ran along the beach and a boat repairing shed stood lonesome in the distance. We liked Shankarpur very much and whiled away our day playing, resting and picnicking. It was time well spent and by the time Noni returned home, she once again became my adorable understanding little doll. Some travels are just for the sake of traveling and my Digha compensation worked wonders.

TRAVEL TIP – Digha is a popular weekend getaway from Calcutta and is crowded most of the times. Accessible by a host of daily trains from Calcutta, along with buses, tourist vans and cars, motorcycling all the way to Digha is fast becoming popular. Divided into Old and New Digha, all kinds of accommodations are available there. From 1 USD/night places to nice resorts like Rose Valley, it makes sense to book before arriving. Old Digha is best avoided and most tourists nowadays opt for New Digha. Swimming is possible in New Digha but swim suits are best avoided keeping in mind its conservative crowd. Fresh seafood is cheap and must try and hundreds of Bengali restaurants fill every inch of Digha.

The “alu bhaja” ultra crispy potato fry of Digha is pretty famous and Continental and Chinese are also available at the resorts. If an early riser, do try the fresh palm juice which are sold from earthen pots. Cool, sweet and refreshing, they turn into toddy as the sun rises and cannot be consumed as juices after 8 in the morning. Conch shells, mother of pearl jewelry and madurs are very pretty and bargaining is mandatory. Coconuts are cheap and found at every step in Digha. Shankarpur is a prettier and quieter beach and it is only 14 kilometers away. Opt for it to avoid the crazy family bustle of Digha. It also has pretty fisheries and rural Bengal lushness which creates excellent walks. 

There are fishing villages nearby and depending on your communication skills, you may opt for a homestay or a fishing trip with the villagers. An old Shiva temple at Chandaneshwar is pretty popular with pilgrims and can be visited if having extra time on your hands. The close by Mandarmani beach, Talsari delta and Subarnarekha river banks are fast becoming popular and can be explored as well. The morning local fish market is pretty lively and makes amazing photowalks.

RESPONSIBLE TRAVELING-BECAUSE I CARE

A strange haircut

A sulking child

And a sad dog

Lead us to Digha

A popular family getaway

Near Calcutta

It was colourful

Crowded

With friendly locals

It was not a bad experience

Beach

Noni and

Shell like delicate sunrises

Digha was a super sweet compensation

While the place was hard to love

Our Digha times were amazing