Taratala Environment Park or the Mudiali Fisherman’s cooperative - Taj

On 28th August 7 of us met in front of Taratala Environment Park or the Mudiali Fisherman’s cooperative as it’s also called. The gate keepers let us in and Pradeep set off on his run while the rest of us decided to take a long hike through the trees following a forest trail by the lake “bunder” whacking as Zoria put it as she took the lead blazing a trail getting cobwebs in her face.
Bonani bringing up the rear got caught by the people in the office who probably couldn’t understand what the orange Taj T shirt hash group was doing there so early on a Sunday morning. A call was put through to their office head who was woken up and made to speak to Bonani who explained in Bengali that we were a bird watching group who had come for a walk and to see the fishermen!

Walking over the mulch and trying not to step on the turds we finally came to a factory where the trail ended. After spotting some dahu fowl we walked back to the entrance following the Taratala main road, passing the giant logs brought from Malaysia according to Bonani. We walked into another abandoned textile factory and Zoria and Carl would have gone on but they were called back.

We came back to the entrance of the park to find Pradeep sopping wet after his run. We made him walk around the main park with us again as Zoria and Carl had hared off to see the deer and pigs, while Peter went to show Rosie the small fish etc. Bonani and I did it at a much slower pace stopping to talk to the keeper of the sheep and turkeys. Pradeep wrung his T shirt dry and Bonani said he should have done it near the deer for they love salt water… We admired the brakt mushrooms on the tree stumps that were growing all around the trail looking like brown clouds in Tibetan art. After doing a full round of the Park and noticing all the bins there for the picnickers and chow mein vendors.

Back at the Taj after a long gap, the waiters were extra attentive to us and we enjoyed our breakfast and adda session.

Pradeep and Bonani are off to the Amazon jungles for 5 weeks. Zoria will be going on holiday soon. Howard and Shanti will be back in October. Delphi who enjoyed the Nottinghill Carnival in London will be back with us in November.We hope to welcome some new hashers into the group like Francesco from Unicef and Henry from the US consulate.