BACK HOME – IT’S THE NORTH EAST AGAIN

Mirik is dead for mounatain lovers. And even the mountains have deserted it. Strange but true, even the mist has gone. The drive to Mirik is still pleasant in places. But Mirik, is the exception that proves that the Darj / Sikkim hills are beautiful ! But Kalimpong, still takes the breath away. And like the first time it still gets me alive and alert.

I was more into Himachal, Kashmir and the UP hills when I moved to Delhi. But even though it is far, Darj has had this pull in my life. I end up there to live a nostalgia, to recall memories every now and then. I invariably insist that the taxi (landrover ) takes the route through Sukhna, in the foothills, where I lived once with elephants and tigers for company !

And then one day, the pull was too strong and October /November '99 will see me climbing in the Kangchenjunga region. They used to tease me (old friends still do ) about the fancy I had for chinky girls. Remarkable that among the many ambitions my childish mind used to touch upon, was one, where I wanted to command a Gurkha unit in the Army. I used to like their physical fitness, smartness, their gurkha hats, the Khukri ( I have many at home, besides prayer flags, the lucky symbols, the Tibetan bell and so on )

And so I return to Darj yet again and as always the excitement of the unknown and a sense of anticipation, more pronounced than ever before, calls out to me, as though I belong there, as though it's home. Yes of course, "Home To Himalayan Ambitions". But for Other reasons as well.

Waiting, thinking, wondering, excited, hoping.

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