Day 6, Gangtok

April 28, 2009

This is my first day in Gangtok, so Rikesh insisted that I go on a local sightseeing trip in and around Gangtok. I obliged.

Sikkim is almost entirely on mountains. This tiny state survives mainly on tourism. The efforts that the government here is taking to preserve the natural beauty of this place are commendable. Plastic is banned in Sikkim and only paper bags are used here. No outsider can buy land in Sikkim. One can only lease such property for a maximum of 99years. If only everyone was so protective of environment!

Being at an altitude of about 5000ft, Gangtok is a little chilly even at this time of the year, while the mercury is soaring down south. I was enjoying a very pleasant morning when to my horror, I discovered that this is the ‘tourist season’ in Gangtok. And the entire world seems to have taken a certain kind of fancy to this serene hill station, for I encountered hundreds of tourists where ever I went today. And annoyingly, most of them happen to be from Andhra Pradesh. The Telugu people seem to know no boundaries when it comes travelling with their rather large families. I remember encountering similar noisy groups on my trips to Venice and Rome. With the Telugu groups tailing me almost through out the day, the solitude I came so far to seek, seemed to elude me.

I finally managed to shake my tail off, by idling at one of the ‘view points’ for longer than what was necessary. That is when my attention was diverted towards my driver/guide. Busy plotting ways of getting away from the tourists, I had failed to see what a dim witted company I had for the day. He was hardly capable of comprehending what I said, let alone guiding me through the city.

For the nth time, my Dumb Philosophy was proven beyond doubt today. I have a philosophy that it is not the dumb, but those around the morons that suffer the consequences of the deeds performed by these blessed creatures. I refer to them as being blessed because they live in the glory of their ignorance, oblivious to all the misery they cause. Their limited intelligence doesn’t permit them to see the extent of damage their stupidity can create. Meanwhile, it is the more intelligent ones who live to clean up the mess created by their dumb companions.

I have another philosophy that your intelligence reflects in the way you handle various things. Like in your handwriting, for example. This philosophy was also proved to be right today. My dear companion drove the car today as if it were the Sun God’s chariot. It wasn’t being driven as much as being flown. Today, I understood the meaning of the expression ‘like a bead in a tin can’. And why is it that the caution exercised by drivers varies inversely with the altitude at which they drive?

By the time I was done with the day’s touring, I was a mess. Every joint in my body ached and I felt as if I had just been taken out of a blender. I have no idea why God keeps sending such people into my life so often. Perhaps, it is a sign that I should learn to be more patient in life.

My only respite of the day arrived in the form of dinner at a local hub with Rikesh and his fiancé Pavithra. Pavithra proved to be match for Rikesh in wits and is capable of giving a lot of movie stars a run for their money. At first, they seemed like an odd match. Rikesh is an ardent smoker and loves meat. The very mention of meat makes his mouth water. He cannot live without alcohol and was deeply disappointed when he realized that today is a dry day in Sikkim because of the oncoming elections. Pavithra, on the other hand, is a non smoking, non alcoholic, vegetarian. It is couples like these that make me realize that when it comes to love, differences in tastes and opinions are mere trifles.

Thus, I enjoyed a delicious meal in their pleasant company, realizing that this is one of the things I rarely do back home, as all my friends, however few they are, live abroad and therefore I don’t have much of a social life anymore.