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Arrived in Darjeeling

Scott — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 09:35:55 +0000

Our flight from Delhi to Bagdogra was uneventful as I prefer my flights to be. The road up to Darjeeling was as bad as it ever is, which means everyone complains its worse. I love feeling the wall of coolness hit as we ascended from the flatlands.

The most measurable difference was in all the Prashant Tamang signs and murals. (Tamang was the winner of the 2007 Indian Idol TV show.)

Every half kilometer there was some sign reminding people to vote for Tamang. And if that wasn’t enough, our driver played a CD of songs Tamang sung on Indian Idol, which included a local song to help promote Tamang:

Vote for Prashant!
It’s your duty!
SMS P-R-A-S-H-A-N-T to 52525!

Madness—but only because Tamang had won Indian Idol a month back. But it’s nice to see the folks around here enjoying Tamang’s victory and a Nepali’s success in India.

Anyhow, it’s on the Kathmandu on October 22.

On to Delhi, Darj, and K’du

Scott — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 17:54:02 +0000

On Sunday, we saw the Wes Anderson film The Darjeeling Limited. On Tuesday, we go to Darjeeling. While in India, we will not take any trains though I do love the trains there (and for reasons wholly unexplored in the film).

Binita was disappointed that the film had nothing to do with Darjeeling. But I was okay with that since, in reality, there is no Darjeeling Limited train. The Darjeeling Mail does exist and runs from Kolkata to New Jalpaiguri. The train from New Jalpaiguri to Darjeeling is the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway.

The first leg of our trip is Delhi, the ‘vacation’ component of our trip. While I have passed through Delhi a couple of times, my interest to visit there is driven by my possibly distroted expectations after reading William Dalrymple’s City of Djinns.

Next we are off to Darjeeling to meet Binita’s father. We have some family things to do, but we will really be there to help him move to Kathmandu. Which is the final leg of our trip, Kathmandu. There we will be helping Binita’s father settle back to his old hometown.

Highlights from the trip will include the Red Fort, Taj Mahal, and, of course, pani puri with a side of Delhi belly. All the usuals from Kathmandu, too.

Just before our trip to Darjeeling

Scott — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 20:29:39 +0000

Binita had been giving me steady updates and analysis on Indian Idol 3. The other Indian Idol shows had gone unnoticed. But the oft-neglected Nepali community had someone competing in its third installment—a Nepali named Prashant Tamang.

On September 23, 2007, Tamang won Indian Idol 3. His talents (though modest, comparatively) were boosted by extremely active supporters. For example, the mayor of a city near Darjeeling, Mirik, pledged Rs. 10,000 for SMS voting.

Now that Tamang has won, it’s less about community than communal. Riots, that is. The Times Online is reporting riots in Siliguri and elsewhere in India’s north-east. Tamang has gone on national TV to ask for calm.

In ten days, Binita and I will be flying to Siliguri on our way to Darjeeling. I’m not really bothered by all this, though. Odd that Tamang was formerly a police officer. I do feel as if India goes from zero to riot in almost nothing flat. So much for Naxalites and Maoists.