Governor CV Ananda Bose celebrates his third year in office, attends 'Jaltarang' program from Outram Ghat

To mark three years as West Bengal Governor, Dr CV Ananda Bose traded the grand Raj Bhavan for a simple boat ride and roadside snacks, attends a heart-warming new outreach programme called “Jaltarang”.Today he hopped onto a boat from Outram Ghat Jetty under Kolkata River Traffic Police guard and gently floated down the Hooghly river to reach the sleepy riverside village of Nazirganj. No red beacons, no long line of cars—just the Governor in a smiling and stepping onto the muddy bank to shake hands, listen to stories, and eat whatever the villagers offered.

His first stop was a tiny shack selling steaming hot ghugni (boiled chickpeas) and chops. The Governor happily took a plate, and dug in like any regular customer. “Chholar bahut acchey hain” he exclaimed in Bengali, praising the taste, then polished off a crispy chop and told the shopkeeper, “Bahut achhey, yeh achha hain” He folded his hands in namaste, clicked selfies with excited crowd and moved on to chat with fishermen mending nets, women washing clothes by the river, and old men smoking hookahs under banyan trees.

Phones came out everywhere as villagers recorded their Governor sitting on plastic chairs, sipping cutting chai from clay cups.Later stops included more ghats and hamlets where he repeated the same simple ritual—eat local snacks, hear local worries, promise to carry their voices back to the administration. From water shortage to poor roads to school repairs, he patiently noted everything in a small diary. “I want to feel the real pulse of Bengal,” he told the crowd. “These three years taught me that the real Bengal lives not in files but on these riverbanks.” By sunset the boat headed back, but the buzz stayed behind—people saying th