A Hotel Door (Pelling, Sikkim, India)
I was reading The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai on the trip to Sikkim. A paragraph where she is talking about Biju, an illegal immegrant in US working in a restaurant, caught my attention.
The sound of their fight had traveled up the flight of steps and struck a clunky note, and they might upset the balance, perfectly first-world on top, perfectly thrid world twenty-two steps below. Mix it up in a heap and then who would patronize his restaurant, hm? With its coquilles Saint-Jacques a la vapeur for $27.50 and the blanquette de veau for $ 23, …What were they thinking? Do restaurants in Paris have cellars full of Mexicans, desis, and Pakis?No they do not, what are you thinking?They have cellars full of Algerians, Senegalese, Moroccans …
The major part of the book is also set up in a region close to Sikkim, Kalimpong (West Bengal) and has Mount Khang-Chen-Dzon Ga (Kanchanjunga) as the backdrop.
While I know very little about people mentioned in the book, I saw young kids working in hotels in Pelling and Gangtok (and this is quite common at smaller hotels across India). What haunts me most is that some of them had an absolutely miserable exprssions on their faces.
PS. I completed the book in Sikkim itself, and though it is well written it ends on such a miserable note for almost all the characters that it was a little too much for me to bear. I remember saying to Sesha vehmently after completing the book “I hate situations which do not offer any hope to the characters.” I really do.
I think unskilled/indentured Indian laborer emigrants(legal/illegal) have always been in trouble … in the 17th century it was Suriname and South Africa, in 18th and 19th it was Europe and in the 20th and 21st its Gulf, US and UK. Don’t know when this trend will stop …
I have been looking for such travelogoues. Can you suggest me some good one’s? I enjoy reading “Sudha Murthy” She mainly writes about her experiences and about people she meet during trips, charity and throuh her NGO…”Old man and his God” is a good book.
Ketan, neither do I and I also think that when I visit the restaurants I didn’t even think about it, i.e. what do people get paid, etc. too mcuh. Trust books to make me uncomfortable.Ajeya, I have not read Sudha Murthy. The Inheritence of Loss is about people living in Kalimpong who are from outside the region and then what happens to them when the trouble breaks there. But yes, I guess I read it also from the point of view of a traveller in the region. I have myself read only a few travelogues and one that I like a lot is The Gringo’s Trail set in South America and one that I absolutely can’t stand is about India called ‘The Holy Cow.’
thanks for dropping by . You ahve great set of blogs. Ill have to come back to wade through teh travelogue.cheers
Ubermensch, I really liked your blog about BRO and I too plan to wade through your other entries.