As we travelled through the pristine, relatively untouched parts of western Odisha, which were largely uncommercialized, entering through Jharsuguda and travelling Eastwards to Khandadhar in the Sundergarh district, my heart resonated with the poems of journalist, author, and activist Jacinta Kerketta on Adivasi rights and the concerns of water, forests, and land.
The land is fertile (the hosts told us anything from apples to pulses could grow easily in the alluvial soil), the forests are lush, and the people proud of their heritage and culture. The sun-bleached stubble of harvested paddy stood in neat patches; we were told tongue-firmly-in-cheek that the interest to farm was absent; perhaps that to work was likewise.
Striking for me was also the parallel between Bengal and Odisha. Whatever the Bengali-Odia friction and each other’s claim to cultural superiority, I felt with every pore of my being that I had been transported to the Bengal countryside that a reader of Tagore internalises. The lovely lilt of the languages is similarly indistinguishable to an outsider who loves how like soft interrogatives the sentences end.
I visited Orissa (not Odisha then) on the LTC (a domestic
travel allowance for government employees) when I was 8-9 years old, and even
though we visited Bhubaneswar (where Papa was posted), Puri, Konark (I sat this
out, no idea why), and Cuttack, I have very few memories of the trip.
So naturally, when it presented itself, we jumped at the
opportunity to ‘Look East’. While the cities I visited earlier were on the eastern
seacoast (Bay of Bengal) of India, this time we were visiting the western (slightly north) parts.
Jharsuguda to Khandadhar
From the airport to the Khandadhar Nature Camp was a four-hour
drive, largely bypassing but slightly cutting through Rourkela for a pitstop at
a Members’ Only RWA club. A samosa, 2 cups of tea and a visit to the small room
later, the driver was kind enough to detour to show us the Hockey Chowk – a landmark
celebrating hockey with festival-lit parks and statues. Very uplifting.
Before you see it, you hear it!!
It flowed in the darkness of the December evening, hidden from view – the Khandadhar Waterfall – a perennial, horsetail waterfall! The Khandadhar Nature Camp in the Sundergarh district, 37 km away from the nearest town, Bonai, is an eco-tourism camp with tents/ cottages. The entire property faces the falls – you see it when you wake up, you see it when the stars come out, and you hear it in sleep and in the shower. The state-owned property is impeccably managed, and the staff is most obliging. Do not expect TV or kettles in the rooms, but anything they can, they will readily provide, like an extra blanket or hot (prepared) bed tea at the appointed hour on the patio outside the cottage. The food is ‘home-cooked’ and sumptuous. The camp organises treks to the top of the falls.
Khandadhar to Jangla
Our destination was village Jangla on the banks of the river Brahmini, about 25 km from the Khandadhar camp.
We crossed the river Brahmini twice to reach Jangla and experienced warm hospitality. A tour took us through the village roundabout, the village deity’s abode under a massive tree at the entrance of the village, a closed sort of a room known as Bhagabat Tungi.
PS: Airport Authority of India's tagline 'Oh!! Odisha' is unimaginative. Could they not have thought of something that captures the local flavour better, a simple 'come to Odisha' - 'Asantu Odisha'?
