Aakash Resort? Oops,No!!!!

'Bhraman', the Bengali travel and tour magazine has taken upon itself the task of re-christening us!

In its January issue, at the end of a write-up on weekends at Shantiniketan, the writer, in his admirable magnanimity, has included us as one of the three good village resorts that have come up near Shantiniketan. As a result I get about 3 phone calls a day asking for reservations. Sounds like a good turn? No. Decidedly no! For one thing, the correspondent should have asked us wheather we are at all keen to promote our private cottages as a getaway place for the type that flocks to Tarapith and Bakreshwar. And for another, we are not Aakash Resorts! For god's sake, no! After having tried every trick in the book to steer clear of being labelled thus, all it takes is a careless hack to do you in! That is galling. We are not a commercial outfit( no commercial outfit would rent out a 5 bigha garden with only one cottage in it for the money we charge) and we have an issue with this word -resort. So everytime the person on the other side says (sometimes matter of factly, sometimes with a sweet sonorous tune), "Akash Resorts?" I , kind of, cringe, and there is a perceptible tightening of the jaw before I can reply..."Ah...yes..ah, but not quite..but what do you want to know..you see the Bhraman people..

Then the conversation goes like this:

"If this is not a resort, what is it?"

"It's a private guest house."

"So you don't rent it out?"

"People do go and stay there."

"So can we go and stay there?"

"Do you know us? Or do you know anyone who knows us?"

"No."

"Then, I am afraid, you cannot stay at Awnek or Aaro Aakash".

Hordes of Travel Agents have also called. But we have no desire to fill up Awnek and Aaro Aakash with tourists throughout the year. That would be easy. Spreading the word among the drivers at Bolpur station would do the trick. They are the best travel agents. But we are easy going, laid-back people, and we did not build these cottages to mint money. We are happy the way things are. We have a wonderful set of loyal clientele, that keeps growing by the day. What more could we ask for?

So no thanks, Bhraman!

Uday Hajra