An Unexpected Musical Evening In Guwahati

Last saturday night (12 September), unexpectedly, I found myself at an amazing music concert of retro classical rock. This post is about the unplanned musical surprises of the rich cultural life of Guwahati (Assam, India)

The picture above has Danius Marak, the lead singer of Adam's Apple, from that music concert. Adam's Apple is a rock music group from Darjeeling (West Bengal, India) that had won the Hornbill Rock Music festival in Nagaland in 2014.

WONDERING ABOUT SRIMANTA SHANKAR DEV & BISWAKARMA

Let me start by explaining how I found myself at the rock music concert.

I knew that  2 important dates related to one of the most important cultural and religious icon of Assam, Srimanta Shankar Dev are close - 15th is his birth anniversary and on 23th, his death anniversary. In addition, on 18 September, there will be Biswakarma Puja, an important day in the religious calendar of the north-east. I wanted to know if any special events were planned at Kalakshetra, one of the most important cultural hubs of Guwahati.

Though it was a day of Assam Bandh (strike), Kalakshetra was open. The person at the ticket office was very helpful. He told me that no cultural events were planned in Kalakshetra in this period and next big cultural event would be in October 2015 during the Durga Puja festivities. On my way back, on an impulse I decided to go and visit Shilpagram, that is located close to Kalakshetra.

SHILPAGRAM CRAFTS VILLAGE

Shilpagram (literally "Village of crafts") is on Aurobindo path, just before Kalakshetra. Apart from Shilpagram, on the same road there are the Assam Film Museum, the state music school and the Guwahati Aurobindo centre. The film museum did not seem to be functioning and its gate was locked. Saturday was also the weekly closure day for Aurobindo centre. However, Shilpagram was open and no ticket was required for entering on that evening.

"At 6 PM, there is some music festival", the guard outside Shilpagram had told me. It was only 4.30 PM, and my first reaction was that I did not want to wait there till 6 PM for the music programme.

So I entered thinking that I would quickly visit and see what kind of things were there. It is used as a venue for holding handicrafts fairs and exhibitions. Since no fair or exhibition were going on yesterday, there was not much to see except for some buildings representing a few tribes.

These buildings were decorated in traditional ways, but they were all closed and empty. In one garden, a statue of someone was placed under a tree but I had no idea of who he was.

RETRO CLASSIC ROCK MUSIC CONCERT

The sound of music was coming from the park at the centre of Shilpagram where a stage had been set-up. A young guy was sleeping there on a plastic sheet next to the stage, in spite of the loud vibrating sound of drums and guitars.

It reminded me of my early days in India, when I could sleep in the middle of noise, lights, chaos and confusion, and not like now, when the slightest thing wakes me up or keeps me awake!

On the stage, a group from Diphu called the "Celestial Sphere" was rehearsing. Their vocalist had a nice voice. Behind them, a banner showed the name of the event - a "Retroactive Classic Rock Revival" music concert sponsored by Cafe Hendrix of Guwahati.

I listened to Celestial Sphere for some time and then decided to visit a few handicrafts shops around the park.

SWARAJ KANTI SORCAR'S BHAJANS

In one handicraft shop of Shilpagram I met Mr. Swaraj Kanti Sorcar, who had an Assamese prayer book open before him and was slowly singing a hymn. His voice attracted me and I stopped there to listen to him.

"What are you singing? Your voice is very nice", I told him when he finished the hymn.

"My voice was much better when I was younger", he said proudly and brought out a drum with a cord. He sang me another of his prayer songs for me, this time accompanied with music from his drum and the tinkles of small brass bells fixed to the end of a cord that stretched between the drum and his fingers. It was a song about Krishna, though I could not understand all the words. And it was amazing listening to him.

That drum with stretched cord is called Bagoli (since it is held in the underarm or "Bagol") or Khamen.

I was reminded of some Baul singers that I had heard at Kamakhaya temple during Ambubashi festival. Simple songs and music, and a voice filled with emotions that go straight to the heart.

After his songs, I sat with him for some time, listening to his stories about his life. Meeting Mr Sorcar warmed my heart. While we were talking, some other group had come to do the rehearsal on the stage. Sounds of their music filled the whole place. It was a throbbing and pulsating sound, while the lead singer had a raw voice. I said good bye to Mr Sorcar, as I wanted to check this group.

They were "Adam's Apple" from Darjeeling. I loved their music and decided that I wanted to stay there and to listen to them properly during the concert.

BEAUTIFUL EVENING SKY AND THE SCHOOL GIRLS

There was still more than half an hour for the start of the concert. The sky covered with clouds had turned first orange and then red. There were not many persons there to listen to the music concert.

I decided to take another walk around Shilpagram. In one corner I came across a group of high school girls, all dressed up. They had just had their cultural function in the auditorium and were now waiting for refreshments.

They were happy to pose for me for some pictures, proud to show off their beautiful costumes.

2 SQUARES

The concert was started by a group called 2 Squares from Guwahati. Their lead vocalist Gregory Sarma sang beautifully and with wonderful energy. The guitarist and the guy on drums were great. In some ways Sarma's performance reminded me of Robbie Williams.

Among the groups that I had watched that evening, I liked this group most. (I am not sure if I am doing any favour to this group by writing it since rock groups having white-haired elderly persons as their admirers do not sound very exciting!)

I did not know any of the songs they did, probably they were not retro enough for me, but it was difficult to stand still during this part of the concert.

I am really surprised that this group does not have its own page on Google Plus or Facebook. Gregory Sarma has been part of some popular groups like Nakshatra, Faith and the Beat Route. He came back to Guwahati earlier this year and has started this new group, 2 Square. Anyway I am sure that they are going to get a good fan following.

S.K.D.

The lead vocalist of this group is one of the historical figures of rock music in Guwahati, active for the last 30 years. They had a female co-vocalist, a girl with a nice warm voice. They sang more retro songs including “Run to me” by Bryan Adams, that I could identify.

Even the SKD does not seem to have a Facebook page or a website. I searched on internet, but I have been unable to find the names of the components of this group.

ECLIPSE

Eclipse is another all-guys group. It is a historical group from Guwahati that was started in 2004. Its members are Kundal Goswami (Vocals) Rahul Kaushik (Bass) Sumit Baruah (Guitar) Rakesh Baro (Keyboard) Mrinmoy Edwin Singha (Drums).

They are going to come out with a second CD soon and they sang two unreleased songs from this new album titled "Clandestine Resurrection". Their first album had a very poetic name, "A mouthful of moonlight".

Their music is good, Kundal their lead vocalist, and the musicians are great and the group has a good energy. In my personal classification, they were number two in this evening’s groups.

All their songs were great but I enjoyed most their version of the retro number of the Queen, “I want to be free”, because it made me relive my young days.

CELESTIAL SPHERE

Celestial Sphere group is from Diphu in Korbi Anglong. From the reaction of the audience this seemed to be a very popular group. The members of this group are: Thengchum on Guitar, Lumar on Guitar, Edwardo on the Bass Guitar,  Bendang Toshi on Drums while Dr Aleena Terangpai is the vocalist. This group is considered as among the top 50 emerging rock groups in India.

Aleena, their vocalist has a good voice and the guitarists were great. By the time the Celestial Sphere came, I was wondering if any of the groups would have anything in terms of fusion music? I feel that it is great to sing retro songs from US/UK singers but if you are a north-east group, it would be nice if occasionally you also add to your music something that represents your own culture and music, to root it to this land and moment.

Celestial Sphere must have heard my wish, so they had one Korbi Anglong song in their repertoire. Its refrain sounded like “Say, say”. You can hear this song on their Sennheiser profile page.

ADAM'S APPLES

Like I wrote earlier, Adam's Apple are the winners of Hornbill festival 2014. The members of this young group from Darjeeling are: Danius Marak (vocalist), Praggya Lama (Guitar), Sawan Chettri (Bass), Anil Pradhan (Keyboards) and Ushang Bomzom (Drums, battery) - BTW, I think that Bomzom is a wonderful name for someone who likes to play drums! Danius is the new vocalist for this group I was told.

It was the music of this group that had hooked me and made me stay there to listen to this music concert. However by the time they came, I had a slight headache and my hips and knees were hurting, so I was wondering if it was time for me to start my walk for going home.

Danius, the lead vocalist of this group looked like a teenage Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones. The two guitarists, Praggya and Sawan, also looked very charismatic. The sound of their first song started with a raw energy-filled scream. However, something happened to the electrical system and the group was suddenly soundless.

They smiled and waited patiently while the problem was resolved. They restarted and once again, not even one minute into their song, the electrical system failed again.

I thought that it was kind of a divine sign for me to leave. I still had to do a three km walk to my home, and I had no idea what to do for my dinner. So reluctantly, I left the music concert.

CONCLUSIONS

The whole evening was a wonderful experience, probably because it was so unexpected. From the event poster, I have seen that there were 2 more groups in the programme after Adam’s Apple – Still Waters from Gangtok and Spreading Roots from Guwahati. I am sorry that I missed them.

I had never been to a proper rock music concert before. Before this experience, if anybody had asked me, I would have said that I don’t like rock music concerts, that they are just too loud and noisy for me. This concert was indeed noisy and loud. Yet I discovered that I enjoyed it. That the strumming of electrical guitar and bass can give me a high. That the raw screams make my feet feel like dancing.

This experience also made me aware that I am a photography-junkie. I loved the music and the collective experience of being part of a group that is swaying to music. But I loved even more, looking through the lens of my camera and framing pictures of the concert. People who were there as parts of the groups, if you wish to receive your pictures in high resolution (obviously free of cost) do let know - it will be a pleasure and an honour.

Compared to the quality of the groups, and considering that it was a free entry event, I think that the audience there was very limited. This concert certainly merited a much larger group of people in the audience. I hope that next time, they will publicise such events better.

I think that some of the pictures that I have clicked in this are wonderful, many are a little blurred and abstract, almost like poetry.

Let me close this post with another beautiful picture of this memorable unexpected musical evening from Guwahati. This picture was taken while we were waiting for he concert to start and the sky had started to turn red.

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Note: A few days after writing this post, the hard-disk of my computer, where I had downloaded the pictures of that evening, broke and I lost all the beautiful images of that evening. The images used in this post are the only ones that remained for me to remember that evening.

Gangtok City Walks 2 - Pani House Road

Tourists to Gangtok see only the city centre and the ridge. Apart from the crowds on the M.G. road and in the markets like Lal Bazar, you hardly see any tourists walking around in Gangtok. Most tourists go around in organized trips to visit places outside the city. However if you like walking up and down on hill-roads going up and down, you can discover a different view of the Gangtok town.

This post is about the places to see on the Pani House road, which is the main road connecting Gangtok to Siliguri, Kalimpong, Darjeeling and Rangpo. As you travel to Gangtok you will pass all the places described in this post.

In an earlier post, I had written about a walking tour from M.G. road to the top of the ridge which has the old palace of the Chogyal and some other well-known tourist places of Gangtok. Compared to that post, the places described in this post are not so well known among the tourists.

THE STAIRS OF GANGTOK

With its valleys and hills, Gangtok is full of “short-cuts”, which usually means going up or down some stairs. However, climbing the stairs for the short-cuts is hard work.

If you do not mind the hard work, I suggest that you try going up and down some stairs to understand the toils of daily life of ordinary persons in Gangtok. It will also provide you with beautiful and unusual panoramas of the city below you.

For example, it was during going up and down the stairs that I realised about the love of people of Gangtok for the flowers. Even in the houses of poor persons, there were always some flower pots.

One of the thrilling stair-climbing experiences that I had in Gangtok was from a place called Zero Point down to the Development area. I had gone to visit the centre of Sikkim Viklang Sahayata Samiti at Zero Point and I had to go to the Spastic society office in the valley behind it. Someone had suggested that I could just go down the stairs and walk instead of taking a taxi. I really loved this walk down the stairs, passing in front of homes and gardens. It was a long walk and fortunately for me, going down. I do not think that I could have done it coming up!


STARTING THE WALK

Starting point of this walk is the Supermarket on Pani House road just across Lal Bazar market in the Gangtok city centre. Walk on the right side of the road where you can look at the valley below on your right. You can see the green valley dotted with houses, women standing out near the water-tap waiting to fill their buckets, with colourful lines of clothes drying outside the houses.

At the bottom of this hill there is a small temple dedicated to Shiva called the Nageshwar temple. A simple temple, it seems to be very popular with the locals, who tell stories about the snakes in this area.

Follow the road as it twists and turns going downhill. The footpath here is frequently interrupted by a few steps so it is not accessible to wheel chairs.

A short walk later, on the left side you will see the Siddheshwar Shiva temple.

Outside the temple at the entry gate there are two cat-like lions with scarves around their heads.

In Gangtok, you see often see lion statues, especially white lions with a green mane that are also part of Singha folk-dance and are the symbols of Sikkim (shown in the images below).

As you continue your walk down the Pani House road, you will see the Sonam Palgye hotel on your left and a terrace overlooking the valley below on the right. Stairs from the terrace go down to the valley. I was told that coming up from the valley is a half-an-hour climb. If you are feeling adventurous, perhaps you can try this climb!

From here you can also see the first part of the sky-lift of Gangtok connecting Deorali on Pani House road to the Assembly house above, near the city centre.

A brisk walk and 15 minutes later, you are at the Deorali sky-lift station. There is a nice over-bridge with a blue roof crossing the different roads and going to the sky-lift station. A ride in the sky-lift to the Assembly station costs Rs 80 per person (May 2015).

When I had visited it, the second part of the sky-lift ride, connecting Assembly station to the Ridge/Secretariat above, was closed for repairs.

However, if you are not tired, don’t go yet for the sky-lift ride, but rather continue down the road till you reach the Kubumlhakhang Buddhist temple on the right side. The temple is placed where the road makes a sharp curve and across the road you can see an old ceremonial gate called “Ganju Lama Dwar”. Beyond the gate, they have a military area. Visit this small temple, it is very beautiful.

It is a beautifully decorated temple with a small monastery. In an open space at its back, there are 3 antique giant prayer drums that are worth seeing. The red-coloured prayer drums seem to be made of wood.

Probably once the Kubumlhakhang temple and its monastery had its entry from the Ganju Lama ceremonial gate across the road, that was cut-off when the road was made?

After visiting the temple and the monastery, you can continue your walk down the Pani House road. As you will follow the curve of the road, on the other side you will see the beautiful white Sikh temple “Gurudwara sahib” built by the Black Cat division of the Indian army. I did not go inside the Gurudwara as I was getting late for my appointment.

Opposite the Gurudwara, just a few metres down on the right side is the Deorali Parking for the shared taxis for going back to Siliguri-New Jalpaiguri.

Here ends this walking tour. From here you can walk back to the Deorali sky-lift station and take the lift to Assembly station from where it is a short walk to M. G. road.

If you are not tired and do not wish to take the sky-lift, try a variation in your journey back to the city by taking the side road on the right just ahead of the Sonam hotel. There are less constructions on this road and there are lovely panoramic views on the northern part of Gangtok. This road will also lead you straight to M. G. road.

5TH MILE GANGTOK AND THE SARASWATI TEMPLE

I had an appointment at the Social Welfare department and had to go some kms further down to the 5th Mile, near the Manipal hospital. I made this part of the journey in a shared taxi.

At the 5th Mile, they have a well-known Saraswati temple. I liked this temple for 2 reasons. The first reason is a very colourful Hanuman statue in its park. He is shown carrying the Chitrakoot mountain on his head with the herbs for treating Lakshaman who had been injured during the war with Ravan.

The second reason is that in the temple there are messages praising different religions including Islam, Christianity, Sikhism and Buddhism.

Though our newspapers and news channels usually give prominence to fundamentalists, conservatives and fights between religions, majority of ordinary Indians are respectful towards different religions. Often people also participate in the events and festivals of different religions.Thus, I think that it is appropriate that a Hindu temple dedicated to the goddess of learning (Saraswati) expresses respect for different religions and their teachings.

CONCLUSIONS

This second Gangtok walk is for discovering the little known places of Gangtok. Except for the Deorali sky-lift station, the places you can visit during this walk are not so famous for the tourists, but the Hindu, Buddhist and Sikh prayer places on this route are worth a visit. I want to close this post with another picture of Hanuman from the Saraswati temple.

Every time I look at this picture, I am reminded of Salman Khan from the latest Bollywood hit “Bajrangi Bhaijaan”. What do you say, don’t they have similar expressions?

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Gangtok Walking Tour - The Ridge

I was in Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim (India) only for 4 days. Apart from the short time, every day I had some work to do, some places to visit and some people to meet. So there was not much time to go out to visit the tourist places. This gave me an opportunity to explore the city differently. I think that I saw some parts of Gangtok that most tourists and visitors do not see.

If you look at places that are advised in the guide books for the tourists visiting Gangtok – there are places like Tsomgo lake, Hanuman Tok, Nathula Pass, Ranka monastery, Ganesh Tok, Banjhakri falls, and so on. They are all outside Gangtok city. You are supposed to rent a vehicle to visit them or to join organized tours.

I could not join an organized tour to visit the tourist places. So, I decided that for all my work appointments, wherever possible, I will walk. I also decided to use my mornings and evenings to explore as much of the city as I could. This photo-essay presents some of those beautiful places that I discovered!

GANGTOK CITY & GENERAL INFORMATION

Gangtok is a small town. This first walking tour of Gangtok is around the central area of the city near the well known tourist tourist landmark, the M. G. Road.

Going down from M. G. road, is the road to Deorali where the private sumo vehicles stop, when you reach Gangtok from the railway stations in Siliguri/New Jalpaiguri. This main road connecting Deorali to M. G. road is called Pani House road. This road continues after the Gangtok city as Baluakhani road.

For this walking tour, I am going to focus on four roads – Pani House road is the lowest, M. G. road, and Sonam Gyatso road are in the middle, and finally at the top, there is the Ridge road. A lot of stairs interconnect these four roads. The map below shows some of the areas around Ridge described in this photo-essay. Check the Ridge area on Google maps for a better understanding of its layout.

The distance of this walking tour is not so much - the whole walk should be around 4-5 km. However, it requires a lot of climbing and a lot of stairs. Thus, it may not be easy for children and for persons who are out of shape.

It will also be a difficult tour for persons in wheel chairs, who will not be able to use the short-cuts through the stairs on the way down. Unfortunately, a lot of sidewalks of Gangtok are not wheel-chair friendly as they have lot of stairs. So if you are on a wheel chair, you will need to be on the side of the road - so make sure to wear some colour that is easily visible. And if your wheel chair is not motorized, you will need someone to help you with the climbs.

The walking tour starts from M. G. road, goes up the Sonam Gyatso road to top of the hill at the Ridge road. The return continues on to Bhanu Path road and ends at St. Thomas church on Pani House road.

Important places to visit on this walking tour include Chogyal’s grand temple, Ridge park, West Point temple and Flower Exhibition centre. So lets start with M.G. Road.

M.G. ROAD & THE ASSEMBLY BUILDING

M. G. road is a wonderfully kept area for walking, sitting down, relaxing, having food and doing shopping. It has two statues of Mahatma Gandhi – a bust in a tiny park in the middle, and a complete statue of Mahatma with a walking stick (in the image above).

At the other end of M. G. road (towards Deorali), you can look at the Assembly house and the station for cable-cars coming from Deorali. Earlier the cable cars used to go up to the secretariat near the Ridge. However when I visited Gangtok in May 2015, the upper part of the cable car was under repairs and was closed.

The Cable car station in front of the Assembly building has a Chinese restaurant on the first floor. I didn’t try the food there, but the views from its terrace were absolutely wonderful (one view of the valley in the image below).

A UNIQUE EXPERIENCE ON M.G. ROAD

M. G. road has a lot of stairs going down towards Pani House road. Some of them are very steep and long. Many have houses and terraces that open directly on the stairs. Connected to the stairs, there is a unique experience in Gangtok – entering a shopping centre through its roof-terrace.

Near the "Khan Chacha's Biryani house", on the right hand side you will find two sets of stairs that take you down to a bridge leading to the roof of a huge building. This is Kanchanjanga shopping centre that has its main entrance near the Denzong cinema in Lal Bazar.

On the roof, there are two covered entrances where you will find stairs that take you to the 5th floor of the shopping centre. It is a short cut often used by the locals. I had never thought about arriving in a shopping centre through the roof.

The roof also provides you with wonderful views of the Supermarket building (in the two images below) in front of Denzong cinema. Supermarket is a little strange looking multi-story curved building, hugging the Pani House road below and Lal Bazar road above.

GOING UP THE RIDGE ROAD

Ridge is the highest point of Gangtok city. At the top it has the old Chogyal’s palace. Chogyals were the rulers of Sikkim, before it joined India in May 1975.

Just opposite the place where Lal Bazar stairs join the M. G. road, you can see the Sonam Gyatso road (old name Kazi road) going up. You can have some wonderful views of M. G. road as you walk up. After a few metres, take the right turn and keep on going up. At the top, turn left and continue walking up.

At one of the turnings on Gyatso road, I found a wall painting presenting some of the traditional dresses of Sikkim (Image below).

The final part of the climb is a short but steep passage hugging the hill. On the right hand side, a road is marked as “Secretariat” and leads to the different offices of the state ministries and to the cable car station. I had gone there to visit Education Ministry. However, for this walking tour, please continue going up the final part of the climb to the Ridge.

The total distance from M. G. road to the Ridge could be less 2 km, though it look me about 30 minutes to cover it (because I was often stopping to take pictures and to admire the view).

TSUKLAKHANG TEMPLE

At the top, on the right hand side an old run down traditional gate leads to the old Chogyal’s palace. The palace itself is closed to tourists and cannot be visited. However, you can enter the gate for visiting a temple.

In the 1920s, Chogyal had built a big Buddhist temple (Tsuklakhang temple) and monastery next to his palace. This was the temple for the royals, and is open to public. It is a beautiful building and has been restored recently.

The passage to the temple is lined with prayer flags in different colours. The temple includes a Buddhist school for children-monks and has some nice orchids in its park. It is a beautiful temple and is very well maintained.


WEST POINT SCHOOL AND TEMPLE

As you come out of the gate of Chogyal's palace, on your right you will see a valley. That is our next stop.  Below in the valley you can see the West Point school. Behind the school, it is easy to see high snow covered mountains (West point school and the mountains in the image below).

A little to the right, a small road leads to the village below, where there is a newly built Buddhist temple.

If you do not mind going up and down, it is a nice temple to visit. It has the usual prayers drums outside on its walls. Inside, it has a huge prayer drum in its centre, that requires some effort to push.

NAMGYAL MEMORIAL PARK AND FLOWER CENTRE

Across from the gate to Chogyal’s palace is the entry to the "Chogyal Palden Thondup Namgyal memorial park". It is a small but well maintained park with a central blue pagoda like structure.

Across the Gangtok city below,  on a clear day you can see the snow covered Kanchanjangha mountain.

A small path leads from the park to the Flower Exhibition centre below. The Flower Centre also has a separate entry from the main road.

There is a small ticket for entry in the flower centre that has a nice collection of orchids and some other flowers from Sikkim. Most flowers are labelled. There is a small pond with a fountain and a bridge inside the centre.

Orchids are common in the lower tropical part of Sikkim up to an altitude of about 2000 metres, though there are a few species that are found at 3000 metres and above. These are of two kinds – epiphyte and terrestrial. Epiphyte orchids are more common in Sikkim.

Some common epiphyte orchids in Sikkim include those belonging to genus Dendrombium - Cymbidium, Vanda, Phalaenopsis, Caelogyne, Arachnanthe and Saccolabium. (in the image below, a beautiful orchid from the flower centre).

Dendrobium nobile orchid is the state flower of Sikkim (in the image below).

WHITE MEMORIAL HALL

Across the road from Flower centre is a two story white building, now used as a club, called White Memorial hall. John Claude White was a British civil engineer who was posted in Sikkim in 1888 as the political officer and who had retired in 1908.

White built the British residency which is now used as the Raj Bhawan (house of the governor). White Memorial hall was built under Chogyal Tashi Namgyal in 1930-32 to remember the contributions of John Claude White to Sikkim. This building is an example of British colonial architecture.

The building has changing colourful light. In the summer evenings, while throngs of young people of Gangtok sit around chatting and drinking tea or beer on the ridge, White Memorial makes a nice background.

BHANU PATH ROAD

Continuing along the Ridge road, you will reach a roundabout, which has the statue of India’s first prime minister, Jawahar Lal Nehru. Nehru road from this round-about takes you towards Tsomgo lake and Nathula border.

Take the road on the left, Bhanu Path road, going down towards Gangtok city. A little distance down this road, on the right, you will see a small road with a board, “Enchey monastery”. I am not sure how far is the monastery from this point - I did not try it.

Going down the hill along Bhanu Path, take the stairs that allow you to reach down straight rather than going all around the road. Above the Prasar Bharati building, I found some stairs going down through a park. It was a small park with a lot of ups and downs, beautiful greenery, a couple of bridges and a small heart shaped pond with fishes.

I rested in this park for some time, before continuing my journey down and coming out in front of St Thomas church on the main Pani House road.

From the St. Thomas church, M. G. Road was a short walk away.

CONCLUSIONS

I did not do this walking tour in one go. Rather I visited these places in bits and pieces. It was a very satisfying visit.

Perhaps there are other places in Gangtok which are seen as “local places”, though they have interesting stories behind them! If you know of such places that can be part of a walking tour, do let me know, and in my next trip, I will try to visit them.

Some Acknowledgements

Before concluding I want to thank Mr. Harish Prasad from hotel Bayul on the M.G. road, who was very courteous. He gave me a room with the best view of the mountains around Gangtok. I had some very interesting discussions with him. For example, he told me that as a young man he had worked for some time in a leprosy hospital. As I have also worked as leprosy doctor for a large part of my life, I was very happy with this coincidence.

I also want to thank Mr. Dhan B. Subba (introduced to me by my friend Cristina), who was very helpful. Finally, I am sorry that my meeting with Satish Bardewa from Yak & Yeti tours (introduced by my friend Sonia) did not work out - I look forward to meet him the next time.

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