Chapter 8 – Visit to Tripura State

Each KIP has a state partner and a total of 10 days is spent in sighting that particular state. Our partner state was Tripura. Well actually as participants of 52nd KIP our state partner was Bihar and Jharkandh when we signed up but there were some last minute changes. Honestly, I had never heard about this part of India before; not even in movies. Tripura is one of the states of India which shares the border with Bangladesh.

We had to take two flights to reach to Tripura from Delhi having a transit at Kolkata airport. I do not remember clearly but the journey was almost more than 10 hours flight time which was quite overwhelming for me. It only takes around 8 hours to go on a round trip on my Island home and that only 8 hours by road.

At last we arrived in Tripura which was a much warmer state compared to the others we had been to. The weather and the atmosphere was just like my island home. Tripura is one of the least developed states of India and poverty is quite evident here. The life here is very slow compared to the busy city life we experienced in Delhi. The natives had a Chinese resemblance and they had a totally different language. Even their written language was quite different and we were told by our local guide that most of them do not speak or even understand hindi.

We were accommodated at one of the government guest house which was located at the banks of the lake and had a very lovely view of the neermahal (water palace). The former king of Tripura had built the palace in the middle of the lake which has now become a popular tourist site. We had a tour of the palace at dusk which was one of the best times as the setting sun added to the beauty of the Neer Mahal. We stopped for quick snacks before we took the boat ride back. Tripura has dusty and bumpy roads and we had a lot of travelling. We were taken to another lake which was around 5 hours drive and on the way we spotted an elephant (my first encounter with one). He looked very muddy and wild but we did manage to take pictures of him from a safe distance.

As part of the tour we were taken to the rubber plantation, rubber factory, tea estate, bamboo art factory and a food factory. All this did not fascinate me much as it meant long hours of travel on the bumpy roads. I still remember how one of the local did not allow us to use the washroom. But there were some attractions and interesting places in Tripura as well. The Tripura wildlife zoo displayed a variety of its wild lives. Unakoti is another beautiful attraction. It had amazing sculptures of hindu gods and goddess and requires a lot of walking on steep stairs. There was foot steps of Lord Krishna on one of the high lookout points of this place. The best part of Tripura was the visit to the Chabimura caves. We were taken here at dusk on a boat ride as the caves are only accessible through the water ways. We even had some military officers to escort us to the place for security reasons. It was a real adventure to travel to the caves which was very slippery but the boat ride was superb. We returned back gazing at the stars as the night fell.

I was really blessed to visit one of most symbolic temple –Tripureshwari temple (aka matabari). Legend has it that the little

finger of the left leg of Maa Sati fell here. At this very temple I tasted the most delicious peda which was offered as prasad. One of the things I noticed in this state was that the locals practiced the ritual of sacrifice and slaughtered goats in the temple compounds. Another thing which I did not like was that old idols of goddess were placed under the trees. Upon asking my guide I was told that every year the idols in temples are replaced with new ones. Hence the old ones do not have a place in the temple so it is placed under trees. This has been the practice for decades now.

Our group was taken to witness the flag lowering ceremony at the India-Bangladesh boarder and it was quite a privilege to see this. A cultural show was also organized for us and the ladies were dressed in total different attire (their native attire). We were offered special tea which contained salt instead of sugar which according to the guide was a specialty of the state. Well at first I thought they mistakenly added salt instead of sugar but later learned that the natives actually have their tea with salt. We also went to a park which had highlights and glimpses of the attractions within the whole state. We even made it to the local headlines as I think tourism in this state is quite limited.

One of the most odd experience I had during my stay here was when the natives made a big fuss about the music. Actually a bon fire was organized at the guest house upon request. So the participants of our tour group started dancing and playing loud music to enjoy themselves. The nearby villagers did not like this and came in the middle of the night shouting at us in their mother tongue. We could not figure out what they said but it was definitely not pleasing. All we could see was their flashlights and hear voices filled with anger. That marked the end of our party night.

In general Tripura is a very slow growing state and the life in this state is slow moving. It seemed like the people were not yet bothered to accept the changes that the world has brought. The natives lived in their own world. Well like someone said the rich in India are getting richer while the poor are getting poorer. I appreciate though that we were taken to this state; at least I experienced both, the rich and poor sides of India.