Alpine revelry

But the thoughts were returning there. I could make out clearly was the house of an old friend of my grandfather where we had stayed as guests. The house was near North point and quiet steep trails led you down to it. It was a very modest timbered house; simple yet well maintained with assortment of flowers lined neatly in its balconies. I remembered it overlooked a deep gorge which was always over shrouded with mist, except in sunny days when it was tea plantation and green hills and the cable car slowly making its way up the steep sided vale.

I could not remember much about the town only that it was all dripping; squelchy and cold with winter rain most of our stay and dark.

One afternoon while stopping in at a hotel just a little way from the Mall I came across actress Sunny Rauniyar. After having much difficulty in finding an Internet café in the town, I was finally pointed to the hotel red rose in laden la road. The café was inside the hotel, just beside the lobby and there I saw her sitting on a low chair and typing something in the computer. I had read about her being married and settled down in Darjeeling on a Katmandu newspaper but had not expected that I would be seeing any of her here. The other bit of a surprise came when I found out that the hotel belonged to her husband. It was not what you call a plush hotel, but it sure looked all right and was nicely tucked away from the noise and grime of the lower bazaars. I had seen her while peering through the glass screen from the eaves of the hotel and slightly confused, sauntered inside the hotel from the big door. I went past the reception that led to the café and finding only her there asked if I could use the Internet. She looked up at me and told me very modestly that I can help myself with the computer across from her at another table. I asked her if the connection was good and she replied with a slight nod and proceeded with her thing. The connection was way slow and I got a little annoyed with it. And across from me at another table Sunny Rauniyar was busy typing something, looking fresh and lovely with the pink high neck sweaters and matching trousers, the faint light of the screen reflecting on her face making it glow and I thought she was very beautiful. I initiated the talking with her on the hotel being nice. She looked at me and asked whether I was new here. I said yes and explained that I was here on a holiday. Then I abruptly said that she had a really charming onscreen persona and that I liked her work on the film ‘Prempinda’. She seemed to like what I said and made a slight gesture and then smiled.

The sun swung up finally in the mid noon and it saw us exploring all there was to see in Darjeeling - as our escort had put it. He worked on the hotel where we had stayed in and took the afternoon leave to take us around the town. With him we roamed around the town and it brought back vague remembrance of my earlier visit. Then he took us to the magnificent Lloyd’s botanical gardens where assortments of flowers and shrubs greeted you and it felt pleasant there. Our escort knew something of the history too and told us that it was named after an Englishman who had made this garden. We also visited the Zoological Park and the Himalayan museum just across from it, then went to Victoria Falls with its beautiful cascading waters at a short distance away from the railway station, while all the time marveling at the gorgeous cottages and bungalows of the town’s British past that are scattered all around the hill.

All through our stay there it was cold in Darjeeling. The sun was always short lived and this gave the place a monochromatic look most of the time. Sometimes it rained and it was even colder and darker and afterwards the mist covered the whole of the high streets in the ridges. The fresh mountain weather, its cool and sylvan environs worked well with me. After a long, and often boring game of cards I use to wheedle my friend to come along with me and we would loaf around the town fro

Some topics in this essay:
Katmandu Darjeeling, Victoria Falls, Darjeeling Katmandu, Sunny Rauniyar, Bhanubhakta Acharya, Star TV, Katmandu’s Ason, Darjeeling Darjeeling, , film industry, Park Himalayan, sunny rauniyar, hill cart road, couple days, darjeeling katmandu, settled darjeeling, afternoon till, inside hotel, hill cart, finding internet, narrow streets,