Rashbari: A Serene Discovery Amid Belur’s Winter Walks

Early morning for me is a feeling which cannot be explained through writing or reading about it; it must be felt or experienced. You have to live that moment to realise how you become a part of this feeling.

In Belur, I was very curious about the streets — how they are connected, how they lead to different ghats, and beside each ghat, either you get an ashram or a temple, or a place to just meditate, or a place where boats are tied, and so on.

In the winter season, I had the curiosity to explore the unexplored streets and ghats of Belur. Each morning, I tried to walk a little bit more to cover an extra street, which was unexplored or to find another ghat unvisited by me.

Well, my friend Sagnik had suggested to keep a packet of biscuits with me while going for the morning walk. This suggestion had a reason behind it. Although I am a pet lover and I do have cats in my home at Durgapur, I often had the experience of being barked at by the dogs in some streets (which sometimes did scare me). Well, it was obvious on their part to bark at strangers, and it was also obvious for me to understand it. So, I found the suggestion very helpful. Within a week, they became familiar with this stranger who used to treat them whenever they barked at him.

Now coming back to the unexplored streets part — as I was mentioning, every morning I tried to cover an extra street. It was a winter morning, 4:30 a.m. on the clock, fog on the street, darkness in the sky, and my curiosity to find a new street or gali. I noticed an entrance at the end of the street — large gates with a lock and foggy surroundings. My extreme efforts were useless to clearly see through the gate and find what was inside, so I decided to come back again after walking for 30 more minutes.

When I came back, it was a little brighter; the sky and fog were getting clearer, and I could see the silver linings of the clouds. I took advantage of this opportunity to look at what was inside. Well, what I saw was something I didn’t believe for 20 seconds. I saw Dakshineswar Temple inside! I cleared my glasses and saw again to find that indeed it was a temple. But how could it be possible? We were on the different side of the Ganges. To visit Dakshineswar Temple, we must cross the river. Well, I slowly understood that indeed it was a temple with the same shape and structure as Dakshineswar Temple, but it was not Dakshineswar Temple. As the brightness increased, I was able to see what was written on the entrance: Rashbari.

At that time, I did not know that there was some place called Rashbari where a Krishna-Radha idol was present in a temple having the same shape and structure as Dakshineswar. It was like I discovered something new. I mentioned it to my senior ,Tamoghna da. He at first listened to everything and then asked me with surprise, “You didn’t know about Rashbari?” It was then when I realised that although I felt happy to find a beautiful place on my own in the early morning, I cannot flex about it to others. So foolish of me to think I would be cool if I mentioned this place. Well, it was as funny as it sounds. Haha!

After a few days, there was a festival at Rashbari. I decided to visit there with my friends in the evening.

This was one of the curious places which I covered in my early morning walks. But why am I writing about it? Well, this place was one of the very few spots where I could find peace besides Belur Math. With time, it registered as a special place in Belur. The most interesting thing is that not only me but my friends also started liking Rashbari, hence becoming a special spot for me and my batchmates at Belur.