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Team-BHP Kolkata Overnight Meet: Biharinath Purulia

31st August 2024, 17:04 by Brij Gawde

It was a pleasant coincidence when a planned trip to Biharinath Eco Tourism Resort, Bankura, materialized in the same time that I had to go to Kolkata for a family commitment.

BHPian predatorwheelz recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

2 disclaimers at the very start:

Bhpian Arindom Ghosh (NomadicLife) was responsible for organizing this meeting. Not only did he decide and book the venue, he pestered all & sundry the group with photos & anecdotes about the venue, and stopped not till the maximum participant limit was reached. Without him, this trip would just not have happened. For the purpose of the thread, he will be referred to as OPA (Organizer Par Excellence).
Distinguished bhpian Abhishek (ABHI_1512) was the Dara Singh of the trip. He was seen doing crazy stunts like wrestling a JCB to the ground celebrating over its defeated trunk, and pushing away a Tavera. More details in the coming posts.

Introduction

The team bhp Kolkata bunch was organizing successful overnight meets one after the other. A whole bunch of enthusiastic friends heading out for a weekend to a scenic destination in their vehicles, having a whole lot of fun, drives, and conversation, and coming back to share the pics with their less opportune (read, based in a different geography) friends. Admittedly I was jealous.

So it was a pleasant coincidence when a planned trip to Biharinath Eco Tourism Resort, Bankura, materialized at the same time that I had to go to Kolkata for a family commitment. The WhatsApp group was abuzz with activity, and I couldn't control my excitement to be joining this devil-may-care bunch in their next outing.

I landed in Kolkata on the 9th of August night and slept in anticipation of the trip to come.

Participant List

NomadicLife (OPA)
Predatorwheelz (Yours Truly)
Dip27in (Debdeep)
ShuvC - Red Pajero Sport
Mi2N (Meethun Bose)
ABHI_1512 - Ecosport/Baahon
Neversaygbye (Sumanta) - Safari
Edunata (Atanu)
Mile_Breaker (Niladri) - Hexa
sdg4wheels (Supratik) - Tavera/Tavu
HornNotOkPlease (Rhitabrata) - XL6
Cdibya (Dibyajnyan) - Magnite
PapaBravo (Pawan)
Ron82X3 (Subhashish)
Boniver (Sayantan Chakraborty)
Ghostrider28 (Sayantan Mondal) - Duster
KousikJana (Kousik) - Red Figo
Shade.azure (Soumyasanta Roy) - Red Jimny
Shourya_Lahiri (Seriously?) - Black Jimny
Breathe2drive (Ananya)
Arnab (Not a bhpian. Subhashish's childhood friend).
Sudipta Samanta

Day 1 - 10th August 2024

It was a nice cloudy day. The meeting point was decided to be Dankuni Toll Plaza, and the time was 7.00 AM. Shourya was the only one who arrived on time and waited at the plaza, while the rest of the group started from different parts of the city and congregated there. ABHI_1512 did the heroic drive from Behala to Newtown to pick me up.

The first meeting (breakfast) point was Azad Hind Dhaba on NH2. The bunch treated themselves to Chicken Bharta, Naan, some South Indian snacks, etc for breakfast.

Chitrangshu Da (standing, 2nd from left), Ritam Konar (standing, 4th from left), and Boniver (sitting, first from left with the Hulk Hogan biceps) had actually come to see us off up to AHD. We gave Boniver all sorts of dosti ki kasam and persuaded him to join this trip. To his credit he hopped in one of the cars, totally devoid of any sleeves, and stayed the length of the trip. Thanks, brother.

Rhitabrata watches Debdeep watching his phone, while Arnab seems to have a fly in his tea.

Niladri Da.

Rhitabrata, Ritam, Soumyasanta and Atanu Da

Rhitabrata proclaiming ownership of all the chai.

Ritam stood forlornly in a corner, secretly wishing he'd be persuaded more to join the trip.

Supratik and Shourya. The owners of this pic do not give permission to use this as a before & after pic of any advertisement for hair-growth products.

Bala's dosa gets cold while he chats with his girlfriend.

I don't know what Neversaygbye is saying in the pic, but it certainly isn't Gbye.

Dibya checks out someone.

The best way to avoid acidity after a rich and hearty meal is to wash it down with lime water.

Sudipto

Debdeep found the meal finger-licking good.

Busy ShuvC

Shameless locals made Mr guest appear to stand in a corner and identify himself.

After the meal, OPA took out his error, OPPO for a Groupfie. And then we were on the way.

After AHD I switched vehicles and hopped on to ShuvC's Pajero Sport. The route was NH2 via Burdwan up to Raniganj, then a narrow market road via Raniganj, after which we would cross the Damodar River into a place called Mejia and take the Mejia-Saltora Highway. The last 4 kms would branch off towards Biharinath.

We went smoothly up to Burdwan, after which there was a jam (showing 29 29-minute delay) on NH2. This was basically between the entry and exit points of Burdwan city. The highway here is being rebuilt, and jams are the order of the day. ShuvC, ABHI_1512, and Ghostrider28 (in his duster) took a smart detour here, wherein we were able to cut down the wait time to about 7 mins. This also meant the 3 vehicles were now running about 15-20 mins ahead of the rest of the pack.

Our next stop was the Cafe Coffee Day at Budbud. Being a caffeine addict myself, and since Rhitabrata had taken ownership of the chai at AHD (as you saw in a previous pic) everyone else joined us there.

OPA calls the hotel warning of our imminent arrival, which Debdeep finds funny.

Having boosted the economy of Budbud, the drive up to Raniganj was smooth, after which we turned off into this narrow market road.

It was unbelievably chaotic. Neversaygbye's Safari had an altercation with a woman at crawling speed. The gentleman that he is, he rolled down his window to apologize. She apparently tried to snatch the key away. Since push-button start hadn't arrived in her part of the world, she had to stay content with turning on some indicator, we're told.

Anyway, after this chaotic stretch of road, we came onto a deserted road and a level-crossing. 2 goods trains passed, and we were on a smooth highway.

The initial lot of 3 vehicles (as mentioned before) was quite ahead of the rest of the pack. We spent time demonstrating the Duster's load capability by loading Debdeep onto its trunk and taking shots of the other cars.