The world is gigantic – millions and millions of square miles stretched like a fabric wrapped around a cosmic tennis ball. Imagine the joy of exploring numerous unseen places and that bliss can be experienced only if we are tugged out of our familiar environment and placed in a zone that offers us not just new things to look at, but new people to meet and new experiences to enjoy.
Yes! Travelling in a nut shell is simply that!
In the words of Michael Palin, “Geography is a great adventure with a purpose”, and this holds true for the educator this week, who loves adventure and seeks it through travel. The globe and the various places on it are not unfamiliar to her. She is our loving and ever-smiling Mrs. Indrani Bhattacharjee. Going on road trips and learning new culture does rivet her.
One such road trip was on the Grey Hound bus that took her across Canada from the East to the West Coast. It was her most adventurous travel experience during which she enjoyed her own company. Two years back, she and her husband explored the Sundarbans Forest, one night, in a small boat, braving the Bengal tigers! Another enthralling experience was a walk on the frozen ‘Lake Superior’ in Canada. She also enjoys hiking and recalls her Himalayan hiking experience and the beautiful ‘Pindar Ganga’.
Apart from travel, she is passionate about reading books and journals on geography and has developed her own e-library over the past ten years, which has a huge collection of books on Earth science and also Bengali books written by Bangladeshi writers and classics by Rabindranath Tagore. ‘Gitanjali’ and ‘Prakriti’ books by Tagore find a special place in her e-library collection. Another book she treasures is ‘Ghare Baire’ which is also a movie directed by Satyajit Ray.
The lockdown period helped her develop another hobby, cooking. She has been trying traditional Bengali recipes from her Grandma’s kitchen and the one which tingles taste buds is ‘Hilsa fish prepared with mustard’, – her all-time favorite.
The meeting with Ma’am Indrani ended with me craving for more of her travel experiences and a bite into the scrumptious Hilsa fish prepared by this endearing teacher
-Reet Oberoi 10A
