Reflections

In today’s peripatetic existence, most people will be hard put to pin down what they consider their home. Take me, for instance. We were brought up in the residential quarters provided by my father’s employers, the Calcutta Port Commissioners, today the Kolkata Port Trust, or maybe the Shyamaprasad Mukherjee Port Trust or whatever. My father’s parental home was scattered to the winds by the time I became aware of such matters and while we loved going to my maternal grandparents in a village near Krishnanagar, it was not “Home”. For us, home was B/6 Nimak Mahal Road and then 12 Portland Park and finally my parent’s apartment in Parnasree. Some of my friends who lived in Nimal Mahal with us used to depart every winter to their “homes” in Lucknow and Delhi and elsewhere, but for us, our parents’ residence was our home. Later when I got married I have lived in a succession of places: Budge Budge, Baishnabnagar in Malda, The Lake Gardens’ Government Quarters and then successively in Pokha...

Raj Basu runs the famous Help Tourism in Siliguri. ( www.helptourism.com ) They have revolutionized ecotravel in the North East and West Bengal by building up a network of local participants who make it possible for travelers to have a unique experience which make use of local resources and home stays and have enabled communities to participate in the profits from tourism.This approach, which is now fairly well known, was pioneered by his group in North Bengal and he has now built up a network of destinations where the local participants are motivated to preserve their natural resources because they profit from it. I first met him In Siliguri when I was organizing secretary of the ASI conference held there in 2008. His company was our travel partner. At that time he had shocked me by casually mentioning that it was unlikely that any doctors would book through the conference secretariat because most doctors are sponsored by pharmaceutical companies. He turned out to be absolutely corre...

I am back from India after a holiday that seemed far too brief. I went back to Siliguri, now wracked by the Gorkhaland agitation. We had planned a short holiday in the hills but had to hastily cancel it as there was a bandh call, which in the event got cancelled. It is difficult to go for a holiday with the possibility of a Damocles sword hanging over you, no matter how beautiful the destination may be. Perhaps the agitators would do well to remember this. Once the golden goose is killed, there will be no more eggs, golden or otherwise. Calcutta where we spent a couple of days was as Calcutta always is : dusty and crowded. I visited the Mohun Bagan ground after a long time and met Subir and his friends, of which I will write at length later. I saw the lights of Park Street, looking pretty good this year; it appears that the Park Street is recovering somewhat from the raggedness that it had fallen into during the eighties and the nineties. The roads as usual were chockablock with the mo...

The city of Siliguri has no bus service. To go from Point A to Point B you have to use either smoke belching auto rickshaws or the cycle rickshaws. While the latter are an environment friendly and poor friendly option, it is not a convenient option if you are in a hurry or have to travel long distances. (Incidentally when I say poor friendly, I am talking about the rickshaw pullers, not of the passengers as the fare structures are much higher than in Autos.) You can, of course walk; Siliguri is, after all, not a city of huge distances, but at acute risk to life and limb. The footpaths on Sevoke Road and Hill Cart road are occupied by the business of commerce, and there are no footpaths anywhere else. You can cycle, but again cycling in Siliguri with the crazy autorickshaws and even madder Shaktimans is an adventure sport. I for one prefer to adventure at Himalayan heights, rather than on the streets of Siliguri. The only thing that can make a Siligurian (somebody suggest a better name,...

Siliguri badly needs an image makeover. It is today known as the place you pass through in order to reach the tourist destinations of Darjeeling, Gangtok and the Dooars. You cannot fly to Siliguri though it has an airport (it is named Bagdogra), nor can you take a major Mail or express train to Siliguri (its main station is called New Jalpaiguri). Somewhat like Kolkata which never had a station to its name until very recently, Siliguri has a couple of stations but they cater only to the less important trains. It is imperative that two transport centres are renamed at the earliest. Siliguri however lies at the crossroads of South Asia. Within a radius of 50 kilometres as the crow flies there are four countries and four states of India. It is the gateway through which the Indian heartland communicates with the North Eastern states of the Indian Union. No wonder then it is the fastest growing small town in India. The superficial trappings of modernity have all arrived. It has large shopp...