27-28 May 2010
Sylhet, Bangladesh
For me, it was special. Had not been able to attend tours for quite a while. Even a half-day tour is not always manageable. This tour comes after a while, and I just couldn’t resist. A three-day holiday was more than enough to inspire me. And moreover, being able to write on the story of a tour is another something. Anyway, the moment Shudipto planned this, I was with it. I only needed that last-minute confirmation. So far, that last-minute luck had been with me. Anyway, I had been at Sylhet many times before, but the opportunity to visit Bholaganj, where I had never been, and to stay at Jaintapur, right under the waterfalls of Meghalayan hills were difficult to ignore. Visiting Jaflong after four years was another motivation.
Wednesday night was the planned start of the tour. After a hectic day at office, a night journey by bus was not desired, but when you are travelling with 36 more energetic photographers, you’ll tend to forget when you needed sleep. Our bus started right after 11:00PM. It took some time for us to break through the traffic of the mega-city. But once we crossed the Shitalakkhya, it was a smooth ride. We hardly slept for most of the journey. But after the pause at Habiganj in the early hours of the day, most of us couldn’t stand.
We arrived at Sylhet town by about dawn. It was around 5:00AM and it was drizzling. We had a pretty dry spell going on at Dhaka, and heard that people at Sylhet were going through a contrasting weather. We got the proof of that right after arrival. Some of us wondered whether the rain could ruin the tour or not. Others were a bit more optimistic though. We boarded four brand new Toyota Hiace buses within no time. Shudipto had everything arranged. Everywhere we went with TTL, Shudipto managed to surpass our expectations.
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| From Jaflong to Bholaganj, May 2010 |
Distant dreams........
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| From Jaflong to Bholaganj, May 2010 |
another dream-house.......
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| From Jaflong to Bholaganj, May 2010 |
the green shepherd......
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| From Jaflong to Bholaganj, May 2010 |
a view made in the heavens.......01
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| From Jaflong to Bholaganj, May 2010 |
a view made in the heavens.......02
Our destination was Jaintapur, which lies at the base of the Meghalaya hills; on the border between India and Bangladesh. We were supposed to stay at Jainta Hill Resort, a privately owned resort owned by local businessman. Shudipto developed a good relationship with him and got a big part of the resort booked for one day and one night. We reached the resort by around 6:00AM. The pinkish building created a great contrast against those stunning green hills. The high waterfalls on the hills provided those special ornaments. Occasional low clouds partly covered the hills; the hills then looked like shy beauties under veils. It was dreamy! Having a view like that from the window there can make anyone lazy. It was wet. It seems like that the place is supposed to be wet most of the times. The hills are there to stop the moisture traveling from the Bay of Bengal. They are designed to receive.
After the allotment of rooms, we hardly wasted any time and went on shooting the surrounding landscape. We continued shooting until sitting for breakfast by around 8:00AM. After a grand breakfast, which was by no means unnecessary, we began to prepare for our next journey. After a half-an hour’s journey, we reached the banks of the Jaflong River. This is another border with India. The place lost a bit of its picturesque quality over the years, I guess. I had seen a spectacular place in the past. During my last visit in 2006, I couldn’t find the stones that were so prominent once. Its now a flat shallow river, which doesn’t look too different from other rivers. Commercial extraction of stone from this river has brought a massive change to the river’s natural existence. The river is still a quarry, but not for stones, rather more for gravel and sand. Large stones are a bit rare now. And there is no stone visible from the surface of the water, which once was the specialty of this place.
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| From Jaflong to Bholaganj, May 2010 |
this is no bazaar.......
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| From Jaflong to Bholaganj, May 2010 |
sailing into the rocks.......
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| From Jaflong to Bholaganj, May 2010 |
river life......
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| From Jaflong to Bholaganj, May 2010 |
of dreams and imagination.......
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| From Jaflong to Bholaganj, May 2010 |
cutting through the mirror.......
Anyway, by around 9:30AM, we were on board three tourist boats and heading straight for the border post. That post gives some of the best views available at Jaflong. We got cooperation, as well as warning from the BDR personnel present there. While making our way through the river, we noticed the great concentration of people in the middle of the river. At first, we thought it was some kind of bazaar in the middle of the river! But we quickly realised that it was none other than the main quarry. Because of the difficulty of finding stones at the most convenient places, points like these became crowded with people. This is the easiest place to extract stones, thats what created that great mess here! We could see people diving at the bottom to help pick up stones from down below. Some locals said that this extraction process left the river deeper than normal and now, stones can be found way at the bottom.
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| From Jaflong to Bholaganj, May 2010 |
Jamshed and his boat.......
Many in our group forded most of the river to get a closer look at that chaotic place in the middle of the river. Some others went there by boat. Yet others spent the time photographing landscape. We left the other bank of the river around 10:45AM. Our next program got divided a bit. The biggest group opted to cross the river to get a glimpse of the Khasia village. So, right after 11:00AM, our team got divided. Some of us opted to stay at this bank of the river and to shoot the things that we usually ignore. This bank contains most of the activities related to stone quarry. I saw some boats under repair. I spent some time talking to one of the boat owners, Jamshed. Here was doing some emergency repairs to his boat with the help of another young relative. His 5-year old boy Shipon was playing with gravel around the boat. His boat is used for the most important activity here, stone transportation. The boat got damaged after it accidentally took a lot of water and sank. He mentioned that the boats are all made in the surrounding areas, especially in the Khasia village that my other fellows went to visit. The special trees for the boats also come from the same village area, where they are grown. A good boat lasts for several years, he said. He’s been a boatman for the last 20 years. He had seen the river full of stones and also seen many more people engaged. Stone business is on the decline here, according to him. Another interesting thing was that his family originated from Narsingdi, not from Sylhet area. There are many people like him who are also not from Sylhet area.
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| From Jaflong to Bholaganj, May 2010 |
stone carvers.........01
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| From Jaflong to Bholaganj, May 2010 |
stone carvers.........02
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| From Jaflong to Bholaganj, May 2010 |
stone carvers.........03
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| From Jaflong to Bholaganj, May 2010 |
stone-boats.......01
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| From Jaflong to Bholaganj, May 2010 |
stone-boats.......02
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| From Jaflong to Bholaganj, May 2010 |
stone-boats.......03
There was another stone-related business prominent there. Stones are carved to make pata, which is used as sort of a grinder, especially for spices. Different types of stones produce pata of different quality. This is another business that is run within the family for generations. After exploring the river banks, Shabbir Bhai came with the idea of climbing a watch-tower. The tower gave a pretty good view of the surrounding and we capitalised on that. The sun started to become warm gradually. Up till then, we found the sun in the same gloomy mood that we discovered since arriving at Sylhet. The shades of the tower provided a nice place to relax. We waited for the other team to cross the river.
We moved some time after 12:00 noon once the whole group began to reassemble. The weather was no longer as cool as it started. We all were a bit tired and looked for refreshments. We filled up our transports and drove off for resort. Jaflong was sort of an incomplete tour for me. Something told me that more time was needed to get a real glimpse of life over there. There were too many things happening. Several hours were not enough to get a representative idea about the place.
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| From Jaflong to Bholaganj, May 2010 |
simple pleasures of life......
We had a big lunch! We were all hungry and ate life elephants!! There wasn’t enough time for us to take some rest. The moment we started to feel tired, we ended up back in the vehicles! We were off once again! The sun was shining now. It was a totally different weather. We reached the banks of Sari River in no time. We planned on a boat ride through this tranquil and picturesque waterway. But there was no boat there. So what? We had Shudipto! There were a couple of boats within minutes! We all crammed into these boats; just made it actually. The boats seemed a bit too small for a big group like ours. Anyway, we started off by around 5:00PM. The sun was already well on its way down, spreading golden lights everywhere. The river was tranquil to say the least. The Sari slowly turned into Lala Khal, a canal; but we didn’t really notice when the river turned into a canal; it looked all the same to us. Then the sun came up with all its glamour! Sparse clouds began to hide the sun and the rays came out like heavenly spotlights! It was spectacular! The boats began to list on the port side, not being able to stand the weight of overenthusiastic clickers unwilling to leave a chance to shoot such a rare event! And you couldn’t blame anyone. It really looked like a rare moment. We all jumped out of the boats once Shudipto decided to go for the shores. The distant blue hills remained distant; we decided to spend the rest of the day at this place until the sun called it a day. It was around 5:40PM.
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| From Jaflong to Bholaganj, May 2010 |
heavenly show........
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| From Jaflong to Bholaganj, May 2010 |
a relaxing afternoon......
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| From Jaflong to Bholaganj, May 2010 |
the clickers in paradise......
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| From Jaflong to Bholaganj, May 2010 |
sunset at Lala Khal.......01
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| From Jaflong to Bholaganj, May 2010 |
sunset at Lala Khal.......02
The sun had so many tricks for us on that day! There were so many colours to see and so many rays to count. We watched the spectacular sunset through our lenses. It was superb! We filled our memory cards with loads of sunlight! The clicking continued until around 6:20PM, when the sun was almost kissing the horizon. We sailed off. It was dark when we reached the place where our vehicles were waiting for us. It was a long day, but truly enjoyable. It started off with the dreamy clouds hovering over the Meghalaya hills, and ended with the golden sun playing hide and seek. A complete day.
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| From Jaflong to Bholaganj, May 2010 |
the bio-scope.......
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| From Jaflong to Bholaganj, May 2010 |
Jainta Hill Resort.......01
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| From Jaflong to Bholaganj, May 2010 |
Jainta Hill Resort.......02
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| From Jaflong to Bholaganj, May 2010 |
Jainta Hill Resort.......03
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| From Jaflong to Bholaganj, May 2010 |
Jainta Hill Resort.......04
After an eventful night, we still started off the day quite early! We had a tremendous adda well into the night with renowned photojournalist Andrew Biraj, who accompanied us during the whole tour and gave us excellent opportunity to learn from him. Only tiredness and the drive to wake up early pushed us to bed. Anyway, early wasn’t too early for most actually. But still, a lot of us tried not to waste the morning hours. Light wasn’t too great, as it was drizzling once again. But that didn’t prevent any of us from our work. Before we went to breakfast by around 8:30AM, we continued to shoot the surroundings. The surroundings of Jaintapur can never cease to surprise one. White plumes constantly touching the top of those hills gives a dreamy feel and always gives the photographer with opportunity to capture a unique moment. We could care little about the bad light.
By around 9:15AM, we were once again on our way, giving bye to the picturesque Jainta Hill Resort. It was a short, but enjoyable experience. The views of the resort can be enjoyed all day. A relaxing time there is more appropriate than spending a very busy couple of hours. Its a place that soothes.
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| From Jaflong to Bholaganj, May 2010 |
a procession of nets.........01
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| From Jaflong to Bholaganj, May 2010 |
a procession of nets.........02
We were on our way to Bholaganj, via Sylhet. We were supposed to pick up couple of our old friends from Sylhet. On the way, we found several fishermen fishing in shallow waters with their specialised nets. We couldn’t resist. We knew that three other cars in our group were way ahead of us. But we had to spend several minutes to get a glimpse of this unique stuff. Within 10 minutes, we were off once again. We picked up Fakhrul Bhai and Akhlas Bhai from Sylhet city. They gave us bad news about the road to Bholaganj. Judging by the distance, we were with the impression that Bholaganj would not be beyond 45 minutes’ journey from Sylhet. But we had no idea what was in store for us!
Bholaganj is now the busiest stone quarry. The whole road to Bholaganj is pock-marked by heavy-wheels. Hundreds of stone-carrying trucks and tractor-trailers ply through this road all day. All the bridges on this road are under repair and require detours; and the bridges are many. This is a road that goes through a massive haor area (wetlands). Water level is on the rise here; its the end of the month of May. Coming June-August may see the road communication with Bholaganj severed unless some really important measures are taken.
While we were facing this problem with the road, our drivers showed an arrogance that put the whole plan in jeopardy! While we were driving through the stone crushing fields, the drivers refused to go forward through this poor road condition. We tried to convince them that there were minimal chance of bellying on this road, but their lack of understanding of motor vehicles made us mad. We had no other option but to ride on a couple of empty tractor-trailers going towards Bholaganj. This ride was one of roughest for worst rides for a lot of us. It was hard keeping balance on a vehicle that didn’t have a shock absorber. But they surely took us there much faster! It was almost 1:00PM and we had our bus scheduled at 5:00PM. The tour became very tight indeed. We just thought that if we could ride something like that at the start of the bad road, we could have been there at least half an hour earlier!
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| From Jaflong to Bholaganj, May 2010 |
guarding the gates of heaven........
The first glimpse of Bholaganj got us mad! Its brilliant! The Meghalaya hills here are more attractive than that of Jaflong. The place stole our hearts in the first go! The distant hills are so dominating here that whatever we looked at, the blue hills were always part of it. The weather was superb! The skies were brilliant blue above the hills with darkish clouds. But fortunately for us, they were not directly above us. The best part was, there was no rain and we hoped it would stay like that as long as we stayed there.
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| From Jaflong to Bholaganj, May 2010 |
stonescape........01
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| From Jaflong to Bholaganj, May 2010 |
stonescape........02
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| From Jaflong to Bholaganj, May 2010 |
a stony kind of future.........01
It was a busy place; very busy place. There were thousands of people working there along the whole river bank. And gain, this was right on the border between India and Bangladesh. BDR men were guarding the pillars and constantly reminding us what we needed to do to keep the BSF from accidentally firing upon us! The whole river was full of boats; boats that carried stones from upstream. These stones were, in general, much bigger than the ones we saw at Jaflong. And there were a lot more activity than what we saw at Jaflong. Large stones were carried over and were broken down into several pieces using a manual hammer. Smaller stones are carried by tractor-trailers to crushing units in the back. The whole process requires a lot of manual labour. People of both gender and all ages are engaged in this process.
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| From Jaflong to Bholaganj, May 2010 |
lord of the stones.........01
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| From Jaflong to Bholaganj, May 2010 |
lord of the stones.........02
I talked to a stone-breaker, Khurshed Alam and tried to find out something about this place. According to him, stone extraction here started to rise there since 1988. There were lesser activity before that time He’s been breaking stones for more than 10 years and said that there are others there who are more experienced. Around 50 stone-breakers work there, according to him. His work seemed more like a skill than just hard work, which he acknowledged with a wise smile. A stone can require from 1 second to several minutes to break into pieces. I saw his breaking a big stone with three hits only! He acknowledges the hard work he’s doing, but he doesn’t want his two children to go through the same process.
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| From Jaflong to Bholaganj, May 2010 |
stone-faces........01
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| From Jaflong to Bholaganj, May 2010 |
stone-faces........02
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| From Jaflong to Bholaganj, May 2010 |
stone-faces........03
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| From Jaflong to Bholaganj, May 2010 |
a stony kind of future.........02
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| From Jaflong to Bholaganj, May 2010 |
close your eyes to find Him.......01
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| From Jaflong to Bholaganj, May 2010 |
close your eyes to find Him.......02
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| From Jaflong to Bholaganj, May 2010 |
stone-faces........04
Some of us boarded some boats and went forward. Others waited for them to come back. We were in a bit of hurry by the time we started to board our vehicles. Our vehicles, by this time, came to the shore in search of us. They somehow realised their duty. It was around 3:15PM and we were under pressure to make it to Sylhet on time to catch the bus. The most fortunate part of the whole thing was that our bus was exclusively reserved for us. So, it was not expected to leave without us. We also didn’t have our lunch and no time to do that on the way to Sylhet either! But Shudipto made sure that we wouldn’t reach Dhaka starving. We collected our packet lunches from Sylhet, sometime after 5:00PM and ultimately started off for Dhaka half-an-hour behind schedule, by around 5:30PM.
Our lunch or whatever you call it, was on board the bus! But the tour was such a success for the clickers and there was no complain from anyone! Everyone was happy to spend one extra hour at Bholaganj than spending one hour at a restaurant! The journey was hectic; so what? It was more than worth the effort. Getting a glimpse of such exclusive places within such a short time was not a matter of joke. It was possible because of Shudipto’s management and the clickers’ wholehearted support!
Another brilliantly successful TTL safari came to a close as we reached Dhaka. We knew it would be difficult to live a typical life for the next couple of days. But this would be enough fodder for at least one hectic week!
