Fishing for stories and more

Agartala is not yet a ‘smart city’ which it wants to build under the Smart Cities Mission. But it has been the smartest and cleanest urban center in the Northeast since 1936-37, when the state king prepared a master plan, which is said to be one of the first modern concepts of urban planning. The master plan gave Agartala, located on the banks of the Howrah River, an abundance of lakes, perhaps to match the perfume-bearing agarwood tree that had once grown enough to give the city its name. Urban expansion claimed the trees, but many of the lakes, some have shrunk over the years.

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 fishing, patiently wielding their fishing rods, often at 10 p.m. daily. Sit till noon. Some of them are journalists who make sure that your trip to Agartala is not “wasted” beyond the hours you need to work. The authors attribute the location of the Agartala Press Club to being bitten by a fishing bug. The Press Club building is on the banks of Durgabaridighi, one of the two lakes on the banks of the Ujjayanta Palace, a museum from where the kings of Tripura once ruled. The second lake is Laxminarayanbaridighi. Royalty named these lakes Gangasagar and Krishnasagar, which are hardly in vogue today.

It is a ritual for correspondents of mainstream media houses, stationed in Guwahati to cover seven or eight north-eastern states, to visit press clubs in other state capitals or towns in the region. These are where you find local information, important clues and contacts, as well as memories of “hunting” in pairs or packs. The three-storey Agartala Press Club is one of the best-equipped in the area, perhaps a little less than the larger, four-storey Imphal Press Club. Other press clubs, mostly Assam-type cottages, are lighter in contrast. The modest Press Club near Indira Gandhi Park in Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh is preparing to move into a grand structure 3 km away, while the one in Shillong, Meghalaya has shifted to its third structure in three decades. The Guwahati Press Club, which is considered to be the most advanced, is located at an archaeological site.

What makes Agartala Press Club different is its atmosphere. It is situated between the road leading to Durgabaridighi and a part of the Ujjayanta Palace, which has been kept as the residence of the Tripura royal family. The family is now led by Pradyot Bikram Manikya Deb Burman, whose political party, the Tipraha Swadeshi Progressive Regional Alliance, has become the toughest challenger to the Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of the 2023 assembly elections. The Press Club has even stood for some of its members to “take a break” occasionally with fishing rods in the lake behind the building. It wasn’t just about waiting patiently for the fish to catch the bait; It was an elaborate ritual that involved investing in red ants and ant eggs, mustard oil cakes, molasses, flour, rice wine and other local ingredients to prepare a variety of baits.

But today, about half a dozen members of the Press Club, who are accustomed to fishing, have moved into a more serious combination of fishing and conservation in the 5.68-hectare lake on the periphery of Maharaja Bir Bikram College. He is a member of the Angling and Aquatic Conservation Society of Tripura, which leases College Lake for six months from July to December. The remaining six months are for lake maintenance and fish seed release. The society, headed by experienced angler, Subir Debbarma, has about 500 registered members who work from 50 self-financed bamboo scaffolds a foot above the water’s surface. The society is demanding a wildlife sanctuary tag for the lake as it attracts migratory and resident waterfowl. Sadly, the Press Club is no longer a “fishing zone”, four years later an official visit to Agartala has come to the fore.

rahul.karmakar@thehindu.co.in