A memorable short trip to Mandarmani, West Bengal

It was our second trip after almost 2 years. We had planned a short trip to nearby beach location Mandarmoni in West Bengal. I was searching for a nearby location to avoid long leave from work. Here is the summary of our itinerary:

DAY	CHECK IN	CHECK OUT	LOCATION
1	DAY1	DAY 1	Ranchi
2	DAY 2	DAY 3	Kolkata
3	DAY 3	DAY 4	Mandarmani
4	DAY 4	DAY 4	Kolkata

We along with our 6 month old son departed from Latehar in morning for Ranchi. There, we had to attend a marriage function in the evening. Vrishank's Mamas came to Ranchi to attend the marriage function. We decided to celebrate Vrishank's annaprashan there. Mummiji had directly come from Bangaluru via flight after attending her niece's marriage at Bangaluru. She brought with her Yuthika's favourite Biryani from Meghna, which she ate very fondly. Later, after attending marriage function, Mummiji came with us to leave us to Ranchi Railway station for our next destination.

Pic (From Left to Right): Waiting for train at Latehar.

 

Pic (From Left to Right): Vrishank's annaprashan,, Attending Marriage function at Ranchi(Special Thanks to Sanjay Mamaji for this pic).

 Pic : Boarding our berth in Train

I was also excited for the journey to have a glimpse of my alma mater while the train passes through Kharagpur. I made it a point to wake up around that time when the train passes Kharagpur. It was a heavy rainy night, and I had a glimpse of the Light tower of IIT kharagpur, I felt jevulated. I tried to wake up Yuthika, but I do not remember whether she saw it or not.

We reached Howrah in morning. That time, It was drizzling. I, along with my wife, our 6 month old son, took the taxi to reach our hotel.

 Pic (From Left to Right): Arriving at Howrah Railway station, In our cab to Hotel room.

We went to the hotel, relaxed. We had planned to go out after taking lunch, which we did. We had a glimpse of Kolkata around. Kolkata was not a new place to me. I had gone to this place quite often while I studied at IIT Kharagpur.

In the afternoon, we went to Eco Park, spent some time in front of the lake there and in rose garden. We then went to wax museaum on the opposite side of the road. In the evening, we came back to the New market area. There, Yuthika did some shopping, we had some snacks there. Yuthika bought a few things and some things for me as well. Later, we had to have dinner. Yuthika said at times, she would have dinner at TAJ Bengal, so I was expecting we would go to TAJ Bengal for dinner, but in the evening, doing all the shopping, etc, It was quite late, It did not work due to time paucity. We went back to our hotel.

 Pic (From Left to Right): Spending some time in Eco Park and Wax Museum.

Pic: Yuthika having Breakfast at Indian Coffee House, Kolkata.

Next day in morning, at around 10.00 a.m., we had to leave for Mandarmani. But before leaving Kolkata, Yuthika wanted to go to iconic Indian Coffee House for breakfast. We went there for breakfast and had something to eat. Though I had booked train tickets to Digha, we decided to go to Mandarmani by reserved taxi taking into account comfort. We reached our hotel in Mandarmani somewhere around 02:00 P.M. The weather was clear there. To our surprise, our allotted room was already occupied. The Manager made it a point to upgrade our room, and we were accommodated in a sea facing suite room! Yuthika was so happy. She said, “It could not have been better!”

We relaxed in our room for a while. We went out to the sea beach for a walk.. Later we went to the small market area. We did some shopping and had light snacks. Weather was pleasant there. We spent some time sitting by the side of the beach, and watching sea waves hitting the beach and going back. It was a soothing experience.

 Pic : In market during evening walk at Mandarmani.

 Pic : At Hotel room

We hired an auto rickshaw and moved back to our hotel. I do remember, It was a cold night. I went to the beach front at our hotel alone, as we did not consider It right to bring our 6 month old son with us to the beach on a cold night. I spent some time there, seeing the beach, and hearing the gushing sound of sea waves hitting the shore. It was so relaxing. After sometime, Yuthika came to me, we returned back to the room soon. We had a sound sleep.

I wanted to see the sunrise. We woke up early, took my kid in my arms, and my wife along with me, to have a walk on the beach. We walked for some distance. We had some tea and biscuits there. After a calming walk, we returned to our hotel room.

Pic : Spending some relaxing time on the sea beach in morning.

As It was a short trip, we had only one night stay at Mandarmani, we readied to leave our Hotel room by 11:30 A.M. While in the car, we were searching for some place to have lunch. Our driver suggested the hotel Sher-E-Punjab, which is on the Howrah - Kharagpur Highway. I remembered how during college days, I went there a couple of times for dinner, and sometimes for seniors’ Campus placement treat. It was a memory rolling back. When I said to Yuthika, I came to this place in our college days also, she mocked me, and said “ Kharagpur me kuch milta nahi tha, isliye etni door aate the.” I was dumbstruck. We stopped there to have lunch. Ordered something and had a nice lunch. Yuthika remarked, the restaurant offered astonishingly good food, and to date, she quite often sometimes reminds me how delicious food she had there.

Pic (From Left to Right): Our Resort at Mandarmani, Halt at SherEPunjab Hotel for Lunch, Celebrating Vrishank's 6th month in train.

After we had lunch, we proceeded for our destination: Howrah railway station. Meanwhile, we had some time in hand, and changed plans to do some shopping in Kolkata. Yuthika wanted to buy some clothes from H&M, the name which I heard for the first time! We reached the mall, and did some shopping. After the shopping, we came to our cab and proceeded for Howrah Railway station. We reached there in time. Thereafter, we boarded our train to Ranchi. In train, we celebrated our son's 6th month birthday. From Ranchi, we took a pre-booked vehicle to reach Latehar. It was a short trip of 4 days only, yet memorable. I would certainly like to take my wife there again.