Agartala is not yet the ‘smart city’ it seeks to be under the Smart Cities Mission. But it has arguably been the smartest and cleanest urban centre in the Northeast since 1936-37, when the king of the State prepared a master plan, which is said to be one of the first modern concepts of urban planning. The master plan gave Agartala, situated on the banks of the Howrah river, a profusion of lakes, perhaps to match the perfume-yielding Agarwood tree that once grew abundantly enough to give the city its name. Urban expansion claimed the trees, but several lakes, a few shrunken over the years, have remained.
One of the reasons the lakes, most of which are now managed by the Agartala Municipal Corporation, have survived is the passion with which many residents pursue angling, patiently sitting with their fishing rods for a catch often till 10 p.m. daily. Among them are a few journalists who ensure a visit to Agartala is never “wasted” beyond the hours “you need to work”. The scribes blame the location of the Agartala Press Club for being bitten by the fishing bug. The Press Club building is on the edge of Durgabaridighi, one of the two lakes flanking Ujjayanta Palace, a museum from where Tripura’s kings once ruled. The other lake is Laxminarayanbaridighi. The royalty had named these lakes Gangasagar and Krishnasagar, which are hardly in circulation today.
For the correspondents of mainstream media houses stationed in Guwahati to cover seven or eight north-eastern States, visiting press clubs in other State capitals or towns across the region is a ritual. These are where you get local information, vital leads and contacts, besides refreshing memories of “hunting” in pairs or in a pack. The three-storey Agartala Press Club is among the best-equipped in the region, perhaps a shade less than the larger, four-storey Imphal Press Club. The other press clubs, mostly Assam-type cottages, are paler in contrast. The modest Press Club near Indira Gandhi Park in Arunachal Pradesh’s Itanagar is preparing to shift to a grander structure 3 km away while the one in Shillong in Meghalaya has moved into its third structure in three decades. The Guwahati Press Club, supposed to have been the most advanced, stands on an archaeological site.
What sets the Agartala Press Club apart is its ambience. It is sandwiched between Durgabaridighi and a road that leads to a part of the Ujjayanta Palace, retained as the residence of the Tripura royal family. The family is now headed by Pradyot Bikram Manikya Deb Barman whose political party, the Tipraha Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance, has shaped up to be the toughest challenger of the Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of the 2023 Assembly polls. The Press Club has also stood out for some of its members occasionally “taking a break” with fishing rods at the lake behind the building. It wasn’t merely about waiting patiently for fish to catch the bait; it was an elaborate ritual involving investment in red ants and ant eggs, mustard oil cakes, jaggery, flour, rice wine and other local ingredients to prepare a variety of baits.
But today, about half a dozen of the Press Club members, who are hooked onto fishing, have moved to the more serious combo of angling and conservation at the 5.68-hectare lake on the periphery of the Maharaja Bir Bikram College. They are members of the Angling and Aquatic Conservation Society of Tripura which leases College Lake for six months a year from July to December. The other six months are for the upkeep of the lake and for releasing fish seeds. The society headed by veteran angler, Subir Debbarma, has about 500 registered members who operate from 50 self-financed bamboo machans a foot above the water surface. This society has been seeking the wildlife sanctuary tag for the lake as it attracts migratory and resident waterfowl. Sadly, the Press Club is no longer a “fishing zone”, an official trip to Agartala after four years revealed.
rahul.karmakar@thehindu.co.in
