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…
India’s Highest ATM at Thegu (Sikkim, India)?
Just a little before Nathu-La (India-China border in Sikkim), at a small place called Thegu, I saw a sign saying “High Altitude ATM.” It belongs to UTI Bank(Unit Trust of India) and my hunch is that the people from the Indian army are its only users. The sign gave the height of the spot as…
Shops in Pelling (West Sikkim)
A Small Shop Selling Tea and Eatables at Night Shops in Pelling are small and colorful. They mostly sell local goods, I saw no branded outlets there (but there are a few in Gangtok). The highest numbers of shops are obviously travel related. Next comes the corner liquor shops of Pelling. The corner liquor shops…
Sikkim Redefines Green for Me
Khang-Chen-Dzon Ga (Kanchanjunga) A few months back I was inviting suggestions and when a colleague talked about a visit to Sikkim in December, I was intrigued but apprehensive at the same time. He assured me it would not be very cold. But cold can mean different things to different people. When folks have yet to…
Thank You Lily and Tom
I got to know Lily through our chit-chat about India on our blogs. I met her and Tom last year around this time in December at Metropolitan Mall for Dinner. We really has a wonderful time and for quite sometime we chatted through our blogs and emails. Then she started posting less and I too…
Going Places … I Didn’t Mean To!
Over the weekend, I headed to my sister’s place to catch up with her. I absolutely love playing with my one year and four months old niece, she has started speaking like a tota (parrot) and tries to repeat everything we say. And then, of course, no one can pamper you like an elder sister…
Lunchtime Ritual
I came to office today determined to do a lot of work. But as soon as I occupied my chair I don’t know what happened. I was getting very restless. Lunchtime came and I had a nice chat with my colleagues. I have a lunchtime ritual. After lunch, I usually walk just outside the premises…
A Trip to Khurpatal, Nainital and a Stay at Dynasty Resorts in Uttranchal
I went on a short trip to Khurpatal, 10 km ahead of Nainital on a college sponsored trip. We stayed at the Dynasty Resorts which is secluded and next to a small lake but I feel their normal rates are a bit too high. I visited Nainital again after ages. Last that I can remember…
One from Amsterdam
This post is for Quaminante and Cuckoo. Actually, I wrote before about the strange incident at Amsterdam in a previous post. And I am not going to tell you a word more about it, apart from that it has got to do something with a stroll that I took (or did not) around the train…
When in Athens …
A very long time ago, 2001 to be precise, I visited Athens (was attending an academic conference). I did not plan to reminscene about the trip but reading Kent E St. John’s post ‘Female in Jordon’ did the trick. He writes about the expeiences of Shari Caudron’s visit to Jordan. You have to read her…