Here’s the continuation…sadly my sister uninstalled Firefox and Opera and so I can’t post more than one pic!! 
(the one above was taken by me…it’s low tide) But I’ll put them up in an online album….
One of my best memories will be the way we got down at the ghat to go to the village…it was low tide and so we had to get down by walking down a wooden plank (it was like an inclined plane) and then we walked up the very very slippery path to the village…it was real fun…my ankles were covered with the swampy mud…and I never knew when I would just slip and fall in the river (and who knows, get eaten up by a crocodile….yeah u see, that was always in my head…hehe). That was a great experience; it was like a rare adventurous moment in my otherwise mundane life…
We saw just two shrines at Jamespur. There were about 20 villagers following us…hehe…we spoke to most of them. With us all this time was Mr. Niranjan Raptan, the best tour guide of this region, if possible, do visit his website: Niranjan Raptan…
We learned that there had been no tiger prowling about in the villages after the wire fence had been placed. 
We entered the house of the villager who owned one of the shrines and were surprised to see how clean it was. The village on the whole was very neat and clean. Here we saw an example of their resourcefulness…old clothes that had been reduced to rags were transformed into a sturdy mat. Mr. Raptan told us that the well-to-do villagers had solar panels and television sets. The govt. provides a subsidy for the solar panels…
After this we again climbed down the ghat, and into the launch…the journey back to the resort is unforgettable…it was pitch dark all around…the dimly-lit village on one bank and the dark forest on the other…and there was not a single cloud in the sky…there were about a million stars and each one was being reflected in the almost-still water…the darkness around made them look even prettier…and it was quiet…so very quiet…most of the way I was just gazing at the sky, at its reflection in the water, and the darkness all around…and inhaling the silence…it was too beautiful for words…
Back at the resort, the manager had called a local schoolteacher who is like very knowledgeable about this area….he has lots of books on the Sundarbans and he was of great help to us. I asked him why the Hindus and Muslims here have no problems with each other. An idealist like me wasn’t exactly ready for the answer he gave…he smiled and said, “Fear binds them together...”
We then met a local gunin…(a priest who offers puja to Bonbibi)…Shri Guyan who is about 70 years old. He had been attacked by a tiger in 1984…there was a scar down his face, his waist and leg as well…he had struggled with the tiger, so it had left him and carried away another man from the party…he believed Bonbibi had saved him…We interviewed him as well and learned a lot…It had been a really long day…Slept at 12:30 and I was to awake at 5 the next morning…
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