Hills Are Heaven Again?

I don't have any childhood romanticism of Darjeeling like many others. My first visit to the Queen of Hills was when i was pursuing my degree at Visva-Bharati. Although i had trips to the Himalayas before that somehow Darjeeling didn't fit to my itinerary ever. Maybe because of Gorkhaland agitation of the late '80s my parents never took us there fearing Bengali backlash during the heyday of Subas Ghising. Maybe because of that only i was never sent to a Hills school, rather to a plains one near Kolkata. Maybe that's why i hardly had any inclination towards one of the most popular hill destinations in the vicinity.

Just a day after i came back from my maiden Puri visit with my mother in 2001, suddenly i got a call from my friend who had a plan trip to Darjeeling with his friends. But one of them declined to go at the eleventh hour and i boarded a sleeper coach of the Darjeeling Mail! We didn't have a hotel booking also and being there just two days after the Puja, it was virtually impossible to find a room for just three of us! After much googling, we got a superb room just off the DHR toy train station. Sharp whistle of the toy train — another symbol of romance after Aradhana fame — woke me up every now and then during our short stay of a couple of nights.

I always had a mind of a typical tourist and inquisitive journalist! During our ropeway ride, visit to zoo or to Happy Valley TE, i talked to people out of curiosity of what makes the town so attractive to thousands of visitors! The evenings were not quiet at the Mall, breakfast tables were simply over-booked for hours at Keventers... i was wondering why the rush to a particular place. The answer i've never got. In the next few days, we criss-crossed the hills with halts at Kalimpong, Loleygaon (Kaffer), Lava, Rishop, Dooars among other places. Wherever we went, we had won hearts of the local people as we had respect for them — unlike many of us who still want to keep them alienated from our society.

The bond just grew stronger with our 2007 trek to Sandakphu, the highest point of West Bengal. Over a week, we befriended many a local people there, especially our guide Saja became another team member. Images of poverty-stricken faces welcomed us in villages. Government schemes of poverty alleviation seemed to have not reached there for years. Beautiful was the topography with serpentine roads meandering through pine trees. White peaks of Kanchenjungha, Kabru and Pandim accompanying the backpackers all the way to the Sandakphu peak — our trip could not have been better! But somewhere in the region reverberations of Gorkhaland demands could be felt though not in striking terms set later by GJM leaders. I did not even think then that we could not return there for a couple of years.

In October 2010 when i visited the hills last, people there realized they have no option but to keep the three 'T's floating — tea, timber and tourists. Our driver, whose home in the foothills i visited later, was a pro-Gorkhaland supporter but he too told me: "Yeh hingsa se badi nafrat hai, magr karoon kya (I hate this sort of violence, but what can i do)?" That was a transitional phase in the Hills after ABGL leader Madan Tamang, who had a democratic voice, had been killed on May 21, 2010. Residents there could not understand what the best solution to their misery was — whether to support GJM (thus supporting economic blockades and surviving on peanuts) or support the Bengal government (thus hounded out of hill homes).

The dilemma seems to be over now with the Mamata Banerjee government agreeing to some of their demands. As the people from plains again making a beeline to the makeshift stalls on the Nehru Road to pick up a sweater this summer, the Hills can hope for better days ahead with hosting a perfect Puja holidays for the Bengalis!