Platonic: October 2013

Gangtok has been on my mind ever since, I had my first trip to Shillong but since, visiting there required at least four days of holidays at a stretch we never really came up with anything substantial in between the semester. This Durga Puja however, gave us an opportunity to consider going there.

Aerial View of the City from the Ropeway

Overall, Gangtok is a beautiful place but before I dive into all the details and my opinions about the place, I'd first like to give a short travel go through

Day 0, Thrusday, 10th October:
We boarded the Train to New Jalpaiguri.

Day 1, Friday, 11th October:
Reached New Jalpaiguri and left for Gangtok.
Local Sight Seeing (Flower Garden/ M.G Marg/Shopping/ Ropeway/Viewpoint/Monastery)

Day 2, Saturday, 12th October:
From Gangtok to Lachung

Day 3, Sunday, 13th October:
Yamthang Valley and Zero Point.
Back to Gangtok.

Day 4, Monday, 14th October:
Changu Lake and Babaji ka Mandir.
Back to NJP Railway Station

Day 5, Tuesday, 15th October:
Back to Guwahati.

As we started with our journey we split ourselves in a group of six and seven people as not all of us could be accommodated in one vehicle.

From NJP we went to the West Bengal Border, and soon after that we reached the place called Malli. Malli is a place famous for it’s Beer Brewery HIT which is owned by Danny Denzongpa. It is situated by the banks of river Teesta which in itself is something worth watching as it flows turbulently making a splash on the rocks and overtime making them smooth and shiny. Also, situated by the banks of the river is Sikkim Manipal Institute of Technology (SMIT) in a place called Majhira. There is only one road connecting NJP to Gangtok and that too is rough in patches. In total, typically the time taken to reach Gangtok from NJP is somewhere about five to six hours. This journey can be completed without taking halt in the middle but since, we were all famished, we decided to take one stop were we brushed our teeth and had our first meal of the day.

Local Sightseeing

Flower Garden was a place where we had many pictures clicked. It was an indoor garden kind of place and since October is not a blooming season, we didn't find many varieties of flower there but the greenness all around made the place very attractive.

And I forgot the name of this plant

About to Bloom

The Carnivores Plant

Ropeway Ride – This was my second ropeway ride, the first being when I was perhaps 5 or 6 years old and I was in my Grandfather’s lap. You get to see the entire city with this ride. On one side you find the ever expanding city where buildings are being built at a rampant speed and on the other side is the scenic beauty with the hills and vegetation covering the hills entirely. A must have experience in Gangtok.

The Sikkim Legislative Assembly Building as seen from Ropeway

The Butter (Fly) Over

A distant hill as seen from the Ropeway

Viewpoints: Once getting into a Ropeway Ride, the viewpoints didn’t seem to offer anything substantial. The good thing was I was able to take close up pictures of flag shaped sermon tied from one end to other. Also, we had the only complete group photograph here.

Museum: By the time we reached Museum, it was already closed. Tough Luck there.

An idol outside the Museum

Museum from Outside

Monastery: The monastery wasn’t very grand in terms of art and architecture but then that’s not the real purpose of building the monastery or temples or mosques. The real reason is to restore faith at odd times, which I found very much there with devotees paying respect by circling around the stupa shaped structure and circling the bells. Also, a lot of Diyas were prepared for some evening ceremony during my time of visit.

M. G Marg – Named after the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi, this road is India’s answer to Amsterdam. With all kind of shops on both the sides, the road is limited to only people walking on foot, smoking free, tobacoo free, liiter free and spit free zone, the entire road is a major tourist attraction. Infact the whole of Sikkim is smoking free and litter free area. By smoking free, I do not mean complete prohibition but public prohibition.

The Panoramic View of M.G Marg

This is a much needed stand from the Government because Sikkim, throughout the year is a tourist place where people flock in all the seasons, hence, keeping a regulation on these things is very necessary.

Gangtok in olden days was the primary stop for the Indo-Chinese and Indo-Tibetian traders. Therefore, it has been a tourist place and a traveler's abode from a very early time. Unlike, Darjeeling, water supply is not a very problem here with Teesta being the primary source of water in all of Sikkim.

Lachung, Yumthang Valley and Zero Point

At higher altitudes, food is a major problem as we traveled to Lachung and other places which are far from Gangtok and are at significantly higher altitudes. The road leading to Lachung is very difficult to negotiate. They are severely damaged at places with negligible and no repairing done after the recent earthquakes which took place two years back. The area that I’m talking about is North Sikkim which faced the worst effect of earthquakes. I've been to hilly places a lot but this was the first time I got to see naked hills. The earthquake resulted into many landslides in this area and hills are covered with vegetation in patches which makes them look naked.

The Naked Hills

From Lachung we reached Yumthang Valley and thereafter by giving additional charges we reached the Zero Point which is the Line of Action. On the way we encountered many abandoned bunkers. At Zero Point, I had my first encounter with snow, with the season’s first snowfall. It was raining in Yumthang Valley but it was snowing at Zero Point. Zero Point is about 15,000 ft above sea level and almost 5000 ft above than the Yumthang Valley.

Sunset on the way to Lachung

A Small Market area in the Yumthang Valley. We had our morning breakfast here (Bread and Jam). Also, there were jackets and warm clothes available on rent to ease the journey further ahead.

Zero Point, where I had my first tryst with Snowfall. Picture Perfect Destination. The packaged food items started bursting on their own as we reached this height. It was amazing to witness that. Beyond the hill is Tibet.

Changu Lake and Babaji ka Mandir

The next day we went to East Sikkim where we saw the Changu lake and went to Babaji ka mandir. The roads once again are in very bad condition throughout. On the way from Changu Lake to Babaji Mandir, we encountered heavy snowfall which was absolute delight.

To find a vast stretch of Lake at a height of about 12,000 ft above sea level is an amazement in itself. It was raining when we arrived here which made the weather very cold at that time.

Babaji ka Mandir is the perhaps the only temple where it wasn't required for us to open our footwears outside the the temple premises. It was freezing the time we reached here. It is situated at a height of 13,000 ft. This temple is of great spritual importance. Sikkim was an independent state before the Indo-China war. It was perhaps, 1959, when China was about to attack Sikkim. The then king of the province seeked help from India. Babaji died during Patrolling but it is said that he came in the dreams of the soldiers and told about the whereabouts of Chinese.

We missed going to Nathula Pass, the Indo-China Border as it was Monday. The border is closed on Monday and Tuesday for tourists as trade activities occur through the border on those days. One has to travel 4 kms. uphill from the place we were in order to reach there.

In the Snowfall, I became a child once again

Local Cuisine

It was one of the few things that I missed in this trip. The famous cuisine is Thapa or Thopa ( I don't know the exact pronunciation). All the North Indian cuisine is easily available and the food is not a problem at all in Gangtok. It is only at higher altitude that the food becomes scarce.

Animals

Yaks roaming around freely like any other cattle was something that I saw for the first time.

Near Changu Lake you can even have yourself photographed sitting on a Yak. They charge Rs. 50 for taking photographs and they also offer Yak ride which obviously costs more.

The Dog with lots of fur on his body

Waterfalls

Apart from these two waterfalls shown in the picture, there are many other falls in Sikkim. On the second day it started raining and after that, all the hills seemed to have a fall of it's own.

Dragons and Sikkim

Like many Buddhist states, Sikkim too is very much influenced with the Dragon Arts which can be found in many places.

The Cutie Pies of Sikkim

Kids here are super cute. Here is a small glimpse of that:

We visited Gangtok during the Durga Puja but there wasn't much pomp and show associated with the festival. Although, there were few pandals and decoration in the city but that was I think mostly because of the West Bengal influence.

Apart from the few hardships that comes with travelling, the trip was very nice. Sikkim has many things to offer to tourists and the whole city is built like that. With varying option of accommodation and rides to variety in cuisines, Sikkim understands tourists very well. We were thirteen people all together and all the total cost including everything was something around Rs. 5000 per head. Money Well Spent !

A Decoration outside the Shop saying
"Celebrating Sikkim"

Like most of our trip this too was more about being on the road and less about reaching destination. Travelling is a miniature model of life itself where we spend most of our time chasing things and when we achieve the thing which we were once chasing, we start chasing for something else.

That's why one should focus more on making the journey beautiful rather than planning for things on what to do once they get there.

And my journey was beautiful because of the people I had around myself.

I was in +Narendra Kumar 's room talking to him about some random stuffs when we found people wishing “Happy Navratri” to each other. After sharing a few nostalgic incidents about our times in our hometowns, we finally stuck at one particular thing; the thing which I’m sure will allow people to recollect the movie Devdas when Paro asks Chandramukhi for soil in order to start preparations for Durga Puja.

An age old practice is to collect the punya mati (blessed soil) from outside the nishiddha pallis (forbidden territories) of Calcutta to be used amongst other things to make the idol of Devi Durga by the now-famous artisans from Kumartuli (the potters town in Kolkata). It is now a ritual and the practitioners feel that this is a vital ingredient in the clay to be used in the idol making, without which, one cannot proceed.

“It is an integral ingredient of the holy mix, which also includes mud from the banks of the Ganga, cow dung and cow urine”. The elderly pujaris personally go to Sonagachi, Calcutta’s biggest red light area, “on an auspicious day” about a month before the onset of the festive season, around the time when potters begin to start work on idols, to collect what they call “virtuous dust from the doorstep of beshhas (prostitutes)”

Sonagachi when translated to English means Golden Tree, so naturally the soil which nourishes the Golden Tree must be of the purest form.

The method of soil collection is even more dramatic: “The most auspicious method of collection is to beg it from a prostitute and have her hand it to you as a gift or blessing. If it is taken from the ground, the pujari must know the correct way of doing it, including knowing which mantras to chant and how to position the fingers in a yogic mudra while scooping up the soil.”

Once brought, this dry mud is mixed with other types of mud like ‘poli’ (from the Ganges bank). The mixture is then wet and left for two days. After that, they use it in the idol.

So what could be the reason behind this practice of collecting mud from the doorstep of a sex-worker?

The most prominent reason cited is that when a man enters these dens of vice, he leaves his virtues outside the doorstep, making the soil virtuous. When the man comes out of the house, he has left all his vices at the house of the sex-worker. Another reason given is that this is to ‘purge’ the sex-workers of their sins! This sounds quite ironic as it is well known that no woman in the area is there out of choice and no man is there out of force. So to use this reason is quite unfair to the already wronged women of the area.

But then, let us look at the same practice differently. This practice could have been initiated by some, to include the otherwise ostracised members of the society. It could also have been a way to honour the erstwhile courtesans who were proficient in different form of arts. Or could it be that people of all religions and communities come to a brothel and involving the soil from there in the ritual could just be a fitting tribute to the all-encompassing nature of the Mother?

So does the practice have a religious reason or does it have a social relevance? Has the ritual made any difference to the way a layman looks at them? What kind of ‘elevation of status’ (if any) is it when they are so important for a day, but whores for the rest of the year? If worship of Durga is of stree-shakti (feminine power), then why is this practice so demeaning to a set of the womenfolk who seem to be so integral to the ritual? Unfortunately, all I can say is that the practice is still on; the sex-workers are in as squalid condition as they were but definitely the ritual has lost its social relevance, if it had any.

The way these females celebrate Puja in their land is a bit different. Together, the women conduct and participate in all the rituals associated with the 'puja'. Take 'Sindoor khela', an integral part of the 'puja' rituals. Traditionally, on the last day of the 'pujas' - 'Dashami' or the tenth day - married women anoint the Goddess with vermilion and then each other, praying for the long life of their spouses. The women of Sonagachi, too, follow this ritual. But with a difference.

Excerpt from an Interview

"We can never be married in the conventional sense," reveals Mosumi Chaki, 30, a mother of two living in Sonagachi. "But we bear children. We are mothers, like the Goddess. So we apply 'sindoor' (vermilion) on Mother and pray for the well-being of our children as we bid adieu to her. The Goddess allows us to bend the rituals because she is a woman herself. After all, she too has broken many social norms. As Kali, she stepped on the chest of her husband, Lord Shiva. The Goddess Durga stands for justice." She adds, "It's this belief and this faith that gives us the right to worship her in our own way."