And Quiet Flows the Ganges

The river Ganges becomes a steadfast travel companion for Gustasp and Jeroo Irani on a sustainable luxury cruise to the Sundarbans National Park and Tiger Reserve in West Bengal.

THE SUNDER-BANS WHERE the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna rivers melt into the embrace of the Bay of Bengal is a large delta spread across 40,000 square kilometres of India and Bangladesh. A five-day cruise on the Antara Ganges Voyager was a tempting idea redolent of slow travel where one could drift in a sea of timelessness, weaving in and out of one of the world's largest mangrove forests.

We boarded the Antara Ganges Voyager, an elegant 28-suite vessel, at Chandannagar (an hour and half drive from Kolkata airport), a former French colony steeped in colonial nostalgia. We hopped off a tender boat and boarded our hotel which glided like an over-sized swan on the slate grey waters of the Hooghly River, an arm of the Ganges. Steamed towels and a welcome drink were pressed into our hands and we were shown to our suite whose French balcony showcased the moving landscape. As we stood on its polished Burma teak flooring, surrounded by hand-painted murals and modern creature comforts like a mini bar, safe and a TV, it felt as if we were straddling multiple worlds-the 21st century inside the vessel, and outside it, the ancient, tangled mangrove forests bristled with unseen wildlife.

Much of our first day on board was spent watching the sights unfolding beyond the sun deck adjacent to the lounge-the skyline of Kolkata and its rural hinterland where fisherfolk, standing tall in their fragile boats, cast nets and reeled in fish from a gently flowing river. The setting sun soon gilded the clouds and painted the waterway a shade of honeygold. Everyone on the deck let out a collective gasp in response to this show.