Nature's Trail #2: Garpanchakot, Purulia, West Bengal, India.

The trip to Gorumara was not to end the endless plans that come with a promise of great week ends. Many graduates in India envy their american counterparts for having some great week ends, that has a proper Friday Night to look forward to. In India, the situation is nightless, endless... sometimes PhDjokes seem targeted towards us only!

So, a fortnight hence, it was another pleasure week end trip. Garpanchakot. Where time with the power of nature and innovation of humans.

Located upon a small hill, this place is one of the eastern most fringe of Chora Nagpur plateau. Industrial place, but this place has one of the greatest marvels of Indian engineering. It is located beside the Panchyet Dam, one of the four Hydel Power Dams within the grip of the Damodar Valley Corporation, producing more than 2million Watt power as a minimum production, per day. Taming the devastating Damodar River, called the Hwang Ho of India or rather say the Sorrow of India, this huge dam is a highly secured zone, placed between the territorial states of West Bengal and Jharkhand. Garpanchakot, is in Bengal.

I have seen sun rise / set over the oceans, rivers and lakes. It was my first to see it live from the reservoir of a dam. It was no less than awesome!

The team comprised of Nandana, Banhisikha, Bille, Belda and myself. Jayanta Da was about to join us, but due to unavoidable circumstances, he couldn't! But, never the less he missed a lot of things like the jungle....

 

West Bengal Forest Development Corporation (WBFDC) runs some guest house in several forests, within the territorial supervision of West Bengal. You can check the status of room availability, online and go with cash to the WBDFC office, located at Raja Subodh Mullick Square, Kolkata 13 and book.

We had reserved one four bedded room while a double room, all named after the local birds and trees, names that are specialty of Purulia District, West Bengal. Ours were "Kusum" and "Palash". Kusum was a four bedded suit and it was huge! Air Conditioned, but we loved the sun, as long as we had our eyes treat with the crowded forest; for a change, crowded with flora and aerial fauna, we were feeling great. The food was excellent as well.

What else was missed by those who failed to accompany; Good Trek and Excavation at the Garpanchakot ruins...

And did I mention about excavation? Oh! Yes... it was something to remember...

 

I can bet, with a handful of pictures about this dilapidated place, whose existence is over 900 years, a few will depict such pictures from the top of the temple. It was a paradise to sit a-top! Also, it was exciting to climb up the steps.

In between the lines, let me put in the little information about reaching the place. Take Black Diamond from Howrah, an early morning start and get down at Kumardubi (IRCTC code: KMME). Its nearer from Barakar, which many people believe as the nearest station to Garpanchakot. From Barakar its, a 45 minutes drive; from Kumardubi. it was 25 minutes! You reach the place within 4 hours, riding the Black!

How about soaking your feet, sitting within the reservoir. I mean, the place that would be flooded between July to March, due to rain and water storage for the hydel, remains dry between April to June. It's another paradise. The landscape is seasoned by the stored waters, where young grass grow and cattle graze, you move with a crazy driver, just up the hillock, which would be nothing but an island during the flood! And then, you take some rare snaps!

Bliss....

Surprise! The greatest experience of all: Mubarak Bhaiya's Snake museum, which he is trying to make a place where people can come and meet with these wonderful creatures, wild type! You can get a lot of such experience in Singapore, but those are well trained! These are all wild and you can touch them and even wrap them. Some are non-toxic, hence you can just love them, near your face... just like my good friend Nandana did:

Its the greatest thing you achieve, when you become connected with nature... Like that or may be,

Like this...

Always had the desire to hold a python.... Thanks Mubarak Bhaiya....picture: Jayabrata Mondal...!

In brief, the trip was fanta-bulous!

প্রক্রিতির পথে : In Nature's Trail- Part 1

My face book profile will enlist the experience as "Chronicles of an Unkempt Traveler" and its more than a month old. One of the most acclaimed album hitting near 50 likes and hundreds of comments from far and wide, which had made me pleased that at last I have justified my talent.

Creativity is Man's ultimate independence, where every stroke of paint or words has its own meaning too his own satisfaction. And if it is understood by many others, you become the author or a painter, artist or film-maker. I have names galore to fill up the respective positions, but I know there are several others who have already done this.

I would simply like to place the beauty of Bengal in front of the cyber world, so that unlike the freedom to visit the mountains from other Metroes in India, Kolkata dweller can make an extended week end count, without cutting his or her salary or facing the sweet sweet music!

Every year, Jesus brings us a GOOD FRIDAY. Make it official or not, you deem to have a holiday. 2012, was an instance where I ensured such  holiday along with 17 other members, many from IICB to come into the celebration of life, called TRIP to Gorumara, North Bengal.

Since, it was a week end trip, we had an initial plan to visit the mountains. In fact, the plan was changed 12 times, before we came down to Gorumara. But we had our destination tickets purchased to NJP (New Jalpaiguri), although for Gorumara, its advised to get down at Alipur Duar.

But, if you want to start enjoying the nature from the inception of your footsteps on the ground, get down at NJP. The sight and sound of Teesta aand Murti made fabulous green trail that lead to Gorumara after a 2 hour drive.

Gorumara is one of the reserve forests falling withing the Jaldapara-Buxar forest belt in Dooars. Amidst the foothills of the lower Eastern Himalayas, the place is cool because of the mountains and also the dense flora of the Reserve Forest.

Several watch towers are connected with this place like the Gorumara Watch Tower itself along with Chapramari. But we chose the Gorumara Salt Pit tower and believe me, we watched all the available animals in the Dooars, except tigers. Peacocks were like hens from the poultry, running here and there. Had never witnessed a peacock fly; witnessed it here. Bisons, Rhinos and Elephants topped the chart. The jungle safari continued in broad day light, although we faced rain every day of our stay.

The most memorable was the night, of the day before we were to leave back for Kolkata. We had the plan to take the first car (Gypsy), to the Gorumara Tower. Its acclaimed and gurantees to show the most. We were lucky to see them, as mentioned earlier. But, what I will take from this place apart from good memories was one experience. It was 3AM and we planned to stand in the queue to purchase the first 18 tickets of the limited 20 tickets. We were to wait in turn, since we were intoxicated with VAT 69. I was siting nearby, the counter and behind me was dark jungle. It was fenced and it was just an arm away. Just then Subhadeep and Promit, who were standing initially went to call the next in turn to stand with me. Our lodge was just a few steps away.

Suddenly, I heard some tramples of the fallen leaves.  A run. I turned back, towards the barbed fence; saw nothing. Then I could clearly heard the sound of the herd of elephants! It just shivered a cold sweat down my spine as it was really "awesome" to hear amidst the unknown darkness.

This was taken with the IR mode on!

Gorumara helped in unraveling several secrets from known and unknown people. It also helped in identifying many. Here is our Group Photo....

It was fabulous!

A Creation called Love.

Begging some amusement, from the stagnant time, I decided to have a stroll past the Riverside (from Babughat to Princep Ghat, Kolkata). It was April 01, 2012 and I was not fooling with my wish to do so. As it is, my tuitions have dried up; after 9 years of service in the arena, I was free in a Sunday evening. It was feeling good, but how long will this be, I doubt, being the workaholic mentality I harvest within me.

I assembled my Nikon babe, cleaned the face and was click-ready. Boarding the 30C/1 from Taltala stop, I reached Babughat within 15 minutes, which generally takes 25 minutes on a normal Kolkata weekday. On road, I met Eden Gardens; decorating her attire to give birth of the several great matches, to be held from 5th April, 2012 under the big banner of IPLt20! It was shaded purple-gold, being the host ground for Kolkata Knight Riders. I knew I will visit her soon, so I rode past her towards my destination.

Unknowingly, my luck favored my day. There was sounds of cymbals in the air and drums banging; it was not any puja's terminal day- or was it? It was. Goddess Annapurna was being immersed in the ganges, to complete the last rites of a night long festivities. I was lucky, to take some snaps of immersion, as I always wanted to do so. Ma Annapurna, fulfilled my wish.

Immersion, Babughat | Kolkata

(c) Somnath Paul, 2012.

Till now, my love for the camera expressed herself in proper attire; but then, the passing waters slowly drizzled down my soul. Asking your presence. It seemed that eons ago, I have had walked through the trail, under the trees, making life smile beside the flowing water. It was ever steady in her flow and so was I with my life. Then, incidents for recent past lured me to believe the lights of Vidyasagar Setu; shinning bright and shedding its ray of hopes to every tiny soul, using it to cross over the water hurdle.

Vidyasagar Setu | Kolkata

(c) Somnath Paul, 2012

Its a hurdle, that I have to cross, to reach you on the other hemisphere of this earth. Its a creation and Kolkata, remains the epicenter of all creations.

Whole Blood DNA Isolation Protocol

I am writting down the protocol for the DNA Isolation via Salting out process from blood. Gives good yield of DNA. A260/280= 1.6-1.8 (best)

Reagents

1) Solution A Haemolysis Solution * Prepare fresh or use a solution prepared in 24 hrs and stored at 4'C.

Final Volume (ml):          1000                    750                     500                  100

Sucrose (g):                   109.5                   82.125               54.75                10.95

1M MgCl2 (ml):                5.0                      3.75                   2.5                     0.5

Dissolve the above in autoclaved water. Do not autoclave after dissolution as it can char the sucrose.

Add Triton X @ 1% of the final volume.

2)  Solution B  WBC Lysis buffer * Prepare fresh or use a solution prepared in 24 hrs and stored at 4'C. Add SDS prior use.

Final Volume (ml):           100                      50

1M Tris-HCl;pH ~8 (ml):   40                        20

0.5M EDTA (ml):              12                        6

1M NaCl (ml):                   15                        7.5

Dissolve in dd.water. Autoclave and then add 20% SDS @ 5% to the final volume.

3) Solution C    Protein ppt. buffer * Light sensitive, so store in amber bottle at 4'C; storage can be done for 1 year at the max.

This solution is 5M Sodium perchlorate= 70.23g of sodium perchlorate in 100 dd. water/ autoclaved water.

4) 0.9% NaCl (mammalian saline)

5) for 200ml TE: 2ml 1M Tris/Trizma(Sigma) + 0.4ml 0.5M EDTA. pH: 8.4

6) Cloroform (in 4'C)

7) 70% Ethanol (in 4'C)

8) Isopropanol (in 4'C)

Procedure

S1. To 1 volume of heparin added blood add 5 volumes of 0.9% NaCl. Mix by inversion. Centrifuge at 2000rpm for 10 minutes.

S2. Decant the supernatant.

S3. Add solution A- 4 vols of the original blood taken and mix slowly by inversion. The solution will turn clear red due to lysis of RBC. Spin at 3500rpm for 5 minutes. If a white pellet is clean, proceed to next step or else any red pellet indicates incomplete RBC lysis. Add 2ml of Solution A and repeat the S3. Discard the supernatant.

S4. Add 2ml of Solution B, vortex to dislodge pellet. Invert mix for 10minutes unless the pellet looses it's integrity. (To hasten the process, I suggest to keep the mix in 37'C for 5 minutes in between two inversions of 7 minutes and 3 minutes.) If the lysis of WBC takes place, the pellet looks slightly thready and the solution gains a silky appearance of khadi silk.

S5. Add 500uL of solution C and mix rigorously using vortex.

S6. Add 2ml of chilled chloroform and mix. The solution turns milky.

S7. Centrifuge at 2500rpm for 5 minutes.

S8. Transfer the clear aqous layer in 1.5mL tubes. This may take several turns to transfer all the Aq. supernatant. The suggested process:

            S8/1: Take 500uL of supernatant and add 500uL of Chilled isopropanol, Invert mix by hand. Appearance of translucent threads. These are alcohol insoluble DNA.

            S8/2: Spin down at 13000rpm for 5 minutes or 10000rpm for 12 minutes.

            S8/3; Keep the pellet (DNA) and discard the supernatant. Repeat S8/1 unless all the aqous layer from S7 spin is accumulated in one 1.5mL tube for a particular sample.

S9. Add 1ml of chilled 70% ethanol. Wait for 5 minutes and spin at the speed conditions of S8/2.

Discard the alcohol and air dry. (a maximun dry of 18 hours is allowed; overnight dry). Keep in mind, not to over dry!

Add 100uL TE to the air dried pellet. Keep in 4'C for 3 days, before estimation and analysis.

Hope this will help a lot of my molecular biologists in different arena of life science. This is a tried and tested protocol.

Tell me how to win your heart...

For I haven't got a clue-

But its always you and me and everything new!!

Five years of walking together under the welkin, its approaching a new beginning. Its calling for the violin, the cakes, celebrations and many more. But when the time for these will run down, its just me... and you!

Changing defines my life, since when I met you. From the novice walker in the park, you made me transform into a steady feet! You have pulled me out of the several ideas of changing tracks. You derailed my corporate "passion" to the real me; making me comfortable in what I did and do and will keep on doing. May be that's the clue where I won your heart and you- won it long before you even thought about winning it.

Hello.......

Its just me and you.