First of all, let me tell you that this is not the best season to visit the land of Tagore. But I visited home after a long time and its just an hour drive from Durgapur. So, we decided to go for a family road trip. Ideally, November to February is the best time to visit this place. The drive to Shantiniketan is really beautiful as you cross the Ilambazaar forest. We started off early in the morning by car on Friday. On the way, we stopped at Banalakshmi for breakfast. I had heard a lot of hype about this place. But none of us really liked it. We had to wait for breakfast even after pre-booking it for almost 40 mins. The luchi was hard and cold. The service was too slow. Nothing impressive about this place! We reached Sonajhuri forest by 10 am and booked Ram Shyam Village Resort. We had checked it earlier on makemytrip.com but decided to go, check it and then book. The stay was wonderful. The rooms were given the look of pretty mud houses with all the modern amenities and there was greenery everywhere. We completed some of the sight seeing around Visva Bharati University till 1 in the afternoon and then came back for lunch as it was too sunny. Its best to take auto rickshaws (to-to s) for this purpose because the drivers can show you the place like a local. One only ought to do a little bit of bargaining with the fares. The food at our stay is really yummy. You get proper veg, chicken and fish thalis. At around sunset, we were blessed with a thunderstorm. This was the first time I experienced thunderstorm in a village and its really an out of the world experience. Around evening, we went out to see a couple of other places in the campus and Kopai Nadi(river). Kopai is the famous place based on which Tagore had composed many of his famous poems but sadly today, its almost fully dried up. The evening was blissful with baul performances right in front of our resort.
Sonajhuri is famous for its Sanibarer Haat (Saturday's Haat Bazaar). So Saturday morning went mostly in shopping. You get cotton handlooms at much cheaper prices than the market. Followed by the haat, we got to experience the much celebrated Sautaal Nach (Tribal Dance) wherein anybody can participate too. Finally, we paid a visit to the museum of Tagore where the replica of his Nobel prize is preserved before starting back for home. We reached Durgapur by 3 pm. Shantiniketan was a beautiful escapade that takes you back in time. I believe this place is a must visit for every lover of history, literature or nature at least once in their lifetimes.
