Chandipur Diary

The book of life has each day as a page. Page starts with you waking up and ends with your retirement for the day.

The cycle continues and you keep on filling up pages after pages.

There are entries in that book when you have taken an impromptu decision. One such impromptu decision filled up the pages

for 22nd and 23rd July 2017 with us visiting the coastal beach of Chandipur,Odissa😊

Us being, me and Wify(Nupur) and my friend from our last roadtrip, Tulu and his better half(Sonali).

It was our regular office commute on the longest day of the week, i.e. “Wednesday” we started a discussion on the incessant rains that have hit Kolkata and how another weekend will be gone and we will again have to be back to monotony. As usual, I being the overenthusiastic fanatic when it comes to travelling, used this miniscule opportunity and asked how about a quick getaway over this monsoon weekend.

Search, search, search, GoIbibo, MMT. The most common weekend getaway Mandarmani, Tajpur nothing available at such short notice, even if its available a hefty price is being asked☹. Whats the next nearest beach? Chandipur , Bingo!! GoIbibo informed rooms available at Arpita Beach Resort at a reasonable rate. By the time we have reached TechnoPolis(Our work place) booking is done.

Chandipur Diary is ready to happen. This time it will be my loving car, I call her Sheena 😊

The roads are known, owing to our last trip to Puri , only additional factor to be considered is the rainy season. Keeping that in mind by Friday night I ensured Sheena is ready to take on her interstate journey.

We started our journey on the beats of R D Burman as early as 5:30 AM on 22nd July. As per Google Maps the journey was for 272 Km to our destination. Now as far as the destination is concerned, let me give you all a bit generic info about this place.

Chandipur, is a popular tourist destination in Balasore district of Odissa. This place is also famous for Indian Missile Testing center of DRDO. Its one of the many beautiful and charming beach of Bay of Bengal, where the sea disappears during low tide and reappears with the flip of tide. More as we proceed.

During our journey to this place I got the experience of driving in the rain. The entire journey had the element, water imbibed . It was drizzling at times, downpour the next moment, then that turns to sprinkling rain, sideway rain, shows up way to misting rain, yes, I saw mist forming up due to incessant rain and moving truck wheels and then Raining cats and dogs! Accompanying the rain was blustery wind at several places. It was fun at times, dangerous as well. Had to control speed, drove almost for an hour with the emergency lights on as visibility was extremely poor. Wipers worked constantly against the unceasing rain. Subconsciously was very worried about water logging on road, but luckily found none. The below unaltered picture was taken somewhere near Jaleshwar at 9:20 AM, hope you get the glimpse of what I mean.

On approaching Balasore, one has to get off NH60 and take the last 15 kms journey through township roads, which cannot be labelled as properly maintained. Yet there are stretches of roads in between, covered by canopy which is good.

Finally we reached our resort after covering an exact 274.6 KMs. Sheena can be seen on extreme left, catching her breath after fighting the bullying rain😝

By now you must have noticed one common aspect, owing to this monsoon, the greenery is so hypnotic. Everything you look at is washed, refreshed and ready to regrow. This freshness is a natural stimulant. You need only absorb.

We freshened up quickly and started our walk towards the beach. It was merely 500 metres walk on a lush green village road, and it was so charming!! A glimpse of the road leading to the beach.

Finally we can see the beach, but wait where is the sea?

Well let me remind you, the sea has vanished as of now. Let the pictures do the talking.

The small dots you see in below picture are people like us. Trying to locate the sea 😊

Might I prompt you that it has been still raining as we try out the open seabed.

Objective is to locate the sea, meanwhile saw man’s best friend come running towards us, always a delight !! 😊

As you get down on this vast open beach you can feel the soft sand kissing and caressing your feet, which is under ankle high water, just enough to make you feel pampered. Usually water does not hold on to like this, but probably the monsoon have ensured them to stay a. One can see the strange ripple pattern on the sand and as you venture deeper the softness of the sand gradually disappears and you can feel hard sand, as hard as rock making you realize how amazing nature is.

As the sea have receded, so there are plenty of marine life all around you. You will see infinite varieties of sea shells, conches: all alive!! Small fishes will come by and collide on to your feet. Then there are miniscule sized crabs all around playing hide and seek with spectator humans. All these life welcomes and invites our aerial friends and you can see them in groups having a Saturday brunch!!

The below picture has no filter and no it ain’t the Rann of Kutch, but you may get a feel of the same as you keep walking. As you move away from the shore , you will start hearing sound of waves.

This is as if pied piper is luring you with the music and wants you to keep going.

We followed the sound and walked till we saw the sea waves and thus satisfied the exploratory and inquisitive side of our humane nature. At that moment it was the four of us and no one around, absolute vastness and we. No words were exchanged, no pictures taken. We soaked in as much Mojo we can. I thanked my inner travel bug to incite me enough to take me out to this place. It was absolutely worth it. To make you understand where we were actually standing, will share the geo location I kept as a screenshot.

We have walked for about 50 minutes and it was time to return. Then nature decided to mock us with its own taste of humour, it started raining cats and dogs and it was such a downpour with loud thunders that we were fumbled at the beginning and then a bit nervous. We hurried walking back, almost running and about 10 minutes later with that cursed rain all over us actually started misjudging which way is the shore and where does the sea lie. The sound of waves is replaced by high intensity raindrop sound falling on water and no umbrellas are able to save us from the gusty wind and heavy water droplets. We are now completely drenched and 2 of us felt we should go this way whereas other two argued to do the opposite. About 30 seconds we were unable to decide what should be done. For the first time came to a point where fight or flight mode were the options. Either we wait for the rain to stop or we keep moving where we were headed. Now as it were lightning it was a great risk to stand at a desolate place with open umbrellas, Physics 101 in our subconscious told us that no meaning to wait and fight, and it will be wise to opt for flight. We did so and moved on , and after walking for another 5 minutes realized we have taken the correct direction and kept marching on. Mother nature was like feeling bored with this Game of Heavy Rains and Thunders #GOHRT 😃 decided to look away and the downpour stopped and it started to drizzle.

Already drenched we enjoyed the leisure walk back to civilization and eventually to our resort.

Adventure done and it was time for leisure. Gorged on the late lunch with fish, crab and chicken. Post lunch we had the opportunity to visit the Panchalingeswar Temple, an hour drive from Chandipur, but we all decided to seat back and relax the evening. So it was a relaxed evening spent within our resort and enjoyed leisurely. We had early dinner and called it a day by 9 in the evening.

Sunday morning was very beautiful, the incessant rain has stopped, the sky has cleared a bit and all around is fresh and green soaked in yesterday’s rain. We started our walk to the beach only to be welcomed by an absolutely different sight. Gone are the open flat unending beach, the mighty Bay Of Bengal has reappeared in its full glory mesmerizing us mere mortals. Nature again laughs at us while looking onto our wonder struck faces. This is the same place where we saw an absolutely different look and feel. As if someone has reconfigured the CSS and added Bootstrap in the webpage. 😃

Will let the pictures do the talking here.

Someone had fun last night 😝

Saw few kids enjoying the morning sea.

Went ahead to speak with those kids who were there and enjoying without any accompanying adult. Realized they were localites, no wonder they are friends with these waves.

See us they also got bit enquisitve and started playing around us. I took a moment and asked their permission for a few snaps, and then these happened!!

Kya may aapki photo lain sakta hoon ?

Photo? Haa zaroor !!

Just look at those innocent faces, two boys and two girls. Brothers and sisters. Stays in the next village.

Goes to school, but loves the sea, Sunday morning no school and all fun. Their fun is always associated with the sea. They perhaps are unaware of things happening around the world. But that is not stopping them from being happy and that matters the most. They are the torchbearers of the notion “Happiness is within you”. You don’t need to be successful, no need to be a bigshot, no need to have all sorts of luxuries money can buy, for being happy. Seeing these faces and their sheer enthusiasm over the sea I adored them, admired them and thanked them for allowing me to experience the massive strength of happiness. At that very moment, they were not in Pursuit of Happiness but they have achieved it.

Happiness spreads happiness.

We spend a couple of hours more on the beach enjoying the amazing Chandipur on Sea.

This sea beach has provided so many experiences in such short time.

It symbolizes our lives. It reiterates the fact” Nothing lasts forever, even the cold November rain”.

What you see now will never be forever, but that does not mean things will cease. There is always hope along with faith when the wheel turns. One moment you might not have anything, but with persistence and endurance you will get what is meant for you. Even the mighty Bay of Bengal has to disappear for some time, till it regains the strength to break barriers and comeback with smiles of glory.

Post breakfast we started our journey back home, dazed by the quick monsoon getaway.

Trips like these are meant for self-assessment, self-reassurance that whatever we are doing is worth doing. The monsoon ensures your thirst for lush green is quenched. The people you meet, the events that occur is always motivational and pushes you to go ahead.

Life is going ahead, spinning wheel goes on.

The book of life now has two more pages with details full of understandings worth preservation.😊

#ChandipuronSea #RoadtriptoChandipurOdissa #Monsoondrive #WeekendGetaway