Dec 18, 2024
Dec 18, 2024
I along with my family still savor the memories of Gangtok in Sikkim, a nestled paradise in the mountains, under clusters of clouds. So beautiful was the place, I could not just leave from there, for our onward journey to Darjeeling and Kolkata. Another reason for my reluctance to leave - I lost my mobile in a taxi at the last moment. We waited for the police to give my report. In fact our taxi driver declared himself as very innocent before the authorities and as a reward I was in turn scolded for my sheer negligence. Coming to the heavenly thereabouts of Sikkim, the people there were too civil either in the manners and due courtesy. 
At the daybreak I opened my suite’s very large window. Oh Boy! I could look straight down and also yonder. I froze breathless and mesmerized by the majestic spectacle. I saw tiny tots playing far below in a school yard right under my window which projected itself on to a boulder of a small hillock. In the distance, clouds were traveling in one large stream from the mountain peaks, say like a huge train (some bogies had even entered my room through the just opened window. I was swamped in a cloud that made me wet for a bath.) And above this train of clouds and gleaming in the Sun, I found the trace of Kanchenjunga summit in the distance. I was told about its name later by the hotel manager. 
We loved MG Road for it was free of vehicles (Vehicles restricted to reduce crowd at the market place, apparently). I liked the Himalayan Mountaineering Club (I have to check the name again) where a mock rock was placed for beginners to climb. Some children and a few adults were using ropes. This miniature climbing struck me funny because we were, straight in the midst of the highest hill ranges of the world, at the gateway of the largest landmark of all. Only disappointment was, alas, the rope-way was not functioning. 
With regard to the road signs en-route to Gangtok from New Jalpaiguri (a Railway station town as well as airport in the valley, strategically connecting Assam, Darjeeling, Sikkim and Nepal on all sides): they were very funny to read since they were satirically written with descriptive wisecracks - to caution road users on the dangers of careless driving. Later we enjoyed the taxi ride down the precipitous and serpentine slopes to a tea estates where-from we purchased Tea from the shops right in the gardens themselves, named as super tea which we gave away to friends on return to Hyderabad in South India.
27-Sep-2012
More by : Seshu Chamarty