Paranoia

No, I did not pick up writing to make fun of other people, as I don't have anything write-worthy happening in my own life. I actually started it as a time killing alternative during the school internal exams which then became kind of a compulsive disorder. I know it is not proper to laugh at your friends or neighbours, let alone write about them. But this one time I have to do exactly that... who knows I might stop right after this.

Let us call this dude Gumaltti, a fine young man except for the high levels of Paranoia he proudly carries around. I'll let him describe it for you.. "Don't laugh, I will be ready and prepared when the shit comes down, while you will be just wondering what hit you". As that reference of 'you' in the quote is me, you might be concluding I have gone nuts in making fun of such a fine piece of advise. I rather let you take the call by the end of this post.

Gumaltti has a top of the line laptop with him, but has no Flash or Active X installed in it. I first thought he is some Steve Jobs fan who followed the master's advice not to have Flash. But the real reason is that some friend once told Gumaltti that all the malicious stuff on the internet gets into the personal computers through these two horrible plug ins! So from that day Gumaltti is living without Flash or Active X. Unable to handle this wisdom, I asked him 'So, how will you view something that has a Flash component?'. Phat came the reply 'I will go to an Internet Cafe. I don't want to take chances with my laptop'.

Last weekend I found Gumaltti in a particularly disturbed mood. I saw him walking back and forth his bike a few times in the afternoon and I couldn't resist asking. Then he told that somebody's bike got stolen from the neighborhood a few weeks back. But I couldn't connect the incident with his restlessness. The connecting story goes something like this. Gumaltti gave his bike for servicing at some garage and the mechanic's assistant took it for a test ride after the job. According to Gumaltti, such a test ride should take just a few minutes, but this lad came back only after 17 minutes. Gumaltti suspects that this boy at the garage would have made a duplicate key for the bike, which he might use at some later point of time to lift the bike! As I stood there with my mouth wide open, he got into the details on why his guess is not a mere 'guess'.

1. While the lad was getting late, Gumaltti asked the garage owner for the boy's mobile phone number and the owner refused. So these two must be partners in crime!

2. The boy at the garage must be working for pretty low wages and the only way he can make more money is by joining hands with the vehicle stealing gang. Now we have the motive!

3. There were newspaper reports about gangs which operate in this manner; the mechanic-keymaker-vehicle thief nexus. What more evidence you need to corroborate?

I don't argue with Gumaltti most of the times because a few times I did I was called careless and stupid. But looks like Paranoia is not an aberration, but the norm these days. How else will you explain the existence of firms selling 'Key-chain-radiation-detector', a must-own for every one, just in case the neighborhood gets nuked and you got to figure out an escape route? Or those who sell bio-survival-kits with storable food, seed packets and a make-your-own-fuel apparatus, that helps you survive possible biological or chemical weapon attacks in the future?

We look forward to the future or just live the todays in fear of the uncertain tomorrows? Or perhaps I am just being careless and mumbling about the ones who are not.

Sikkim Diary - Part 2

Getting up at 3:30 in the morning never felt so good before. We wanted to go to Tiger Hill and watch the sunrise from there and really hoped to get a glimpse of Mt. Everest as well. Tiger Hill, at 8,500 ft, is the highest hill in the Darjeeling area and is famous for the spectacular sunrise show over the Himalayas. It is 11 km from the town and jeep service is available from the city. We reached the hill on time and found at least another 100 people there, eagerly waiting for the sun. Locals were selling tea, refreshments, photographs, maps and history books and the place was so lively at 5 in the morning! Finally after quite a wait the sun did come up, but the scene was not really spectacular, thanks to the lingering mist and clouds! You can see Mt. Everest from here if you are extremely lucky and happen to be there on one of those clear, windy days. But we proved to be far less lucky for the treat.

Though Tiger Hills was kind of a disappointment, we had a toy train ride to look forward to in the morning. On the way back to the station we stopped over at the monastery at Ghoom. The small but beautiful monastery was full of tourists who were on their way back from Tiger hills. So after a peep inside the sanctum sanctorum, we spent most of the time outside, talking to the playful young monks there. Being the closest monastery to the town it is always crowded, unless you go at noon or late in the evening. We also visited Batista loop and the war memorial. Batista loop is a double loop of railway track, which is an engineering marvel. Here the train turns in a very short turning radius before entering Darjeeling town.

After spending some time at the garden around the war memorial, we reached the train station on time. But our luck just picked up from where it left off at Tiger Hills and all train services were canceled for the day due to some railway employees strike! We went to the travel agency to collect our ticket money, which he promptly returned, and also got news that the strike is not going to end anytime soon. So having no other option, we decided to chuck the toy train plan and go to Ganktok instead, a day ahead of plans. Having booked tickets to Gangtok for the afternoon Jeep service, we had half a day in our hand. We spent the next four hours sitting in a coffee shop by the chowrastha, sipping tea, reading books and taking pictures of people. It was indeed a nice thing to do on a Monday morning. The place is always active with the street vendors, tourists, horses and the mist.

Darjeeling to Gangtok is a five hour jeep ride, which fortunately got extended to 6 hours as our driver wanted us to taste different flavors of tea every hour or so. So accordingly he stopped at every tea shop by the road. Finally we reached Gagtok by 7 in the evening. As we were walking out of the jeep station to find some transport to the city center, we met Mr. R Gurung, an elderly cab driver. He was an ex-military, ex-Archeological Survey of India employee, who knew the history and facts of Sikkim pretty well. He was enthusiastic in sharing the same with us as well. During the short journey from the jeep stand to MG Road, he agreed to take us the following day for a Gangtok tour. With the next day's program arranged we checked into a motel (Norphel guest house) on MG road itself. The MG road at Gangtok is quite well maintained and devoid of vehicles with benches on either side. We wanted to taste some North Eastern cuisine and had a sumptuous, tasty but expensive dinner at 'The Square' on MG road.

Click here for more..
Sikkim Diary: Part 1
Sikkim Diary: Part 2
Sikkim Diary: Part 3
Sikkim Diary: Part 4

Sikkim Diary - Part 1

After a 7 day, 100 kilometer trek to Samiti lake and Goecha La in West Sikkim, we finally got back to Darjeeling. While rest of the gang were all set to fly back to Bangalore and Chennai the next day, Robert and myself weren't done with our adventures just yet. We had another 8 days to explore the beautiful Sikkim & West Bengal; all we lacked was a plan. Though a well thought out itinerary is advisable during travel, it cannot match the small surprises that an unplanned trip throw up every now and then. So after a good night's sleep and seeing off the gang to the Bagdogra airport, we walked into Glanary's for our morning dose of apple pies.

Nothing facilitates clarity of thought and unbiased decision making like apple pies. So as we sat there at Darjeeling chowrastha, drinking coffee and watching the morning mist slowly taking over the city, ideas started taking shape. A ride on the toy train from Darjeeling to Siliguri was a priority item on our wish list. The tickets were all sold out for the next few days and we decided to try our luck at a travel agency. Bang opposite to the railway station was an agent who had two tickets for the day after, of course at a premium. Now that the tickets were arranged, we had two days to wander around and we decided to go to Sandakphu. Sandakphu is the highest peak in the state of West Bengal. It is situated at the edge of the Singalila National Park on the West Bengal-Sikkim border and is famous for the fantastic views of Himalayan ranges it provides. Without wasting much time we started our journey to Mane Bhanjang, from where the Sandakphu trail starts. Jeep service is available to Mane Bhanjang from Darjeeling old supermarket junction.

Mane Bhanjang is a beautiful village at the gateway of the Singalila National Park. This place still got a bunch of those old Land Rovers running up and down the hillocks; they even got a Land Rover Owners Association there. The jeep trip to this village was quite entertaining - we bought and ate fresh carrots on the way (just a kilo of it), four clouded leopard cubs crossed our path and we had to prove our identity at two checkposts as we looked 'different'. Once we reached Mane Bhanjang we realised that the trek to Sandakphu is a costly affair - some 3000 rupees as trek fees plus charges for a mandatory guide plus other charges! Someone had told us of a Buddhist monastery about two kilometers from Mane Bhanjang on top of a hill, and we decided to walk up to the monastery first and then decide on the course thereafter. Though it was early afternoon, the visibility was hardly 5 feet as we walked up the winding path through the pine forests. Bright blue pine cones on emerald green branches was quite a sight and the gigantic ferns only added to the beauty of the landscape.

The two kilometers walk to Chitre monastery was tiring, in fact we were sure the distance was more like some 5 kilometers. The monastery looked beautiful and the monks were busy with renovation works, in time for some festival the coming week. After spending some time there though we decided to walk towards Sandakpu, we soon realised it was a stupid decision. The mist became so thick that we could not figure out our way forward or back. Even the sun seemed to be all set for an early retreat. But then, as you see in the movies, we heard a voice from the clouds. No, it wasn't the burning bush shouting 'Behold ye arrogant idiots'. It was the unmistakable noise of utensils and the barking of a dog. We made best use of our olfactory senses and walked towards the sound, though a little worried about a flesh-ripping welcome by the dog. Fortunately it was the house of Phuntsukh -Eagle's Nest- and he invited us in for a cup of tea!

One thing I like most about travel is the excitement of meeting interesting people and making new acquaintances. Phuntsukh had moved to Mane Bhanjang some 20 years ago from Bhutan and he was gracious enough to offer us their guest room for the night. The offer became irresistible when he said he will treat us to some good Nepalese noodles, hot parathas and Aloo Dum (not that we would have refused the offer without the food). We could also smell some fine Roxy in the making. Roxy is a local alcoholic drink. Phuntsukh's wife later showed us the urns in which they ferment rice to make Roxy. After some hot coffee and snacks we retired into the guest room and it soon started raining. The guest room had tin roofing and the raindrops were doing tap dance on it. It was one of the finest moments of the entire trip, as I lay there under the comfort of a heavy blanket, listening to the Raindrops Symphony, reading 'The Secret Life of Plants'!

The next morning we woke up to a magnificent sunrise and had Nepalese wheat noodles for breakfast, listening to Rod Stewart singing 'Have I told you lately..'. We said goodbye to Phuntsukh and family after breakfast and started our descend back to Mane Bhanjang. The mist had cleared and the valleys looked beautiful this time. We got back to Darjeeling by afternoon, checked into a motel and soon set out to see the Tibetan Handicraft center. When we got back to the chowrastha, the place had woken up from the drowsiness of the morning and was filled with people and horses. We took a walk around to see the beautiful St. Andrews church and ended the day with a tasty dinner at Glanary's. We picked up some local music CDs on the way back; some compilations of Sabin Rai as well. After arranging for an early morning pickup to visit the Tiger hills, we retired to our room for some much needed sleep.

Click here for more..
Sikkim Diary: Part 1
Sikkim Diary: Part 2
Sikkim Diary: Part 3
Sikkim Diary: Part 4
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