Memoir from Bengdubi
I don’t remember the date but its somewhere in beginning of February in the year 2000 we went for a picnic at the Panighata bridge, in the terai region near Mirik, Darjeeling. It is nearly 22 kilometers from Bengdubi, a military cantonment where I was doing my professional practice under the GNIIT course. With five friends of mine, I went for a picnic there on the eve of New Year.
It was a little cold as the place was in the Sivalik range and the winter was not over yet. I chose a full shirt with a woollen jacket and my all-time favourite blue jeans. One more reason for woollen attire is that I am a little prone to catching a cold.
With the mountain range behind and the stream flowing down, it is like a picture postcard. As the stream was below from us where we kept our bicycles, I was very eager to move down to touch the water and the pebbles there. I could feel the snowy cold water flowing down the stream kissing each pebble on its way and glittering under the Sun. We stood there for a snap or two to make it a part of our memory and then stepped down on the way where I wanted to go and play with the lively and joyful stream and the pebbles rolling there under the current.
Although I was calm outside, my inner soul was bursting with joy to ride the bicycle for the first time and that too through the woods and the hills, enjoying the ups and downs, turns, light and shadow, the view of small hills to large mountains, wide spread greenery, the tea bushes, and off course the local people passing by on the road looking at us. The happy faces of all these people passing us and their waving hands air and loud wishes gave more and more energy to us during the hour long path and energized us cycle along.
Down there where the snowy stream was flowing were some more people. They all gathered there in different groups for picnic, I guess. Many of them were young boys and girls, though boys were more in numbers who had already gone into the stream and was playing with the chilled water. The screams made by those boys and girls created a cacophony which gave a life to every leaf, each pebbles and stones, and the yellow sand those which were all silent for years after years. The chaos, the rolling of stones hitting each other, the sound of the stream flowing non-stop all, made the place a dancing floor where we all were waiting for our turns to perform.
The place where we first stopped for a photograph was a broken bridge upon which we could either walk or cycle. We needed to cross this bridge to reach our destination which was down the stream. We got down from our cycles and took rest for few minutes as we were exhausted after cycling for ages. A light bantering removed our tiredness. I was the in-charge of the food and carrying all the food items on my bicycle. They feared to tease me as they all knew it was very difficult for them to get their food on time if they made me angry. I took the full advantage of that to tease my friends.
Now is time to introduce all my friends with whom I went for the picnic. Ajay, Vijay and Sanjay was three brothers, of whom Vijay was of the same age as mine and Rahul and Mukesh, who were much younger than us, were carried by us on rotation. As Ajay, Vijay, and Sanjay were siblings and similarly Rahul and Mukesh were siblings. Their fathers were Army officers posted there in Bengdubi cantonment where I was doing my professional practice. Vijay is elder among them in our team and the person who is not there in the photograph is Sanjay who was behind the camera to capture us within a frame so that it will remain in our memory forever, our picnic to Panighata Bridge.
@Spondon Ganguli