So, this is one of the very few pictures I have from Cambodia. Aisha, who I ‘traveled’ with for a few days sent some across recently.

This was on way to Bokor Hill Station. I was riding a semi automatic moto. That explains the helmet.

I am reminded of Robi from Santiniketan and then, I am reminded of all those blog posts tucked away neatly as memories in my little hand-written notepad. 

I hope to type them all out at least in order to relive the traveling times while sipping tea in the comforts of home. Loving the firm ground beneath feet, right now! 

After a little more than two and a half months, I am leaving Santiniketan the day after tomorrow. I am leaving for Cambodia on the 18th of Feb and I shall spend 4 weeks there. It is a solo backpacker’s trip, so wish me luck! 

Right now I am living through the “end-of-school excursion” feeling, since I have to leave Santiniketan. There is SO much more to tell you about the place, including the bike rides, the walks and a LOT more about the food. So, wait until I am back to Hyderabad and sending out resumes. I shall update more.

For now, just pray that my trip to Cambodia goes well and within budget :) I will update more in roughly 5 weeks. 

Wall murals and paintings on display at Kala Bhavana, Visva Bharati, Santiniketan. These are murals made using rocks, pebbles, tiles and paint. 

Another eco friendly habit at Santiniketan - Bicycles and Cycle rickshaws as modes of transport. We have 2 Hercules Hero bicycles of our own. 

Last night, due to a sudden craving for junk food, we decided to eat maggi. For starters, it has been 2 years since I considered maggi as food. Ever since I moved out of the hostel I forgot the existence of maggi until last night. So, we made 3 packs of the instant noodles and sat down to eat from a big kadai (imagine a setting very similar to the ones in advertisements).

I cringed at the first bite itself. The second bite was enough to convince me that this is what ugliness tastes like. It really tasted extremely awful and we could not eat any more of it. So, we decided to leave it out for the dogs. The story requires a tiny digression here; ever since we came to Santiniketan we don’t ever waste food. We feed a dog leftovers and milk every day. There are goats which wander into our front yard that share some of the leftovers and doi sticking to the matki. And all vegetable and fruit peels/ waste goes to the cows. Yes, we have become very noble like that.

Coming back to the story, we left out the 3 packs of maggi in little bowls for the dogs and goats. Generally this food is emptied within the night and we tend to leave fresh food outside for the animals. But last night we realized that no one cared to eat any of the food. We hoped that our trusted dog would visit in the morning and eat it up, but the little guy sniffed the maggi and refuse to taste it. Instead he sat staring deep into my eyes, wagging his tail asking for other food. The last hope we had were in the goats, who stared at the bowls with their stoned eyes and then walked away.

So, it was not just us, even the animals refused maggi. After happily finishing my bowl of oats, I had a profound question - who eats maggi these days? Are we the only people who hated it? 

Scrap metal art at Santiniketan. All these structures are made with scrap metal and are on display at different parts in the town (including Kala Bhavana). 

Apart from these, there is a lot of work on display made out of waste paper. Eco friendly art all the way! 

Eco friendly habits at Santiniketan - Matkis (mud pots) for chai, doi and rabri; Palm leaf as spoon; leaf plates and cups for regular food. 

The evening we landed at Santiniketan it was an oddly unsettled feeling. It was much worse than any other ‘new’ place I had ever been to. It involved multiple things including whether it was a good decision to travel with company instead of traveling alone. We were also worried about the extremely high priced accommodation because of the impending Poush Mela. These nagging thoughts were further fueled by the multiple stares K and I received when we said that we were friends that were traveling together. It seemed like the best possible thing to do at that moment was to ignore those apprehensions.

We slept over it and the next morning went into the campus mainly for 2 reasons - to get acquainted with the place and to attempt to look for a place on rent & failing which convince ourselves that this town was not for us. So, we just walked aimlessly after shooing away eager rickshaw-waalas. As we were walking K had to run back to the hotel room for something, so I decided to sit under a cozy banyan tree ahead of me. Because of the nagging tensions building inside me, I just wanted to rest for a while and fell asleep right under the tree.

As I was drifting in and out of sleep, I could hear a vague voice shouting doi-rabri which woke me up. That is when I met the first friendly face at Santiniketan - Monomoli Ghosh. Sitting on a bicycle carrying little matkis of doi (yoghurt) and rabri (dessert made of condensed milk) , he asked me with a smile what I wanted.

‘Gimme both’

‘First eat the doi and then eat the rabri. You will enjoy it better’, said he and handed over a little pot with a palm leaf modeled as a spoon.

That is when I first ate the doi and rabri outside Kala Bhavana at the university. The first taste of lightly sweetened yoghurt and the burned rabri was brilliant and in quick succession I ate 4 more pots of the dessert. When K came back, I flagged down Monomoli Ghosh again and made him eat 4 pots of his own. I had ‘arrived’ in West Bengal with more than a cure for my sweet tooth. 

That moment of pure happiness nearly wiped out worries about accommodation, money and other practicalities of living. That welcome smile with which Monomoli Ghosh offered me the doi was enough to cure me of doubts about sticking to Santiniketan. Finally, it was a good decision to come here.

And we still meet Monomoli Ghosh on most days. He never stops smiling. 

Kala Bhavana is the fine arts department at Visva Bharti University, Santiniketan. Founded in 1919, it is well known as a distinguished center for visual art practice and research in India. 

Many buildings at Kala Bhavana have art work made on them. There are collages, murals, frescoes, wall paintings and sculptures of renowned artists on display.