Unseen Utopia in Rural Bengal, India

How did I end up here? That’s what I’m pondering while taking a short promenade around the Sandton area of the city of Johannesburg. It’s a placid late winter night in the middle of May with a smell of unknown leaves pervading the air. It’s cold enough to shiver indeed! This contrast between this city’s weather & Mumbai’s torrid afternoon of yesterday is quite an element of surprise for a person like me who has never been out of India before. I never had any idea 23 days ago that I will be winning a couple trip for four days to a different continent which will be entirely sponsored. My brother & I withdrew our entire savings of about 12,000 INR & set out for this unexpected journey. On the day of the departure, we exchanged 9000 INR with a mere 150 USD for our personal expenses. The flight took off from the Chattrapati Shivaji International Airport at 02:00 hours IST i.e today. As the aircraft gained altitude, the lights of the city of Mumbai appeared like stars on the ground & after few minutes they faded into nothingness. It was impossible to sleep as consciousness was necessary to visually absorb every second of the journey. After 8 hours it started dawning & as the aircraft initiated descend, green patches of terrain started appearing from the starboard side windows. It was hard to believe that we are in a different continent with only 150 USD & we don’t know who will come to pick us up from the airport! Johannesburg appeared to be a city of tall buildings & gold mines from the sky. The smooth landing in the OR Tambo International Airport & my first breathing in the cold African continent immediately after coming out of the aircraft are some confidential pleasures kept aside to myself only. In the airport, a humble black man named Ephraim came to pick us up & introduced himself as our guide for four days. We checked into a luxurious hotel in the most elite corner of Johannesburg called Sandton. Since then a series of events passed very rapidly. Starting from the city tour to visiting the Lions’ Park & touching the velvet like fur of lions’ cubs & dining cow’s intestine... It was day one which ended in a flash! After dinner we decided to take a stroll. This trip is a lucid dream which life has given us for four days. There are three more days to absorb & the very next Monday we will be experiencing the hot summer on the other hemisphere perhaps cherishing today’s thoughts as something beautiful and amazing which happened in the past.