Tale of a town, two lakes and a zoo, Tripura- Part One, Reaching Agartala

The northeastern parts of India do not evoke a pleasant feel for wanderers. Ask them, they must have visited the tiniest nook & corner of the mainland India, and yet give a pathetically deficient look when queried about the Northeast.

And I am no better; the seven sisters remain the most unexplored territory for me. I can always come up with excuses but within me I know, I do not have any. The distance has always been psychological and not geographical. And I always wanted to amend that. Therefore, when I got a chance to visit, Tripura, I jumped on to it. Many told me it is the worst off among the seven sisters, and go to Meghalaya instead. However, even if it is the worst, it is more beautiful than I could ever have imagined

Reaching Agartala, its capital is perhaps easiest among all the capitals in Northeast. It has an hour long direct air flight from Kolkata. The route hovers over the entire stretch of Bangladesh. The terrain is geographically so contiguous that after landing you second the long repeated lore as how boundaries are artificial and nature did not mean them.

A visit to Agartala starts way before you reach the place, in Kolkata. In Kolkata, there are various versions for Agartala, of admiration and of condescend, depending upon who you talk to. Some would go gaga over the ‘Hilsa’, which one may get in Agartala, and other would criticize them for incorrect usage of Bangla, so like I said, start exploring about Agartala long before you reach there.

Nevertheless, whatever critical one may say about Agartala, Tripura is always considered an extension of the West Bengal. Evident from the fact that a huge number of families in Kolkata have linkages in Tripura. At times, it is next to impossible to get a seat in the Kolkata-Agartala flight. The cuisine is alike, the fervour for ‘Durga Puja’ is alike and an attitude to live life positively even in the adversity is alike

A piece of advice, even before you proceed to the destination, spend some time in Swabhumi. This place is a small complex, where lots of handicrafts are exhibited and sold. This place has nothing to do with Tripura as such, but has many stalls, which would display beautiful handicrafts from Tripura. The sheer sight of these handicrafts, builds in a natural excitement to rush towards the place. (In hindsight, I feel that because this place displays handicrafts from most of the northeast and because route to northeast mostly is via a flight from Kolkata, it may be a nice idea to visit swabhumi, before proceeding to any place in northeast). This place is close to the famous Salt-Lake stadium, so if it is your lucky day, you may catch up a match over here, or rub your eyes in disbelief that attendance in football matches over here, at times, far exceeds that of a World Cup match.

Upon reaching Agartala, I stayed in ONGC guesthouse, which is outside the city, but a comfortable place to stay. The route from the airport to the ONGC township criss-crosses entire Agartala. So at one go you can see the entire cacophony of the city and after that the serenity of lush green rice fields and enticing sideway ponds at one go. And you start forming images of the place based on the two. Of a place rooted in simplicity and yet striving for a modicum of urbanity and suffering from the syndrome of neither here nor there.

The city of Agartala has some imposing architecture, but mostly pedestrian one. The beauty of the place lies majorly in the manifestation of nature outside the city. The city itself is small enough to be visited in a day. Nevertheless, a few excursions, a few hours away, would make you feel so enchanted that even weeks there may not make you blink.