It was a comfortable wednesday night at home, as i awaited my return to the godforsaken town whose name was etched on every inch of my identification as a college student. Being there was a whole different life altogether even though it was two hours away from home. The humble outlook of Calcutta is completely misunderstood and it fits the whole description of the phrase, "looks are deceving". And as i was deceived every single day of my stay at home, i wanted a break. Bangalore was a disaster, and as i was thinking about the weekend long debacle, my brother called asking me if i wanted to spend the end of this slow week in darjeeling, the excitement paced everything else up! I agreed almost instantly, and i took a friend along, the one from the stoner conversations we all love and have come to know as tanveer.
We started friday night only to reach the basecamp from where all the cars and the taxis make their way up the hills amongst the clouds in this secluded but modern haven of man. The hills are an amazing distraction when one is in excess of mono-living. I had to pick up my brother from the village en route to darjeeling, he was there for work(i got to know what later, and i was so thankful!)
He had promised us everything that we wanted and boy did he deliver, he was top notch in everything he did, and i looked up to him throughout my life and this weekend was no different, we reached the cottage in darjeeling which was entitled to him, the deputy magistrate.
The name of our abode of peace and tranquility was tulip, fitting for the best cottage in town, as beautiful as the fireplaces inside were, so was the outside, which gave it an eerie historic touch. It was made in the 1920's and was occupied by the governor's personal physician(it's behind the governor house).
Tanveer and I made the living room into a live weed garden, and the bedrooms were the crash sites for distraught minds and tired bodies. The stuff that the brother had gotten for us was the best we had smoked so far, thanks man!
The view from Tulip was the only place from where when seen, we realised we weren't connected, the phones had full signal. the layers of hills from atop the hill we were on was astonishing, there were hills standing straight in numbers as if to hold us back in this town, we were more than happy to comply.
Imprisonment had never been so smooth, just the walks were tiring but one glance of the hills made up for all the steps taken at bordering acute angles, it was approximately 15 minutes from tulip, the multiplex movie theatre, bhai had something to give to someone there and we walked, we had glenary's on the right which was this modern day eaterie with a fabulous cafe, a phenomenal restaurant and an uptown pub. The similarities with the rest of the world were obvious, after all it was a human settlement, and whats a 'human' settlement without these!
After the walk around the town and meeting people, we had decided to call it an eventful first few hours, we got back to the flowery abode of grass and got merry.
The machine that was working in tandom with me was super-high by evening, and he started his fits of laughter, the sight was so relaxing, it brought in mind sarah brightman and her eden! My brother woke up and by the time he was done getting ready for his social arrangments 4000mts above sea level, i wondered if the social glue of the human race got through everything else, as it did through the hills of darj.
He had to do what he did best, and we were obliged to experience darjeeling with the best and the both of us never once felt like tourists, we went to joey's next which was beside the movie theatre, and i had the idea of getting tickets for spiderman, the new movie in town and which i wanted to watch, but my village at a meagre level of the sea did not provide the oppurtunity, so i wanted to grasp this, so i went in and got tickets for the next day's show, and then we sat in joey's listening to janis jopin, chuck berry, louis armstrong, a little hendrix too, the guy who owned the place was a delight and this was my brother's joint, so everything was ours! we had a blast, and then bhai had to go to another place called omni which was this new venture started by these two other guys, one heavily tattoed and the other was a simple goateed, surajda and sameerda, the brother insisted on calling them with the suffix of 'da' or i would come across as disrespectful. Listening to him as we always do, i was happy and it paid off, surajda made me a hot tody, the drink of darj! its 60ml brandy with water and honey, a heavenly surprise, very pleasant!
Tanveer was stoned anyway.
We came back to tulip, walking when no one else was, ten in darj is two am everywhere else, it was 15.5 degrees and we were comfortable, it was may and it was the summer in calcutta, who wouldn't be?
The walk was spooky but fun nonetheless, we were too high to see a ghost or even something that we shouldn't!
The next day was the laziest ever, it was one of the days we just wanted to sit and get stoned(like any other day!) we saw the movie in the afternoon and got back in the evening to siliguri for the train.
We watched a movie in darjeeling, we lived in the best place possible, we walked with them, we sat at the mall, had sandwiches in glenary's, sat for hours in joey's and gossiped, had hot tody in omni, we did it all, we 'lived' as citizens of darjeeling, it was a very alien feeling, out of this world, loved every second of it.
We started friday night only to reach the basecamp from where all the cars and the taxis make their way up the hills amongst the clouds in this secluded but modern haven of man. The hills are an amazing distraction when one is in excess of mono-living. I had to pick up my brother from the village en route to darjeeling, he was there for work(i got to know what later, and i was so thankful!)
He had promised us everything that we wanted and boy did he deliver, he was top notch in everything he did, and i looked up to him throughout my life and this weekend was no different, we reached the cottage in darjeeling which was entitled to him, the deputy magistrate.
The name of our abode of peace and tranquility was tulip, fitting for the best cottage in town, as beautiful as the fireplaces inside were, so was the outside, which gave it an eerie historic touch. It was made in the 1920's and was occupied by the governor's personal physician(it's behind the governor house).
Tanveer and I made the living room into a live weed garden, and the bedrooms were the crash sites for distraught minds and tired bodies. The stuff that the brother had gotten for us was the best we had smoked so far, thanks man!
The view from Tulip was the only place from where when seen, we realised we weren't connected, the phones had full signal. the layers of hills from atop the hill we were on was astonishing, there were hills standing straight in numbers as if to hold us back in this town, we were more than happy to comply.
Imprisonment had never been so smooth, just the walks were tiring but one glance of the hills made up for all the steps taken at bordering acute angles, it was approximately 15 minutes from tulip, the multiplex movie theatre, bhai had something to give to someone there and we walked, we had glenary's on the right which was this modern day eaterie with a fabulous cafe, a phenomenal restaurant and an uptown pub. The similarities with the rest of the world were obvious, after all it was a human settlement, and whats a 'human' settlement without these!
After the walk around the town and meeting people, we had decided to call it an eventful first few hours, we got back to the flowery abode of grass and got merry.
The machine that was working in tandom with me was super-high by evening, and he started his fits of laughter, the sight was so relaxing, it brought in mind sarah brightman and her eden! My brother woke up and by the time he was done getting ready for his social arrangments 4000mts above sea level, i wondered if the social glue of the human race got through everything else, as it did through the hills of darj.
He had to do what he did best, and we were obliged to experience darjeeling with the best and the both of us never once felt like tourists, we went to joey's next which was beside the movie theatre, and i had the idea of getting tickets for spiderman, the new movie in town and which i wanted to watch, but my village at a meagre level of the sea did not provide the oppurtunity, so i wanted to grasp this, so i went in and got tickets for the next day's show, and then we sat in joey's listening to janis jopin, chuck berry, louis armstrong, a little hendrix too, the guy who owned the place was a delight and this was my brother's joint, so everything was ours! we had a blast, and then bhai had to go to another place called omni which was this new venture started by these two other guys, one heavily tattoed and the other was a simple goateed, surajda and sameerda, the brother insisted on calling them with the suffix of 'da' or i would come across as disrespectful. Listening to him as we always do, i was happy and it paid off, surajda made me a hot tody, the drink of darj! its 60ml brandy with water and honey, a heavenly surprise, very pleasant!
Tanveer was stoned anyway.
We came back to tulip, walking when no one else was, ten in darj is two am everywhere else, it was 15.5 degrees and we were comfortable, it was may and it was the summer in calcutta, who wouldn't be?
The walk was spooky but fun nonetheless, we were too high to see a ghost or even something that we shouldn't!
The next day was the laziest ever, it was one of the days we just wanted to sit and get stoned(like any other day!) we saw the movie in the afternoon and got back in the evening to siliguri for the train.
We watched a movie in darjeeling, we lived in the best place possible, we walked with them, we sat at the mall, had sandwiches in glenary's, sat for hours in joey's and gossiped, had hot tody in omni, we did it all, we 'lived' as citizens of darjeeling, it was a very alien feeling, out of this world, loved every second of it.
