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Towards Duarshini
Sanjit, I noticed, was missing from the modern, Bengali poetry session. We
had a plan to explore the Duarshini eco-tourism area together. So I set
out to look for him.
Duarshini was about 5km from Bhalopahar. As the weather was charming, and
straight road leading to Duarshini was quite inviting, I guessed that
Sanjit might have gone there for a morning walk. So I set out inthe same
direction as well. It was about 8:20 in the morning (and I had quite
forgotten about breakfast).
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The road to Duarshini
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This is part of the same long straight road which had carried us from
Bandoan. Go straight down it and you will climb up the Dalma range, and if
you survive any chance encounter with stray elephants, you will find
yourself in Jharkhand and possibly face some police officer asking to check
your identity. On either side of the road there were fields, not green,
just a pale yellow. And there were grazing cattles here and there.
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The roadside cattle
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Just a kilometer or so away was a higher secondary school : Kuchiya
Uchchataro Madhyamik Bidyalay.
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Kuchiya
Uchchataro Madhyamik Bidyalay
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Its impressive span would do credit to many highbrow schools in Kolkata.
It was a Saturday, the morning session was going on. The teachers' room
was small in size. But then there was the wide garden under the blue sky
for the teachers to lounge in. I stopped by a couple of classes, and
eavesdropped. There were many students, no uniform, coeducation.
The students were evidently poor, but not exactly unhealthy. In a
classroom (which said VIII above the door) I overheard the teacher
lecturing in fluent English about how the attitude of a speaker often
conveys more information than his statements. If that is the general
teaching level of the school, then it can put many Kolkata schools to
shame. On the whole I left with a
high opinion about the standard of the school, though I am yet unable to
fathom how such a school came to exist in that remote area.
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The most impressive classroom of the school
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The rest of the walk to Duarshini proved uneventful except for one failed
attempt to climb up a slope.
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