Bollywood films based on newspapers

One of the (very few) things we learn at B-School is ‘taking ideas forward’. This mostly happens at group discussions where you have a bunch of to-be managers who don’t have the slightest clue about management and only take each other’s ideas forward. Anyway I digress. The point of this was that I will be taking forward an idea of one of my favourite bloggers, Anand Ramachandran and writing a post that is distinctly less funny than Anand’s post from which this is inspired.

I could have also blamed this on the glorious Indian traditions of taking ‘getting inspired’ very seriously. But oh well, B-school bashing is so much more fun.

In the post, Anand talks of Hollywood movies based on magazines. I thought of extending this idea to newspapers. Particularly the three in front of me right now – The Times of India, The Bombay Times and The Mumbai Mirror.

A film on the Bombay Times would start in a café owned by some Bollywood star, move on to an item number by a fat cricketer which would end with a Bollywood star in a shining silver jacket taking away the girl. Then the film would suddenly cut to a party which will feature cameos by personalities such as Laila furniturewala, Padmini Kolhapure, Zeba Kohli, Poonam Dhillon and Anuj Saxena which would end with a long speech on how homeopathy can increase India’s GDP by 200% by Dr. Batra. The end of the film would a very unintentionally funny confusion-filled scene with random Hollywood stars fluctuating on whether they want to get it on with men or women, two actresses who can’t act to save their lives having a cat fight and to end it all a computer lesson followed by an exciting climax which would end with Mallika Sherawat finding a distributor for her film.

The Mumbai Mirror film would start with a hard hitting realistic story of one man’s struggle against pot holes in Andheri east which would then go on to how a heroic cop saved a monkey from dogs. The story would then, with absolutely no warning, cut to a college romance with an IPL back-story with a Big Boss back-back-story. The film would then meander through uncomfortably detailed depiction of Suri Cruise’s 5^th Birthday and then very inappropriately head into an orgy involving actors from successful soaps from Indian TV with Mahendra Watsa presiding over proceedings which would end with an item number by a Bollywood star. The fitting climax is an exciting series of games such as Sudoku, Strikeout, Go figure played by half naked women.

The Times of India. The film would start off with a fire on a train which will then be put out by Anna Hazare only to be started again by Kapil Sibal just to piss Anna off. The fire will eventually be put out by an IPL cheerleader who will then go on to give a powerful speech about some highly questionable scientific concept. Then we will have a song set in Libya with bombs in the background with an IPL cheerleader dancing in the desert. This will then be followed by the IPL cheerleader saving a drowning kid, commenting on tax implications of the new property laws, letting out US military secrets and filing a PIL against clothes for IPL cheerleaders. The movie would then end with the inspiring story an of IPL cheerleader who acquires an 80 year old TV business and then goes on to buy the IPL and makes it into the Indian Cheering League which had Cheerleaders dancing on the ground with cricketers playing outside the boundary ropes for the entertainment of fans between songs.

Yes, I know this wasn’t all that funny. If you want real humour check out Anand’s blog, what are you doing here?

Freedom … yeah, right!

So Lelyveld said Gandhi was bisexual. So what? We ask the book be banned? Gujarat has already done it and Maharashtra is contemplating the same.

First most basic question. What is the big deal about being bisexual? It’s a personal choice. Let him be.

And second,  even if the chap did say something bad about Gandhi, say he said the Mahatma was big time into opium or something, would that change our view of him as a freedom fighter?

Dear people of India, sorry to break this to you, but Gandhi was human. Fucking live with it. Treat him with respect for things that he did for you, don’t bring his personal life into it.

George Best was a known alcoholic, chain smoker and womaniser. Do we hold that against him while naming him as one of the greatest footballers ever? No.

Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jimmy Page, Jim Morrison, The Bealtles, The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, and a hundred others from that generation – All drug addicts. Do we hold that against them while making lists of the greatest musicians ever? No.

Hell, even Bhimsen Joshi and Vasantrao Deshpande were known to be alcoholics. Yet, no one hesitates in naming them as two of the greatest Hindustani vocalists of all time.

Roman Polanski is a rapist. Does that make his movies any less awesome? No.

Their personal lives and problems are just that – personal. We can critique their work as much as we like, but none of us have a right to even pass judgement on what we think of them as people, without personal interaction.

And banning something because you don’t like what it says is absolutely ridiculous. It insults the intelligence of the entire population, by treating them like kids who cannot make their own decisions and choices about their likes and dislikes. I leave you with this wonderful talk by Philip Pullman, which was in reaction to the title of his book “ The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ” (Lovely book, I strongly recommend it)

D’oh! Calcutta

Being a fresh graduate out of a B school, naturally one of my dreams is to start a business. After many hours of thinking of ideas and throwing them out the window, I am glad to announce that I finally have my killer B plan. I plan to start an amusement park. I have this vision totally set. This cannot possible fail. Let me take you through it.

This amusement park will be called ‘D’oh Calcutta’.

As you enter, on your left will be the first ride and it will be called “DumDum”. In this ride you will go through vast open spaces filled with nothing and then through cramped spaces filled with rude attendants shouting at you. Then you will be made to get off into a waiting area where there will be no place to sit.

Following this, you will be treated to a game called “Be the taxi driver”. Here you will be put into a simulator where you can step into the shoes of a typical Calcuttan Taxi driver. You will have to cheat passengers at every step of the way, lie blatantly about distances and of course, the most fun part of this ride, you will also get to drive like an absolute maniac and shout at innocent pedestrians for no reason whatsoever.

The first two rides may get your blood pressure up and these days of fast track courts and what not, I cannot risk being sued for heart issues. So the next ride will be nice laid back ride. In this game called “Find something to do”, you will have to roam around for hours on empty streets and look for things to do. Spoiler alert: You will find nothing. The game’s official ending is a violent argument with a zealous bong who will insist that Calcutta has everything any metro has.  But don’t tell anyone. (Do note that walking around for hours in my state of the art, artificial humidity induced chamber is bound to be good for your health.)

Then we step up the show with some fun. The next item on the list is not really a ride, but more of a game. And what’s more, it’s one of those interactive games that we all love. The game is called “Cholbe na”. Here’s how it works. You will be hooked into a computer and your task will be to think of the most ridiculous reasons to strike. Mind you, this game is designed for intellectual stimulation, and the usual day-to-day reasons like death of your relative, death of a politician of natural causes or the utter uselessness of Ravi Shastri’s commentary will not be accepted. Once you have got your ridiculous reason to strike, you will have the option to make your idea into a reality. Yes, friends, at D’oh Calcutta, we will put you in touch with the concerned people in Calcutta and you can actually make your strike a reality. Just imagine, you with red flag in hand blocking traffic on a bridge and thus disrupting the lives of millions of unsuspecting citizens all because the Shiv Sena asked Poonam Pandey not to go ahead with her noble cause. Sigh. Heaven!

Once you are rested and mentally stimulated, you are ready for the final rides. The big daddy of all rides at D’oh Calcutta. “Traffic” and “Howrah”

This first ride ie “Traffic” begins with a familiar feeling. You will feel this is a lot like the “Be a taxi driver” ride you tried before, but then you will be hit by a cacophony of car horns and shouts. People will start fighting all around you. You will then get stuck in a traffic jam for 2 hours. In this process, the driver will then proceed to take you to a local station from where you can access the next ride. Quite obviously you will be charged extra for it – but the fun factor really makes it worth it.

The “Howrah” ride starts with a comfortable local train journey with the train suddenly getting crazy crowded. Then the real excitement begins. The train suddenly slows down. You are close to Howrah. You can see the tracks and the boards. The train then takes a good twenty minutes to cover a 100 metres and finally enters the main area of the ride – Howrah. As soon as you enter Howrah, you are thrown off the train into a sea of humanity. A delightful aroma of dried fish, wet fish and human sweat greets you. As you struggle (having wild amounts of fun all the way of course) and reach the end of the platform, a voice yells into the intercom telling you that unlike the instructions provided to you earlier, you are required to go to a place about half a kilometre from your current location. You run around looking for your place. Finally after about 20 minutes of frantic running you reach the place you have to be. But alas, all this is in vain for the next part of the ride will have already left.

This ride is traditionally to be ended by loudly cursing and swearing that you will never, ever visit D’oh Calcutta again.

You will then be given some sandesh and shown the exit. And of course, you will be invited for another fun-filled day at D’oh Calcutta.

Personal vs Public

My blog is, well as normal a blog as any– it can be accessed by anyone around the world with a net connection. There is no way I can really control who views my blog or not without making it a glorified shared google doc.

On the other hand, is facebook. I have 800 odd friends on facebook. Anything posted on facebook gets a few ‘likes’ in a few seconds. This is normally followed by a few perfunctory comments which don’t really mean anything but are made for the sake of making a comment. This tells Facebook that this is a popular story and it shows this to all my friends and all the friends of the friends who commented or liked my post. Now my post is read by over 500 people. Not just read, but discussed, critiqued and made fun of.

Thus I consider Facebook as the public forum and my blog as the personal forum. Anything that is too close to me goes on the blog without a plug anywhere, for I know only my loyal readers (a miniscule number mostly comprising of close friends) will read and not every tom dick and harry.

Isn’t it funny? The world wide web, billions strong, is more personal than a social networking site where I have less than a 1000 friends.

One last time

As I sit here writing this post, the watch tells me it is 4:17 in the morning on my last day at XL. I leave this place for the last time as a student in a few hours from now. And now, in these last few hours, the depression is really starting to kick in. Every moment , every simple action strikes me as ‘the last time I do this in XL’ – the last parantha from Bishuda, the last cup of tea, the last visit to El-top, the last look at the glorious campus from my awesomely placed room.

I loved my school (Loyola, Pune), but when I left to go to college, it was no real big deal. The same was the case when I passed out of COEP. In these places, my friends were my friends and my family was my family. I always went out to my friends but every night, I came home to my family. I went to college, but i stayed at home. At XL, my friends were my family. Even when I came back home, it was the stay at home that was temporary – the permanent was going back to XL. I guess spending every waking hour with those  people does foster some kind of nexus, and that is why I am finding it difficult to put down in words how much I am going to miss this place.

The attempt to list down the things that I will miss here is futile – there are just too many of them. Too many memorable experiences, too many great people.

Now as I sit here typing away on the laptop, sitting on my bed in room 414 for the last time, ready to leave campus, my home for the last two years, I listen to the song with seems most apt for this occasion – XL meri jaan.

Post MBA Trip

After the end of exams on the 24^th of February, we went on the customary post MBA trip. Some to Bhutan, some to Tawang, some to Goa. Our aim was cover as many places as possible and thus we ended up with a massive 18 day trip.

Leg 1 : Pune

The first leg was Pune. It feels strange to write about Pune in my ‘Travels’ category, but we did do a lot of touristy things. Most of this leg of the trip focussed on food, for I realised that there is not much to see here if there are no concerts happening or you are not a fan of Maratha history.

We covered most of the famous joints – Coffee at Pune Coffee House, the JJ Garden vada pav guy(which in my humble opinion is the best vada pav ever),  chicken sandwiches at Marz-O-Rin, naan at  Naaz Bakery, Shrewsbury biscuits at Kayani Bakery, The king burger at Burger King, mutton crumbs at Diamond Queen, bun-maska and chai at Good Luck, filter coffee and onion uttappa at Roopali, sizzlers at Zamu’s, rabdi from shiv Kailash and even a closer-to-home option of pasta at Polka Dots. In hindsight we did miss out on the kathi kababs at Kapila and the whole experience at Shisha, but then there has to be something to do in the next trip.

We also went to COEP and sat through a BCQC session. Other than this we did nothing but sleep and laze around.

Leg 2 : Goa

We started our stay in Goa at Palolem beach in south Goa which still untouched by rampant commercialism and hence is the way Goa was meant to be – that being a place to do nothing at all.

At Palolem we stayed at a place called Cressida. They gave us coco-huts on the beach itself for a very reasonable rate of 450 per room per night. We walked out of the room straight into the sand. Pure awesomeness. It was here that we formed our gold standard for judging any place in Goa – a large Old Monk for 40 bucks. I ate sea food on practically all meals – starting with tuna sandwiches for breakfast, going on to kingfish curry for lunch and roasted red snapper for dinner. We experimented with a lot of Goan food and tried out Xacuti, Vindaloo, Cafreal and even stuffed papad. We also checked out Patnem beach and did a bit of driving around the Cancona area. After two days of doing nothing at Palolem, we headed to the north of the state, the hyper commercial, impeccably cartelised and full-of-TDCs part of Goa. We stayed at a sidey place called La Manna near Calangute beach.  There is a different attraction to north Goa. Here you are taken in by the colour, the lights and the party atmosphere. Practically everyone you see here is in the celebration mood. In north Goa, we did a bit of sightseeing. We saw the Aguada fort, which was boring to say the least. A plus point emerging from our trip to Aguada was that we stopped by at a church built in the memory of Saint Lawrence in 1630, which was totally breath-taking. We did the usual touristy thing by eating at Brittos on Baga Beach. On the first day, we also spent some time at Candolim, saw that all the shacks spectacularly fail our gold standard and left to find cheaper places to eat inland. We found this place called ‘Old Mango tree’ which gave us awesome crab and Xacuti. We also checked out the Saturday night market at Arpora which felt like a scene out of some 60’s rockumentary. All hippies selling  trippy stuff, live music all over the place and a ton of great stuff on offer (but all too expensive). We ended our trip with a very uncomfortable bus trip from Calangute to Panjim where there were atleast double of the bus’s capacity stuffed in.

Side note: I will never forgive Neeta busses for subjecting me to Tees Maar Khan twice – on both the to and fro Pune-Goa journey.

Leg 3 : Delhi

We then returned to Pune and took the Duronto (which I have to say is awesome in every aspect from timeliness to food to comfort) to New Delhi. After a day of lazing around in Delhi and watching a movie (7 khoon maaf) we headed out to Agra the next day. Another awesome train, the Bhopal Shatabdi, which covered the 200km distance in 2 hours flat. In Agra we saw the Taj Mahal and Agra fort – both extremely well maintained places and then headed out to Fatehpur Sikri. The lack of maintenance in Fatehpur Sikri is appaling. Arguably the worst kept World Heritage site ever. Filth and shit all over the place, the entire complex covered in shops trying to sell you crap. We then had some of the famous Agra chat –  cheela, alu tikki, golgappa and chuski (with malai in it!) and headed back to Delhi.

The next few days were spent in doing touristy things and taking in the atmosphere in Delhi. We spent some time at Delhi haat (which is an initiative to promote handicrafts from all states), then we went to Connought Place and did a very Delhi thing (apparently) which is eating shammi kababs from Wengers with the Flavoured milk (which is served in half litre glass bottles) from Keventers. Then we had kulfi at Moets (some of the best kulfi I have ever had) and chicken from a place called Chawla’s.

The next day we went to Chandni Chowk. Here we had kachori from a shop simply called Kachoriwala, followed that with Paranthas from Paranthe wali galli at a guy called Pt. Gaya Prasad Charan’s which is a shop established in 1872 and has been run by the same family for five generations. Then we had jelebi at Jelebiwala (!) – another very old shop started in 1884. Then  we went to the Red fort and the Jama Masjid.

On the last day in Delhi, we took the Hop on Hop off bus service (called HOHO) started by Delhi tourism during the Commonwealth games. In this tour we saw Raj Ghat and Veer Bhumi, the National Gallery for Modern Art (NGMA), Humayun’s tomb, the Lotus temple and Jantar Mantar. We drove past the Qutub Minar, Safdarjung Tomb, Rajpath, Rashtrapati Bhavan, Sansad Bhavan and India Gate. The only negative of the HOHO was the guide who was giving totally useless redundant commentary – for example Captain Obvious once said “On your left you will see the Income Tax office, where people come to pay tax on their income”.

Overall the Delhi trip was very enjoyable and worked out very cheap largely thanks to the Metro (which is amazing in its network and reach).

Now I am back in Pune and back to doing nothing. A review on 7 Khoon Maaf should be up on the blog soon.

 

Nobility or Rationality

In the last few months I have a read quite a bit about the epics and found them to be rather interesting. However, one view often propounded in most versions of the Mahabharata is the Duryodhana, for all his villainy, was still a noble and good king. While it is true that most of the stuff I have read does point to Duryodhana being a good king (not much is stated and there is no explicit mention of him being a bad king, so lets give the chap the benefit of doubt shall we?) the bit about his nobility is often substantiated by the fact that in one of the last fights of the Mahabharata, he chose Bhima (the strongest of the Pandavas) over the others.

I beg to differ. I don’t think this has anything to do with nobility, Duryodhana is simply being rational.

When Yudhishtira made the incredibly stupid move of asking Duryodhana to choose his opponent and his weapon, how did Duryodhana make this decision?

Duryodhana, like any rational being, would have seen his payoffs by killing each of the Pandavas. Now to anyone who has read the Mahabharata would know that Duryodhana and Bhima had a special hatred for each other. Thus it is clear that his payoff from killing Bhima would be the highest.

Thus, knowing this and considering this in isolation, Bhima is the option to go with for highest payoff.

But Bhima is ridiculously strong and fighting him would normally have included a substantial risk of getting your own head smashed in ( i.e. severely reducing your payoff).

Now Duryodhana had several branches of the game tree open for consideration each representing a weapon.

Now Gandhari had done the whole open-the-blindfold-for-the-time thing and thus bestowed Duryodhana with immense power in all of his body except for his thighs. This means that his winning the fight was practically guaranteed as long as he chose the weapon correctly.

Thus which payoff is availed would depend entirely on which weapon Duryodhana choses (i.e. which branch he goes with, this being a sequential game). If he goes with anything where Bhima can touch his thigh, he has a chance of losing; if Bhima is denied this possibility, Duryodhana is invincible and thus guaranteed victory and the subsequent high payoff.

By the rules of mace combat, one cannot hit below the belt. Thus choosing this weapon send Duryodhana along the branch of the game tree which guarantees him victory.

Obviously, Krishna telling Bhima to break rules was not expected – both the incompleteness of information to be taken away as well as the breakage of rules.

To factor in rule breakage into his calculations would have been clearly irrational (how can one factor in something like game rules being broken while analysing a game?).

Thus you see, Duryodhana was merely being rational, and not noble in any way.

 

Sikkim Diary III – Yumthang, Rumtek and back

After another 5 hour drive we came back to our rooms at Tso Lhamu hotel in Lachen. Most of us now had headaches and were very tired. We ate lunch at 4 pm (a good 10 hours after our last meal!) and packed up. We then headed to Lachung, close by but about a 1000 feet lower than Lachen. We were put up in a small place called “Castle lodge” which had a subtitle saying “ a wooden cottage” . This was inside an army area and I guess we were put up here instead of at a hotel as we were a group of guys and not a family like the other groups. The lodge had small, but very comfortable wooden walled rooms furnished with literally nothing but beds and a small table. This lodge was right next to the Teesta river and was surrounded on both sides by nearly vertical faces of mountains. It was not as cold as Lachen but the wind was strong on account of the river and hence we needed a few more layers of clothing here. Our Lodge was near a khukri shop which sadly was closed thus depriving me the change to buy a khukri from a real Gorkha.

We left the next morning at 6 am for Yumthang valley (Alt:11,600 ft) . This time the roads were good and the trip was short. The valley essentially lies between snow-capped mountains on one side and heavily covered one on the other. The Teesta flows in between them. The views again were  beautiful, especially the layers of mountains seen in the distance.  We took a lot of touristy photos here with us on rocks, next to river etc.

Breakfast again was hot coffee (which was quite bad actually), Maggi and bread and marmalade, once again in a small hut. After breakfast we soon left for Lachung again to head back to Gangtok as soon as possible.

The trip back to Gangtok was uneventful; we stopped over for lunch at some random hotel on the way and reached Gangtok by 4 pm. All along the river Teesta flowed next to us, getting bigger and bigger as we went further.

The last night in Gangtok was spent again on MG road, this time actually buying stuff. We decided to have authentic Sikkimese food for dinner and went on the recommendation of Kishoreda (owner of Hotel Kasturi) to the Snow Lion restaurant at Hotel Tibet. We had themthuk, chestu, momos, sha bhaklep and a few other dishes. The food was excellent, especially the pork; I don’t think I have ever eaten pork this tender. We went to bed early that night as we had another early morning ahead of us.

The next morning we left Hotel Kasturi for one final time to head back to NJP after taking a look at Rumtek monastery. As we got into the car, the sun rose on Kanchenjunga, with just the white peak turning orange while the rest of the lesser mountains retained their dark colour for a bit longer before following suit. It was almost as if it was leading the mountains in bidding us farewell. It was quite a sight.

Our driver once again was a total nutcase (I wonder how on earth we get all these people) but I am not complaining as the guy at least agreed to take us to Rumtek monastery and then to NJP without much of a fuss.

Rumtek Monastery was a nice place, very quiet much like all monasteries but was excessively commercialised with hotels, restaurants, colleges and houses all around. The litter was easily visible as was the neglect to perfection of the painting and maintenance of amenities. It was more of a tourist spot not that you can blame them for it considering the whole of Sikkim essentially runs on tourism. This monastery did give us even more breath-taking views (for one last time) and some of the artwork inside the main shrine hall was rather cool. Over all nice place, but disappointing compared to the rest of the trip

After this we had breakfast – Wy Wy again but cooked this time. Then we headed back to NJP once again with the Teesta by our side to take (quite appropriately) a train called the Teesta Torsa Express.

Sikkim Diary II – The Long Road to Gurudongmar

We awoke at 3 am the next day, got ready, heavily cursed the cold and left at 4 am for the easily the high point of the trip (literally and figuratively) – Lake Gurudongmar. There were practically no roads at all and Gurudongmar was a good 125 km away. We were also initially scared out of our wits when Tenzing announced that he is sleepy. Anyway, several bad turns and multiple scary passes later, we were more or less used to it. Also the sun rose and gave us some pretty amazing views of the mountainside. More importantly we kept looking up at the magnificent views rather than down at the deep valleys no more than a few feet away from the car. We steadily climbed upwards through the mountains and those of us who were awake saw ice on the road, frozen puddles and snow-capped mountains all around. We soon went past the Indian army’s highest transit camp at 14000 ft and then stopped at a very small village called Thangu. When we got out here, it was about 6 am and here is where we realised how cold it was. There was ice all around, and even under 4 layers of clothing I was still shivering. I reckon the temperature could not have been more than 2-3 deg at that point. The stop was basically for breakfast which was served in a small hut no more than 6 X 6 ft in area. The lady there gave us hot tea and steamed bread with molten butter. I don’t think I have ever been this happy to drink tea. We went out and got gloves, woollen socks and rented jackets which added an extra layer to our shivering bodies. I could now (finally) feel my toes!

After this stoppage, none of us slept. The beauty around was breath-taking. All this while we had been driving next to the river Teesta. As we were going upstream, the river was getting smaller and smaller as we drove on. We saw hordes of yaks roaming about. This is also where we were told that the Yak is eaten only this high in the mountains and will not be eaten ‘down’ i.e. at Gangtok. On the way we came across an upwards sloping section which had ice all over it (water from a stream flowing down it had frozen). The cars (there were about 8 groups including us) stopped and the drivers refused to go forward citing that the cars would slip. There were several arguments and after long discussions 5 cars went back. We refused to leave for we could see the army trucks climbing the same section with ease. In the 30 minute standoff, we got to go to the banks of the Teesta. Now it was barely 8 feet wide, with ice at its banks. It was at the most 8 feet deep either and even in the turbulent flow, the water was blue. I have never seen a river this shallow with blue water, nor been able to see to the bottom of any river (however shallow). That’s how pure the water was. The ice on the banks stuck on and spread further outwards while the river stubbornly flowed on between the two walls of ice. I, in a misplaced sense of adventure, put my finger in river only to not be able to move it for the next 10 minutes.

Finally the drivers realised that we were not going to back down and decided to take us to Gurudongmar. We met some personnel of the army who gave us chocolates, juice and dry fruits. One officer from Pune was elated to talk to me in Marathi. I guess the army also knows that it is the only hope if anything goes wrong here. They were also very friendly and spoke to us like members of their own family.

After driving for a bit longer, we came across another army establishment where we submitted our travel permits (security in these regions is very high due to the proximity to the Chinese border) and also saw the world’s highest café at 15000ft. The drive onwards was simply amazing. Even as we tired and sleep deprived souls tried our best to catch a wink or two, someone would yell out, “ Dude, look to your left. What a sight!”. The views were simply magnificent; the mountains, layers of them in different colours, distances and types of vegetation adorning them,  were all around us and treated us to glorious sights almost continuously. After driving for an hour or so (between mine fields and what not) we finally reached a small plateau on which a sign read “Gurudongmar lake Height in metres: 5136, Height in feet: 17100”. We had arrived! The sight at Gurudongmar was so beautiful that I cannot possible do justice to it in mere words. As I said we were on a plateau, all around us were mountains; there was not a human in sight. There was a huge mountain on the front face of which a glacier moves slowly downwards. The glacier melts and forms Gurudongmar lake which is a mass of sparkling blue – the bluest I have ever seen any water body. It’s almost as if the blue sky challenges the water to replicate its colour and the water accomplishes this task with aplomb. On the other end of the lake, a small one foot wide stream emerges. It’s hard to believe, almost gives a sense of wonder that this is what eventually becomes the mighty river Teesta – our faithful companion on this journey.

There were a few traditions of the lake, such as making a pile of stones for good luck, which we performed obediently. We also tried to walk to the edge of the lake itself, but were called back as some of the group were feeling giddy in the thin air (all in the mind if you ask me) and we had to turn back from within touching distance of that sparkling blue mass. Sigh… now I will have to go to Gurudongmar again. I have unfinished business; I have to touch the water of that lake.

The silence was most peace inducing and quite lovely. We could literally hear our hearts beating. It is the best place possible to let everything in your mind go and just take in the beauty.

After a few more minutes of soaking in what can be called the definition of heaven, we reluctantly head back to Lachen.

Sikkim Diary I – Gangtok

This term break, being the last one and all, we decided to not go home. This was largely fuelled by the realisation that we have lived in East India for over one and a half years and have seen nothing of the east except for Calcutta (which by now you should have realised is utter crap). So off we went to Sikkim for a 6 day trip.

We first went to Calcutta by the 6am train and hung around there for the day. We had the famous Oly Pub beef steak for lunch before heading out to catch a movie at South City Mall. We saw the new Chronicles of Narnia movie.

At about 10pm we took the Darjeeling Mail from Sealdah to New Jalpaiguri aka NJP (beyond which trains do not travel). The train ride was more or less uneventful (all of us slept) and the train pulled in the customary one hour late at NJP. We had paranthas for breakfast at a rather shady place at the NJP station and then went looking for cars to take us to Gangtok. After much negotiation, a driver known only as ‘Anil Kapoor’ (total nutcase, to tell you the truth) agreed to take us to Gangtok. Anil Kapoor was wearing a bright yellow shirt and sported a, well, ‘Anil Kapoor’ moustache; and made mock kung fu actions while he drove. For the sake of our blood pressure, everyone decided to sleep in this journey. On the way to Gangtok, we stopped at a small joint called the Moktan Hotel for lunch. On finding that there was nothing on offer to eat here, we serendipitously made the discovery of the trip : Wy Wy – a Maggi type noodle which tastes a lot better if it is crushed raw and mixed with masala and eaten like chana chur. A couple of hours later we reached Gangtok and took a local taxi to the SNT bus stand. We checked into Hotel Kasturi – a small hotel with about 12 rooms which met our requirements of ‘clean bed, clean loo, cheap’ – at 3pm. We soon learned that the huge snow-capped mountain we saw from our windows was none other than the highest one in this area Mount  Kanchenjunga. After a meal of pork momos (chicken were not available, and I didn’t mind) we got down to some important unfinished business – that of having a bath.

That evening we headed out to MG road which looks like it’s been lifted out of Europe and dumped in India. Literally nothing about the road seems Indian (other than the shops on it of course). It had very well done, beautiful paved roads (on which no cars are allowed), benches to sit on, flowers and shrubs in the middle, old style hanging lamps for street lights and of course Bose speakers at regular intervals playing local music. The first few minutes were spent in just taking in the atmosphere. After a couple of hours of aimless wandering in the markets, we headed for dinner to Café Live and Loud which was recommended to us by several of our friends who have been to Sikkim before. The place was one of the best I have seen anywhere. It was very well done up and tastefully decorated. Posters of past performances at the café adorned the ceiling, paper lanterns of different colours gave a very nice feel to the place, and the posters and photographs on the wall (of rock and blues legends) added to the atmosphere. Here we tried Dansberg and HIT, two beers manufactured by Danny Denzongpa’s company. The food was excellent, as was the band Route 66 which played several instrumentals (by Joe Sat and the Doors) before regaling us with extremely nice covers of Bob Dylan and others.

The next morning , we left on our 2 night 3 days trip to North Sikkim. We met our driver, Tenzing at the taxi stand and got into our Mahindra Maxx to leave for Lachen. On the way, we kept crossing beautiful bridges and seeing breath-taking views as we climbed higher and higher. The Seven sisters waterfall was a bit of a disappointment but a nice thing to look at none the less. We stopped for tea at Chumthang (where we realised that everything would be very expensive here) and finally an hour later touched down at hotel Tso Lhamu in Lachen. We were served a nice warm dinner of  rice and dal following which we each had a few swigs of rum to help us against the cold (we were at 10,000ft above sea level after all) before going to sleep.