The decision of going to Gadiara was sudden. Gadiara was a picnic spot my father decided to go with me and mother on 31st December of 2006. My father decided the trip by browsing through the travel magazines. Gadiara is a place in West Bengal. It is a place at South Shibpur in Howrah. A trip like this is mainly a stress buster. I was walking down the river side with cool breeze flowing. Think of a life free of tension and pressure, walking on riverside, riding a boat in the river and what else do u need in a medical transcriptionist’s life….who got the opportunity of passing the last day of the year at ease.
I moved out with my family at 7 in the morning. I went to Calcutta State Transport Corporation (CSTC) bus terminus where I took a tourist bus of government and went straight to Gadiara. I was accompanied by my father and mother. My father being a professor at a college in Howrah had a week’s leave as a year end holiday of other government employee. My mother is a housewife. I work in a private company at Gariahat in Kolkata. I got an off day on this date. Generally I do some writing work on computer in off days but I decided to pass some time outside Kolkata and make this day a memorable day in my life. The bus took 3 hours to reach Gadiara. We passed through Bombay road. We crossed Vidyasagar bridge which is situated over the Ganges. We took a trolley and went to Rupshali restaurant.

I reached there at 11:30 a.m. I landed at Gadiara bus stop. We took a trip around the place along the river by walk. There are many tourist lodges round there. There was a Rupnarayan lodge, Ramkrishna lodge, etc. We reached Rupshali lodge and hotel where we took our lunch and took some rest. My father and mother took rest while I roamed along the river banks. Along the bank, there is a narrow pitch road. I walked along the road and found people cleaning fishing nets along the banks, people working in brick kilns. There were large brick kilns in the place. Each brick factory has a long chimney. I also saw this when I was returning from Sundarban in the villages.

We had our lunch around 1 p.m. It comprised of dal, rice, fish curry, salad, fried potatoes, cauliflower curry. Food was nice and tasty. They gave plenty of rice and fried potatoes and fish to eat. We took betel leaves after lunch.

We bought some flowers made by green coconut leaves. The green leaves were made into knots and flower patterns were made. We took them for our home decoration. I have the habit of decorating my room, so I took 3 flowers. We bought gur and patali. Gur is a preparation of sugar and juice of date palm. Patali is when this hot gur is solidified. We can take this with bread.

We came out of lodge around 3 and took tea at 3:30 and took the bus at 4 p.m. We passed through Bombay road. We passed through second Hoogly bridge called Vidyasagar Setu. I reached home around 8 p.m. There was a lot of traffic jam. We had to pass through 2 booths where charges are taken for vehicles of different sizes from scooters to large sized trucks. We had to stop at Bombay road booth and another at Vidyasagar Setu booth.

We went and came through Gadiara through nice roads. The roads are smooth. So there was no jerk in the bus. I would rather say the CSTC buses are quite comfortable. These buses have good shock absorbers to make up the jerk.

There was cool breeze flowing when we were returning from Gadiara. It was a wonderful experience as we were passing through the chilly night. The people following us are also good. They are communicating with us whenever we are trying to talk to them.

Life after all has become stressful. To beat this stress people come to picnic places like Gadiara where the cool bridge of the Bhagirathi cools the people’s soul after a stressful week in their office. Especially in private firms, the work pressure is high…. So it is better to cool down by going to a trip like this…One gets more energy and vigor as he/she returns from a holiday trip.

This holiday trip was also  the time I test my new tactical flashlight amazon which has been a great help when we were in the outdoors. Definitely a must for campers!