November mornings in Jamalpur are typically once filled with a lot of fog ,damp,dew drops ,shadows of cyclists and cowbells everywhere. It has been a usual walk through the woods for me through the Kali hills to the railway tunnel on the day of Bihaniya Arghya ( the last day of chatt puja ,one of the holiest pujas that I have seen my mother and elders subscribe to when I was in Jamalpur).On the final day of Chhath Puja, the devotees, along with family and friends, go to the river-bank before sunrise, in-order to make the offerings (arghya) to the rising sun. The festival ends with the breaking of the fast by the Vratti (devotee) and the friends visiting the houses of the devotees to receive the prashad.
People used to walk to the lake below Kalipahad on that day even before you could hear the birds wake up in the morning with their dalas (puja offerings to the sun god).Then their used to be the set of ladies who used to do the main puja (offer their prayers) through different hat yogs by even walking a couple of steps on the asphalt and then prostrate themselves to god and again repeat the process for kilometers.
I bet you wont be able to do it unless you have faith in the act with the desired standard of piousness in your hearts.
I used to hear the chhat songs blaring on the loudspeakers as I crossed the golf ground to head towards the lake and stand between the two palm trees where there used to be free tea stalls for people offering prayers.There used to be innumerable volunteers to help you out.
After taking a sip of tea,meeting a friend or two, placing my obeisance I used to start my climb.There are well traveled steps and now they also have electricity to the top of the kali temple on top of the hill.As you climb up with the sun rise in progress ,the august view of Jamalpur comes in it full bloom.The clear sky will make you take a lung full of fresh winter air something that you would give your right arm for in kolkata.
On the right the panorama would extend up to the Pir Pahad where you can see the radio tower ,the railway line surrounding Jamalpur from east to west.,the Ganges river appearing as a white strip on the horizon and the shimering railway shed on the left.Below as you loom where the puja is in progress you can see thousands of lighted lamps floating in the water as you see people standing in the freezing water unaware of the freezing cold in holy bliss offering their prayers.The clear winter sky appears red with the sun just showing on the horizon.
It is at this time God stands beside me and makes me aware of the divine presence .Give me a pause here to just soak in what I have written.I need to close my eyes and take a deep breath before starting again.
As you start climbing the steps you will see lining of low grade quartz like stones on the rocks ,some ferns ,bushes and yes that one berry called bhutkun violet or red in color.At the top of the track there is a banyan tree .Beside which you will see the Kali temple and a small place where they still make the animal sacrifices on the eve of Kali puja.Move ahead and there is a small pond with stagnant water.They still use this water for all temple activities.There is a pucca ghat here.Following which are some winding steps which lead to the temple on the top dedicated to Lord Shiva.
If you go beyond this point there is a dilapidated structure and the vast greenery of the Kali hills calling out to you.If you have a sharp eye you may catch a group of Nilgai (Boselaphus tragocamelus) grazing in the distance.And yes hares.You can also hear the call of the peacocks at a distance.Take a round about and head east on the well made tracks and follow the town below over the hills.Dont worry ,you wont need fancy shoes.I used to cover this with my slippers( chappals) .
As you move towards the tunnel ,you will cross the railway diesel shed on the left,a few goods wagons down below loading stone chips from the quarries below .As you come across the tunnel you can see how the railway line goes beyond Ratanpur how the road from Ratanpur takes a curve towards the village.You will also be able to see how the railway line takes a bend after crossing the tunnel towards Jamalpur.
Start climbing down.Nothing stops you from taking a look at when the tunnel was built(1860-61) yet to be declared defunct.
Years back when I was introduced to Bernoulli’s theorem I had tried to experiment that inside the tunnel when the Brahmaputra express passed the tunnel aroud 9.20 AM.I assure you I wont do it ever again!!
As you keep on walking on the tracks or beside it , hunger will build up.Get down at the underpass and take a left towards the fish market,cross chura mill,and you will see jalebis being fried fresh.Try them.
At least buy some good chura (rice flakes of katarni variety).You can just smell them and know you have the genuine thing.
That is Jamalpur for me
Source: http://gaiapriest.blogspot.com/2009/12/walking-to-jamalpur-tunnel.html
Whenever I have debarked at the Jamalpur station from Howrah,I have felt like brushing out the cobweb of memories,somehow playing the tune of “The Swami”(If I guessed right!!) in my mind so a kaleidoscope of images hit my senses and pineal subconsciousness.
Once you are out of the station ,one sees some of the biggest rickshaws (with some seats slipping out) ,an erstwhile product of the the Raj (beckoning at you with those quaint rubber horns) jostling for space with the trekkers going to Monghyr, Buses going to Kiul and other places in a 30 kilometer vicinity and yes probably that one bus (KumarBhai).
A rickshaw will charge roughly 10-15 rupees to most of the places but still bargain.It is worth it as in other places across the orient and beyond!!Moving forward you will find the oldest tailoring shop in Jamalpur(Dressco) run by a centurion an easy six footer ,with dark eyes and a mehndi beard extending up to his chest….!!
When I was in school when I did not know about hair dye I thought he got the beard colored by chewing on a lot of betel and it was practically dried betel juice!!No offence but that was me then…
Move forward and you hit the tea shops in a row .If you went inside you could hear snitches of what went on in the darker sides of Jamalpur but they made an excellent glass of lemon tea…!!
The biggest landmark this side of Jamalpur is the Jubilee Well, …Yes!! There is a pucca well in the middle of the road and it is a fork from where the left one went to Monghyr and the other went to the Railway Colony of the sahibs!
Once on the railway bridge you get an idea of the expanse of Jamalpur!!The white building you see at 11 O Clock with a NtD on top is Notre Dame Academy.But that is another epic story I guess!!
If you went to Jamalpur ,you had be pleasantly surprised to see all the roads named after the British Royalty .So now once you are coming down on the other side of the railway bridge(Badi Pool) on the left you will see once of those structures resembling world war II hangars .It is the cinema hall called the National Institute catering to the natives who came for the movies ,some cards,a small library but most of the times just to loiter,chat and stretch after a day;s toil at the Railway workshop.
O ….I do have stories for this place as well…just wait …but that is another generation ,once that came to Jamalpur in the 50s and 60s for season change,love ,a job and not necessarily in that order.
So now you see the Albert Road on the left after the National Institute ,you have the austere Notre Dame School building rising out and then the post office in front and the I.W(Inspector of Works) office in the right.
So now let me take the second longest road in Jamalpur.The ALBERT Road
As you pass the school on the right and the Jamalpur Municipalilty office on the left,what you will love is the defunct steam roller on which some generations of Notre Dame guys have played. Another relic from the Raj days may be….at least I like to romanticize that way.Move forward to find the East Colony Bank.Even though it is now shifted to the first floor the tea shop beside it of Jadav ji is a place you cannot miss. Dark,dingy,old world….that’s it!!His son Raju now has grey stubbles so what.Behind them is an entrance to th Notre Dame schoold dispensary and post that you have a saloon, Priya Studio,a liquor shop(may be it is no longer there) , an old ration shop with stairs winding up to no where and a big banyan tree.
Take a right and you will be on the workshop road but i will stick to my road.The next stop is Hira Mode.There used to be a hira’s hotel which used to supply the brown sahibs with jalebis anmd sweet meats.The last i saw it smelt of dank sweat,burnt wood,two mangy dogs ,a dry tube well and an old man sleeping ….Just beside it you have the star hotel of Jamalpur the erstwhile Madras Coffee House .They used to sell only idli dosas but now they have some accommodation rooms as well .
More to continues…
October 29, 2009 at 10:43 pm · Filed under In The News |
Patna , Oct 26 Alarmed by deaths of 27 children due to Japanese encephalitis in South Bihar, the state government has decided to launch a vaccination drive in the area from next month.
Though the opposition parties, including RJD, have alleged that over 60 people died of encephalitis in Gaya and Munger districts during the past two months in Bihar, the state Health department officials said they have reports of around 27 deaths so far.
The most affected districts were Gaya, Aurangabad and Munger in Bihar, the officials said, adding”we have planned to launch an anti-encephalitis vaccination drive from next month to tackle the spread of the disease.”
Special medical teams were also being sent to the area to find out the reason behind the outbreak of the disease and submit a report to the state government, they said.
Principal Secretary, Health department, C K Mishra, said the”situation was not alarming and we have the wherewithal to tackle the disease.
October 29, 2009 at 10:27 pm · Filed under In The News |
MUNGER: Owing to increase in the water level of the Ganga here, thousands of Chhath devotees may face problems this year as there would be
limited space to accommodate the thousands of devotees descending on its ghats to worship the Sun god.
Kastaharni Ghat, Babua Ghat, Jail Ghat and Piparpanti Ghat are the only ones available to the devotees to perform Chhath puja on the occasion.
Incidentally, prices of various commodities and foodstuff have hit the roof. For example, fruits, including banana, coconut, orange and apple, have been selling at exorbitant rates.
October 29, 2009 at 9:57 pm · Filed under In The News |
BANKA/GAYA: Maoists blew up a school building in the Belhar block of Banka district in a dynamite attack early on Wednesday. The rebels later
engaged the security forces in a heavy exchange of fire at Barsudhi forest under Barachatti police station in Gaya district on Wednesday morning.
A police team, led by Banka superintendent of police P Kannan, raided the forests adjacent to the village, where the school building was situated, to nab the culprits. Police have not ruled out the connection between some local people and the Naxalites during such attacks.
The Naxalites had attacked two school buildings one old and the other new of a middle school at Gerua village in Banka district. The middle school is located at a remote place near the Belhar forest, about 15 kilometre from Belhar block. Sources said the area is adjacent to Jamui and Munger districts, which are said to be Maoist strongholds.
The old school building was completely destroyed in the blast whereas the new building suffered mild damages, said sources. Police have launched a hunt in the village and the jungle areas to arrest the culprits, said Kannan.
Gaya SP Sushil Khopde said police were informed about Naxalites gathering at a place to hold a training camp in the forest on the Bihar-Jharkhand border. Soon, a team, comprising district police, SAP (the special police force, comprising former army personnel and created to combat Naxalites) and CRPF men rushed to the forest area and challenged the Naxalites.
Khopde said police must have fired more than a hundred rounds during the exchange, which lasted for about one-and-a-half hours and that forced the Maoists to beat a retreat. He added that there were no reports of any casualty on either side and a combing operation was on.
This was the second time in 72 hours that the policemen and the Naxalites exchanged fire in the Barachatti PS area. A couple of days ago, too, the Naxalites and the police exchanged fire in the same area.
The Maoists seemed to have stepped up their activities on the Bihar-Jharkhand border. During the two-day Maoist bandh on October 12 and 13, the ultras took out torch-light processions, blew up mobile phone towers and burnt the effigies of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and home minister P Chidambaram. They also dug holes on the road to disrupt communication.
October 20, 2009 at 9:49 pm · Filed under In The News |
Munger (Bihar), Oct 18 (PTI) Is bank money in use for making illegal arms in Munger district of Bihar?
Superintendent of Police M Sunil Nayak said the police had recently unearthed 14 illegal gun manufacturing units which might have used bank loans taken under the Prime Minister’s Rojgar Yojna programme.
“Investigations are on to ascertain the source of the money to set up those units,” the SP told PTI.
These 14 units were parts of the 48 illegal gun manufacturing factories unearthed this year in the Maoist dominated district.
Munger is known for having a large number of illegal gun making units producing wide ranging firearms and supplying those to criminals across the country.
This Rs 20 crore market has its reach even beyond the country, including Nepal and Bangladesh.
October 15, 2009 at 1:17 pm · Filed under In The News |
Seven passengers of Uttar Pradesh-Howrah-New Delhi Janata Express sustained injuries when a 14-member gang attacked the SC-II coach between Jasidih and Lahavan stations on the Patna-Howrah main section of Eastern Railway and decamped with Rs 48,000 early today.
The train had no police escorts and the group of youths, aged between 16 and 25 years, went on a robbing spree threatening passengers with daggers and country-made pistols.
One Manahor Shaw, 45, a resident of Keshopur Jamalpur village under Munger (Bihar) district sustained serious injuries and was admitted to Jhajha primary health centre this morning. Afterwards, he was referred to Jamui Sadar hospital as his condition deteriorated.
Officer-in-charge of Jasidih railway station S.K. Sinha said that the group of 14 got on the train between Jhajha (Bihar) and Jasidih (Deoghar) stations around 2.50am.
“Passengers said the youths boarded the train at Jasidih and began their operation as soon as the train picked up speed near Tulshitard halt,” he said.
He added that the group robbed approximately Rs 48,000 from passengers, besides mobile phones, wristwatches, and jewellery. However, passengers claimed that more than Rs 1.5 lakh, besides valuables, were taken away during the attack.
A GRP officer on the condition of anonymity said there were no escorts because the zone was a rebel stronghold. “Due to Naxalite threat, policemen avoid this section.”
October 15, 2009 at 1:07 pm · Filed under In The News |
Examiner of local accounts (ELA), Bihar, D Jaishankar has highlighted major irregularities in revenue management in urban local bodies
(ULBs) and Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs). The report was released by principal accountant general Arun Kumar Singh here on Wednesday.
Jaishankar, in his presentation threw light on the salient points of both ULBs and PRIs audit reports. He pointed out that in 39 ULBs, the tax collectors and tax `darogas’, cashiers, accountants and the other tax collecting staff either failed to deposit or short deposited a sum to the tune of Rs 80.70 lakh collected as tax, fees and other miscellaneous revenues.
The report found that collection money to the tune of Rs 79.24 lakh was irregularly retained by the cashiers of Begusarai, Bettiah and Jamalpur Nagar Parishads.
Similarly, in the case of PRIs, the report found that assistants of Zila Parishad — Motihari and Purnia — collected Rs 33.07 lakh and Rs 11.31 lakh, but deposited only Rs 25.12 and Rs 5.24 lakh respectively. The remaining amount was not recovered till June 2007 and December 2007, said the report.
The Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) sustained loss to the tune of Rs 1.62 crore due to under assessment of holding tax whereas due to under-valuation of annual value of holdings, the Biharsharif Municipal Corporation (BMC) suffered revenue loss worth Rs 50.80 lakh, noted the report.
The report detected a discrepancy to the tune of Rs 9.79 crore in the accounts of 33 panchayat samitis it had audited. Rs 90.17 lakh was diverted by Bhagalpur and Bhojpur Zila Parishads during 2003-04 to 2006-07 of 10th, 11th, and 12th finance commission and Sampoorna Gramin Rojgar Yojna (SGRY) grants for other purposes while Rs 41.21 lakh was diverted between January and March 2004 by Runnisaidpur Panchayat Samiti in Sitamarhi district. Non-realization and loss of revenue to the tune of Rs 46.66 and Rs 28.41 lakh respectively was detected in PRIs on account of settlement of `sairiats’, noted the ELA report.
The report pointed out that due to non-reconciliation of cash book balances with treasury/bank balances, the unreconciled difference stood to the tune of Rs 7.59 crore in 32 ULBs. Rs 16.48 crore of specific grants were diverted by 17 ULBs towards payment of salaries and allowances to its staffs. Bettiah Nagar Parishad made a payment of salaries and allowances to staff to the tune of Rs 14.04 lakh irregularly due to retention of its staff in service beyond the date of their superannuation. Gaya Municipal Corporation irregularly paid Rs 72.56 lakh as interim relief to its employees.
ELA report found major irregularities in implementation of schemes in 37 ULBs where works worth Rs 10.04 crore remained incomplete.
The report noted that at Narkatiaganj, Runnisaidpur, Sono and Masaurhi panchayat samitis payments were made for a number of works which were either abandoned or postponed, but the advances made were not recovered. Engagement of the same labourers were found time and again in the same period at Ujiarpur and Parihar panchayat samitis and Patna and Katihar Zila Parishads, says the report.
October 2, 2009 at 12:39 pm · Filed under In The News |
Government Railway Police (GRP) have put all major stations on high alert in the wake of Maoist call for 24-hour bandh in Bihar and other
states from Friday midnight.
Security has been beefed up in all long-distance mail and express trains either passing or originating from Patna Junction. Sniffer dogs have also been pressed into service at Patna Junction, said DIG (railways) Arvind Pandey.
According to Pandey, security has been beefed up at all vulnerable places in the state. Reinforcement is being deployed at all vulnerable points as well as in Maoist-hit areas. Movement of passengers at Patna Junction would also be monitored through CCTV cameras, he said.
The DIG said the Patna-Gaya, Patna-Jhajha, Gaya-Dhanbad and Gaya-Mughalsarai sections are the most vulnerable places. The Kiul-Jamalpur section has also of late been the soft target of Maoists. GRP have tightened the security measures in close coordination with RPF, he said.
Railway bridges are also on the radar of security agencies. A light engine would move ahead of every mail and express train in the vulnerable areas during the bandh. All RPF posts have been asked to remain vigilant and act fast in coordination with the state police, a railway security official said, adding an emergency cell would work round the clock during the bandh.
According to Patna SRP Upendra Kumar Sinha, the GRP personnel escorting trains during night have been directed to search each bogie of the passenger train as well as luggage of the suspects. The GRP personnel would carry out a search operation at all the platforms at Patna Junction. While a door metal detector has been installed at the main gate of Patna Junction, each escort party has been equipped with a hand metal detector, the SRP said.
September 7, 2009 at 10:50 pm · Filed under Munger |
An undertrial was killed and a constable critically wounded when a group of undertrials in a bid to escape exploded bombs in the civil court campus here, forcing policemen to open fire at them.
Police said the incident occurred when the undertrials were boarding a police vehicle to return to prison after they were produced in the court.
As they were about to board the vehicle, a group of undertrials, including Danny Yadav, Amit Mandal and Sujit Yadav, exploded bombs.
The policemen retaliated and fired at them.
While Danny Yadav, an undertrial, was killed on the spot, Mohammed Khairuddin, a constable, was critically injured in the explosion.
Another undertrial, Sujit Yadav, managed to escape.
Raids were on to apprehend him, the police said.
The bombs were supplied to the undertrials allegedly by fellow undertrials at the court lock-up, they said.
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