Travel
Darjeeling: demographic divide
In Resorts of the Raj: Hill Stations of India, Vikram Bhatt (1998) provides us with nuggets of information. The hill-station was the home away from home – whereby one moved from the 'Valley of Death to Paradise' declared one Walter Campbell. William Blake declared: 'Great things are done when men and mountains meet.' Paraphrasing Kipling, Bhatt terms Simla as the 'abode of the height and mighty.' Gillian Wright in her immensely informative book Hill Stations of India (1991) questions why Simla – categorised by Rudyard Kipling as the 'abode of the little tin gods' was chosen over Darjeeling as the summer capital of the British Raj. In the chapter 'Hill of the Thunderbolt'; Wright puzzles: "…why a closer look was not taken at another hill station, only two hundred and fifty miles away. For Darjeeling, a name now synonymous with fine tea the world over, was founded over twenty years before the inaugural trek to Simla. Had the central government chosen to summer in Darjeeling, they would have enjoyed a window seat at what is generally acknowledged as the finest of all hill station panoramas, the view of Mount Kanchenjunga…To quote Mark Twain, "The one land that all men desire to see, and having seen once, by even a glimpse – would not give that glimpse for the shows of the rest of the world combined." He visited Darjeeling in 1896 at the age of sixty-one.
No visit to Darjeeling would be complete without a ride on the renowned historical Darjeeling Toy Train which enjoys UNESCO World Heritage Status. The two feet wide narrow gauge train rolled into Darjeeling in 1881. An ingenious engineering feat, the gauge track rises some 6500 feet in 30 miles. We walked downhill from the town centre towards the railway station with great expectation. My face fell when I came across the litter-strewn, tracks and building. The UNESCO marble plaque had pieces missing. The Special Waiting Room was locked. Once unlocked, an odour from the attached bathroom foreclosed any intentions of waiting within. The miniature heritage train makes a two hour round trip to Ghoom. It refuels here at the highest railway station in the world. Still steam-fuelled, it literally chugs its way across the town, whistling its way through the dense human and vehicular traffic. Bellowing clouds of smoke, it swerves across the rocky road, while just about brushing past the first step of stairs leading uphill to a house or shop. The narrow train track serves many a purpose. It provides seating space for taking in the warmth of the sun; a pedestrian path, a jogging track and simply extra space for vehicles. A rude reminder of political realities appears in the burnt down Sonada station. Built in 1893, it succumbed to Gurkha-led agitations in the 1990s. A burnt-out shell still reveals the roof decorative markings of one of the station buildings while the area is cordoned off. The 'Pride of Darjeeling' is a less than fair claim to the title. Yet for all its less than well-maintained state, the joy ride on the officially named Darjeeling Himalayan Railway remains a reminder of a slower pace of life. The joke worth repeating remains: An elderly woman was walking her goat to the market. The train driver asked her to board the train. She replied astutely: 'It is faster walking.'
Innumerable are the luminaries who frequented Darjeeling. Sri Aurobindo received his early schooling at Loreto Convent. 'The Voice of BBC in the Subcontinent' Mark Tully had his early education in Darjeeling as World War II raged in Europe. The Fourth King of Bhutan attended St. Joseph's College. Swami Vivekananda in his visit in 1898 exulted: "Truly, the magnificence of Darjeeling is such that one is allured as a bee to the nectar." A frequent resident in the 1880s and 1890s was Rabindranath Tagore. He wrote in a letter: "…my ambition of being alone here remains somewhat unfulfilled as I am as much surrounded by people as I am in Calcutta." Even then for him, there was little scope for solitude. He was particularly fond of the quieter towns of Kurseong and Kalimpong. The Second Kumar/Sanyasi of Bhawal visited Daarjeeling in 1909. Did he die there or did he survive and return to Bhawal (presently Bangladesh) in 1920? A Princely Impostor: The Kumar of Bhawal by Partha Chaterjee explores the enduring mystery. Mahatma Gandhi paid a visit in 1925.
The Tea Horse Road was one of the most important trade routes connecting South China and India. Stretched over 4000 kms. across a good swath of Asia, its distant trail reached London. Selling tea for over three hundred years, Fortnum and Mason in Piccadilly in 2012 celebrated its new Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon. Refinement being the name of the game, the opening was by Her Majesty the Queen. Our pleasurable indulgence took place at the historical - 'colonial in the new millennium' Windamere Hotel in Darjeeling. A sensory delight while stepping back in time, we were on its remarkably well-preserved premises to take tea – tea being both the drink for the common man as well as the man of means. The vintage accommodation was built in the 1930s. The 'High Tea' was served in a comfortably welcoming tea-room oddly named 'Bearparks Parlour' whose walls are mounted with photographs and paintings of the local scenery – the town and the mountains. However, all depicted an earlier era when space between Humans and Nature was ample. Many are sepia-stained faded visuals. I took note of a New Year's Eve gathering in which appears the American-born Queen of Sikkim, Hope Cooke. Taken in the 1960s, she held the global media's attention – as did another American-born – Princess Grace Kelly of Monaco. Sikkim was one of the three kingdoms in the 'Roof of the World' until 1975. Nepal ceased to be a kingdom in 2001. Bhutan is the only remaining kingdom in the Himalayan heights. De rigeur cucumber sandwiches and cake accompanied the pot of Darjeeling liquid gold – complete with tea-cosy and tea-strainer (tea- accompaniments not much in use anymore).
A charming anecdote appears in The Story of Tea by E. Jaiwant Paul (2001). "G. Brochard in The Book of Tea recounts the story of a gentleman who was a guest of Baron Rotschild. 'Early in the morning, a liveried servant entered my room pushing a huge table on wheels. He asked, "Would like tea or a peach, sir?" I chose tea, which immediately provoked another question, "China, India or Ceylon, sir?" When I asked for India tea he enquired, "With lemon, cream or milk, sir?" I opted for milk, but he wanted to know which breed of cow I preferred, "Jersey, Hereford or Sorthorn, sir?" Never had I drunk such a good cup of tea.'
The 'Champagne of Teas' is the Darjeeling tea. For E. Jaiwant Paul in The Story of Tea, "The fine quality and delicate bouquet enables it to command a premium over all other teas. As a 'tea man' and a lover of Darjeeling tea, I wonder whether champagne not more appropriately be called the Darjeeling of wines!" Locals say that as you climb higher, the roads get worse and the tea gets better. The first tea bushes in Darjeeling were raised from China in 1841. Some ten years later, the first commercial garden had appeared. In a fast-track mode, by 1871 there were some 113 gardens. According to the Darjeeling District Gazetteer of 1876, it was the introduction of tea plantation in Darjeeling that led to the massive clearing of wooded tracts. Regretfully, we were unable to visit the Glenburn Tea Estate which was established in 1859 by a Scottish tea company. The 1600 acre plantation is owned and managed by fourth generation Indian tea planters. The regret was obliterated as we drove down winding roads from Darjeeling, approaching the lower altitude verdant camellia sinensis tea bushes whose sun-kissed carpeted symmetry was only broken by soaring shade trees and the colourful scores of experts who read tea leaves and nimbly pick two leaves and a bud.
Established in 1959, the Tibetan Refugee Self-Help Centre is home to a school, clinic, craft workshops, home for the aged and an orphanage. The retail outlet includes the writings of The Dalai Lama. I come across a page posted on the door. I paused and pondered on the following composition:
We have bigger houses and smaller families
More conveniences, but less time;
We have degrees, but less sense;
More knowledge, but less judgment;
More experts, but more problems
More medicine, but less healthiness.
We've been all the way to the moon and back,
But have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor
We built more computers to hold more information,
To produce more copies than ever, but have less communication.
We've become long on quantity, but short on quality.
These are times of fast foods, and slow digestion;
Tall men and short character;
Steep profits and shallow relationships.
It is time when there is much in the window
And nothing in the storeroom.
These lines speak of another Divide.
A visit to the Bengal Natural History Museum proved to be the taxidermist's terrain. Stuffed and mounted fauna cover the walls of the late nineteenth century grandiose building. The receptionist in the cavernous hallway sat fixated - not at one of the fierce faces glaring down - but at the television. Screened were the incoming results of the US Presidential elections with the incumbent President Barack Obama gaining votes. I stood by her and we shared the moment. The following day as President Obama was declared the victor; in the hotel dining room – Bangladeshis, Bhutanese, Indians and Nepalis - hotel guests, the affable General Manager, the waiters, the chefs and kitchen staff were glued to the television. All of us rejoiced. Across seven seas, in the midst of the Himalayan heights - over this man, there was no Divide.
(CONCLUDED)
Raana Haider is a writer who travels. India: Beyond the Taj and the Raj, University Press Limited, Dhaka, is her forthcoming book.
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