Durga Puja is the biggest festival of eastern India. It’s a time for all round celebrations. Huge puja pandals are erected where lacs of devotees go to seek the blessings of the goddess Durga. It’s time for shopping – new clothes, gifts, jewellery, sweets and what not.

It’s also a vacation time in this part of the country. Lots of holidays on this occasion.

Staying alone here, I usually have nothing much to do on holidays, more so when you have a number of holidays at a stretch. It was, therefore, only natural that I was looking around for a place nearby, that I can visit and stay at for a night or two.

I had wanted to visit the Chilika Lake, but then I was told that it will be better to go there in late November or December as that is the time when migratory birds crowd the islands there. Incidentally, Chilika is a brackish water lagoon located on the east coast of India and opening into the Bay of Bengal. It is stated to be the largest coastal lagoon in India and the second largest lagoon in the World. Known to be the largest wintering ground for migratory birds on the Indian sub-continent, in the peak migratory season birds from as far as the Caspian Sea and remote parts of Russia, Mongolia and Himalayas come here. The spread of the Lagoon ranges between 1100 to 900 square kilometers during the monsoon and summer seasons. The length of the river is more than 60 kilometers at its longest point. (Source Wikipedia)

There is one place just at the beginning of Chilika, which is known for Irrawaddy Dolphins. Chilika is home to the only known population of Irrawaddy dolphins in India. It is a critically endangered species. The launch pad for a trip for sighting the Dolphins is a place about 100 kilometres from Bhubaneswar, via Puri, called Satpada. Satpada is a small village and more importantly it has a small hotel/guest house run by the state tourism department. One can take a boat trip of the Chilika lake from here. The tourism department runs boats from here. Private boats are also available.

A search on Wikipedia revealed that Satpada is located at the meeting point of Chilika Lake and Bay of Bengal. The famous Chilika dolphins can be seen in their natural best here. There are also ample opportunities for canoeing, kayaking and boating.

So that is where I decided to go.

I requested my contacts to book a room for me at the guest house but was told that there was no vacancy. Disappointed as I was, I surfed the net to look for some other interesting destination to visit during the holidays. Accidentally, I came to know that OTDC (Orissa Tourism Development Corporation) provides for online booking also, for its guest houses. I tried and believe it or not – two rooms were available at Satpada itself. At that time, in fact, I was looking for two rooms as I had requested a colleague also to join me for this trip. He, however, due to some other engagement, had to opt out. So I booked one room for me, paid for it online, and received appropriate confirmations (This should be a lesson for everyone – before giving up search the net. You may be surprised).

On the appointed day I left after morning breakfast and that meant that I would reach Satpada by lunchtime. The sky was partially cloudy and hence the weather was pleasant. The scenery all along the route was wonderful with lush green paddy fields looking more beautiful than the famed English Countryside. As we were nearing Satpada, it started drizzling a bit. On reaching the guest house, I checked into my room and ordered a late lunch. I had a hearty meal of prawn curry (Chilika is famous for Prawn cultivation and one gets large size meaty prawns here). After lunch I decided to complete reading a book I was trying to finish for the last many days, as I had nothing else to do for the remainder of the day. The boat ride for sighting the dolphins was planned for next day morning only.

After a little nap towards the end of the evening, I switched on the TV (only a few channels were available on a local cable connection and most of them were Oriya channels, obviously). While surfing these channels, I suddenly came across a weather bulletin displaying a satellite image indicating dense cloud formation to the east of Orissa, in the Bay of Bengal. While trying to catch the Oriya speaking presenter, all I could understand was that a deep depression was forming in the Bay of Bengal which was likely to intensify and hit the east coast of Orissa in the next 24 hours. It predicted high speed winds and heavy rains in the coastal areas and here I was, staying within a few kilometres of the sea coast on the bank of Chilika lake that has its mouth opening into the Bay of Bengal. In fact the visit to the mouth of the lake opening into the Indian Ocean is the highlight of the boat trip. As this point I was seriously worried about the chances of my boat trip going ahead.

In the night I had another hearty meal, this time freshly cooked crab curry (it was my first time and I found it difficult to eat with such a tough shell and very little meat to be prised out – tasty though it was). I decided to turn in early as I had to report for the boat ride at six in the morning. I am a late riser (which is an understatement) and my family knows what a challenge it is for me to get up at such an unearthly hour. By this time, wind had already started building up and the sound of it piercing through the openings in the doors and the windows was like a loud orchestra. It kept on raining in the night though it appeared that the rain was not very heavy.

When I got up in the early morning (I don’t know when I fell asleep through all that racket), I could sense from within the room that the wind was very-very strong and it was beating heavily against the doors and windows. I opened the front door and what a sight it was! The trees were rocking in the gusty wind and so were the lamp posts within the compound.

It was obvious that there was no way a boat can take to the lake that day. A tourist boat – definitely not. It was shortly confirmed by the guest house staff too. No boat was to venture out that day. It was a big-big disappointment.

I had earlier planned that on returning from my three hours long boat trip; I will leave for Bhubaneswar after taking a bath and having a breakfast at the guest house itself (By the way the check out time is 8 o’clock in the morning! Who lays down such silly rules? Wake up OTDC, wake up!). But now I was worried if I would be able to leave at all? It appeared to be highly unsafe to take the risk of driving to Puri in such fierce weather and the chances of road being blocked due to fallen trees was a high possibility.

My driver suggested that we bide our time and wait for a break in the weather. However, such a thing appeared highly unlikely. Weather was only worsening and power had already gone out. I was afraid that I may get struck up at the guest house till the cyclonic storm wears out in the next 24 to 36 hours. It was a bleak prospect to spend time in such a forsaken place without power and probably water too. What other unforeseeable could be in store, I was not sure.

To my great fortune the weather improved a bit after about two hours and I decided to make a break for it. I paid my bills, jumped into the car and off we drove, carefully. The road was littered with tree leaves and small broken branches. Nothing serious so far. No but wait? Just four-five kilometres down the road we were suddenly stopped in our tracks. A big tree had fallen down, completely blocking the narrow road. There was no way we could proceed any further till the tree was removed. Going back to the guest house was probably the only option.

Just as I was examining the tree from all angles with great disappointment, a bus came down from behind us. It was a glimmer of hope as it threw up the possibility of 30-40 commuters joining hands, or maybe using the bus itself (crazy idea), to pull away the tree. But the bus was empty. Out came the driver and his two accomplices. Another bout of disappointment must have been evident from my face.

Just then I noticed that the driver was carrying a small machete. He intended to cut the tree with that machete. I was wondering as to how many hours it will take to cut down the tree with his tool. To my utter surprise, however, he was equal to the task. With great zeal and expertise, he immediately started chopping at the tree, selecting very carefully the branches to be chopped. Within no time he had cleared enough of it for us to go through. What a relief it was?

We were on the road once again though I was afraid of encountering more obstacles on the way. Slowly, however, this concern started fading away as we passed a few vehicles coming from the other direction, which indicated that the road was open, at least till such time they passed it. I, however, remained on the edge till we reached Puri. As we turned towards Bhubaneswar, I had a sigh of relief. The rest of the journey was uneventful and I reached my home safely, in the afternoon.

Though the trip was a flop-show as the intended purpose could not be served, it was an eventful outing. I now must wait for the next round of holidays to fulfil my desire to photograph the dolphins. God willing.