Road to Nowhere

Unforgettable trip! I took 22 out of 35 Mass Communication 1st semester students of Salesian College Siliguri for a rural outreach program on Saturday 3rd December 2022. Along with us came 15 Bachelor of Social Work students and five BSW faculty members who were going to neigbouring Pathibari Tea Garden for an awareness program for girls on Sexual Violence being held in Pathibari Church.

The college group left to the Dooars in the college bus a little after 9 am

The Dooars, literally means ‘doors.’ It is the Piedmont areas of northern Italy in North Bengal at the edge of the mighty Himalayas and carpeted with tea gardens for miles at a stretch.

Passing through Sevoke and Coronation Bridge along National Highway 17, turning left at Minaore, the group trundled to their destination, moving past an Army camp, to Sonali village.

Sonali is a congested village of tea garden workers who live in well demarcated lines. To the south of Sonali village in the distance flows the Teesta. Its eastward perimeter is flanked by the Gheesh river and the west by Leesh. Both are dry riverbeds except in the monsoons, when they turn into raging torrents.

Apart from a few people, the workers are all of Oraon origin and speak Kuruk, a tribal dialect. The ancestors of the villager’s settled in the Dooars in the last quarter of the 19th century.

To the south of Sonali flows the Teesta. Its eastward perimeter is flanked by the Gheesh river and the west by Leesh. Both are dry riverbeds except in the monsoons, when they turn into raging torrents.

The rural people of Sonali gaon have paddy and vegetable cultivation. They rear cattle, pigs, goats, poultry and are occupied with gainful lucrative activities like fishing, and timber smuggling. However they lack, basic developmental indicators like decent roads and primary health care facility, a must for remotely located villages.