Into the Jungle
(Part one: The road that leads there)
I had read a lot of fiction when I was a kid. About daring adventurers venturing into the wild in search of gold or discovering ancient ruins, fighting bandits, catching smugglers, etc.
But there was one story that always fascinated me and it was about a group of boys around my age. The story had all the things I dreamt of, being stranded in a jungle, backpacks, meeting face-to-face with a tiger(and living to tell the story!) and teaching the bad guys a lesson they will never forget.
With hilarious dialogues, and of course friends to see it through to the end. Reading that story, I created a picture in my mind of how it would feel to be in the jungle and I would frequently daydream about that.
But the most unique part of that story was that it took place in the "SUNDERBANS", the largest mangrove forest on the planet, and I lived pretty close to it ( I mean it was only 322 kilometers away from where I lived!).
Even so, I never thought I would get a chance to visit that place, 'cause my folks were stay-close-to-home people so we never went anywhere far from our home district. But luckily miracles existed.
I was halfway through my high school years, life was as it had always been, NORMAL. But all of a sudden one afternoon, I came home and got the news that my uncle (who was in a medical college at that time) was going to the Sunderbans next week with his friends. So if I wanted to go, I could join them on the trip.
Who could say no to such an amazing opportunity, I started to prepare for the journey ahead of me. Well, I didn't buy anything like tents or camping stuff that I had always dreamed about.
But I did buy some warm clothes because the trip was around the beginning of the year and it sure was going to be pretty chilly out there.
One week later, I found myself on the bus that would take us directly to Khulna before making several stops along the way. From Khulna, we would have to reach the mangrove forest through the "Rupsha" river and canals that are spread throughout the forest.
This was the first time I was going to leave my hometown in search of a new experience so the excitement was pretty high. There were almost 20 people together on that bus, and everyone looked forward to the journey that awaited us.
I don't remember much about what happened till the bus reached the capital city "Dhaka" but I do remember sitting by the window and staring at the sight of the city waking up slowly.
By the time the bus reached "Dhaka," it was already noon by then and the city was as crowded and busy as I had read about in the books. But the bus didn’t stop there. It zipped right past that city and I only got a glimpse of the city.
After that, we had to cross the "Padma" river. At that time some Ferries carried huge vehicles across that river and our bus got on one of those. From there all we had to do was wait and enjoy the scenarios that lay before us.
The water sparkling in the afternoon sun, the murmur of the waves, and the landscape spread far out in the distance.
I don't know how long it took to cross that river but I remember the bus being on the road once again before it was getting dark.
At that time it felt like even the road we were on had a story to tell us and we just had to keep quiet and listen.
The night fell while we were on the road and the bus made two stops before we reached our predetermined location in the "Khulna" city.
The first stop was pretty near "Bagerhat" which was adjacent to "Khulna". We had some sweetmeats made from "Dates" that had the right amount of sweetness and flavor. That stop was quite short 'cause we were back on the bus and back on the road in a jiffy.
I vividly remember the place where we got off the bus the second time and took a stroll around the place. It was near a big flyover and there was a staircase that led to it from the ground. I climbed up the stairs to get a good view of the spot.
I remember it being chilly that night as I climbed to the top. But unfortunately, I don’t quite remember what I saw up there at that time.
After getting down, we drank a couple of glasses of raw date syrup that had been extracted from date trees. It was quite good, with a sharp sweet flavor that had a mellow fragrance.
From there it didn't take that long for us to reach our destination "Khulna". And from there, a whole new journey was ahead of us, and we could hardly wait.
