Glimpses of Dooars

The festive season was upon Kolkata, and tourists wanting to catch a glimpse of the famed Durga Puja of the city, had descended in hordes. In such a situation the city residents seek to get away from the madding crowds of Kolkata. I too attempted to do the same or so I had thought, when I chose to visit Dooars, the foothills of eastern Himalayas. The specific places on the tour itinerary consisted of Jaldapara, Gorumara, Kolakham and Tinchuley.

It was meant to be a quiet family vacation, but such an illusion was short lived. We soon discovered that the railway platform in Kolkata, one from which our train was due to depart, resembled a makeshift refugee camp. The situation was no different in adjacent platforms as well.

The last vestige of hope which remained about finding peace in the forest of Jaldapara, quickly dissipated when we witnessed the odious violation of serenity in the otherwise quiet jungles of Jaldapara and Gorumara. Blatant human indiscretions and collusive cacophony caused the natural residents of the forests to retreat into the quiet precincts of forestland.

Camera slung tourists tried to shoot whatever seemed to move inside the forest while the others craned necks and pushed fellow tourists from watch-towers and moving jeeps for an elusive glimpse of a straying Rhinoceros, Elephants, and herd of Nilgai or deer. The ecstasy derived from the siting an animal in the jungle was articulately expressed through screams of joy and effusive laughter. No wonder the animals rushed for cover.

This is not my fare, I thought. Two days of fruitless safaris in open jeeps did not yield anything worthwhile in the form of wild life siting.

It was from Gorumara that the tour started to take a turn for the better. Here I will mention the elephant ride which we took and it turned out be one of the best outings during the tour. Riding atop an elephant provides a maharaja-esque feeling and this is accompanied by a sweeping sense of superiority. Armed or rather armoured with such a feeling we ventured out into the wild and came across a bison watching us closely from behind the cover of tall under-growth. A couple of Rhinos woke up with a start and looked up at us with an “are-we-sleeping-so-late” look in their eyes. Nothing else happened during the rest of the peripatetic elephant ride around the open spaces of Gorumara forest.

While at Gorumara, we stayed in log huts placed on bamboo stilts. There were four huts with a dinning space in-between. The scenic beauty was captivating with the forests ending behind us and the tea gardens stretching in front of us with a vast open space in between which served as a parking space. The property also had an open circular structure with seats made around the periphery and a stage in the middle. In the evening we were treated to folk dance and music by the locals decked in colourful clothes in this open auditorium.

One particular seriocomic incident happened on the morning of the second day while at the breakfast table. We were discussing how quiet it was and how very unnerving it was to feel the sound of silence. My younger daughter was enjoying her breakfast of puri-subzi (round deep-fried bread and vegetable curry) when the waiter, who was a local, narrated an incident. Here is what he had to say-

“It was around a year back, and just as you people are having breakfast, a group of tourists were having theirs on this table. Suddenly, I heard our head cook shouting from the kitchen which is located below. I ran down the ladder to check what had happened. I found that a goat which belonged to the cook and had been tethered to a post in front of the kitchen was being dragged away by a leopard.

We gave the leopard a chase and made a lot of noise with the utensils and ultimately the leopard leaped back into the forest and disappeared, leaving the badly injured goat bleating in terror, behind.”

All of us sat still for a moment and I noticed that my daughter had her subzi-wrapped puri in front of her open mouth, gaping in fear and disbelief.

So much for quiet breakfasts.

We started the next leg of journey soon after and in complete contrast to the first part, was welcomed into the fold of blissful solitude.

Kolakham was our next stop. This place is a favoured tourist retreat for those looking to view the Himalayan peaks like Mount Kanchenjunga and spend quality time in the lap of nature. Kolakham is a small village in Kalimpong, Darjeeling and is situated around 8 Kilometres from another famous tourist spot Lava. This idyllic village is located within the Neora Valley National Park boundaries.

The drive to this picturesque village inside the jungle took around 40 minutes. The road conditions tested the capability of our robust four-wheel drive off-roader.    

Rare birds and jungle flowers keep us company and so does our lodge keeper. Piping hot coffee along with chicken pakoras (chicken pieces fried in cornflour or flour) are served as soon as we arrive at out twin roomed log hut perched at the edge of the mountain. The balcony at the back of the eco-hut, provides an imposing view of the Kanchenjunga. Unfortunately on the first afternoon the view of the mountain is obscured by the floating clouds which are ubiquitous in this part of the country all throughout the year.

The evening is lit up with the shining moon and starry sky which can hardly been seen in the polluted environs of the city. We went out for a walk along the long winding roads which are quiet and dark except for the lights from a hut or a house close by. The feelings are similar perhaps to what Robert Frost felt while “Stopping by woods on a snowy evening”, though the snow was missing here, the cold had a pleasant bite to it.

The next morning dawned, bright and cloud-free. The mountain range was clear and vivid early in the morning with the sun kissing the snow peaked tops and radiating warmth all around. The jungle flowers complemented the background and created a tapestry of delightful images.

For the academically inclined, the Neora Valley National Park stretches across 88 sq Km and was established in 1986. This park is rich in flora and fauna and is a favoured destination for the explorer-tourists and trekkers as there are vast stretches of challenging terrains. Trees like Oak, Sal, Bamboo and Rhododendrons adorn the jungle. Birds like Mynas, Partridges, Parakeets share air space along with a wide variety of other rare bird species.

Soon after breakfast we packed our bags and set off for the last lap of our trip, Tinchuley. Google map informed us that the distance between Kolakham and Tinchuley was around 61 kilometres and would take about 2 hours of travel by road, but our driver Somnath made it very clear that it had been a long time that he had ventured on this route and would hence take his time reaching Tinchuley. His plain-speak was a boon in disguise as the leisurely pace of the journey along winding roads and looping paths let us feast on the scenic beauty all around us.

It was around 3 PM when we reached our destination, a medium sized lodge named “Gurung Guest House. Since we had not stopped for lunch in between, all of us were ravenously hungry. We were initially informed that since his lunch hour was over, only something in the form of snacks could be provided to us, however the staff members ultimately treated us to a sumptuous meal, consisting of fine rice, curry and fish along with some home-made condiments like pickles and ghee.

The rooms provided were big and spacious with all modern amenities. We noticed that the lodge itself housed at least close to 100 potted plants and flowers within its compound. In the evening we went out for a walk till the small watch-tower nearby, which happened to be the point from where tourists watch the sunrise and sunset. An iron ladder lead us to the top of a small concrete structure. A Buddhist monastery, small hutments and a few graves with marble tombstones are the immediate surroundings visible form the top of the tower. We look up to the sky and noticed the sun going down in all its fiery magnificence.

There are some places on earth which seem to be just ideal for indulging in delightful indolence, and Tinchuley is one such place. Laid back ambience, cool weather, greenery all around, good food and a nice place to stretch out. Besides the other apparent reason for drawing tourists, these grounds are good enough for luring tourists to this picturesque village. Tinchuley has side-stepped modernity to an extent and has decided to side with nature. Many items of daily use have to be fetched from places like Teesta Bazar which is quite some distance. Mobile connectivity remains erratic and there are limited options for watching television programs.

In the evening we had dinner early and soon after the cold seemed to creep up and overpower us into submission. We decide to retire for the night with a promise to wake up at 5 AM for an attempt to view the sun rise and the magnificent reflection of sunlight on the mountain range.

It is around 430 AM that we wake up and get ready to walk to the watch tower. It is pitch dark outside and the only uncovered part of our body, our face, is greeted warmly by the cold air. Soon we are atop the tower with a few youngsters with cameras slung on their shoulders. A family of around six people consisting of elderly and middle-aged men and women sit on the concrete benches alongside the tower boundary wall and discuss the chances of being able to catch a glimpse of the cloud free mountain peaks.

It was their discussion which gave me a clue as to why the place was called Tinchuley. The word Tinchuley stands for three chullas (chulla means oven), and this is represented by three prominent hill tops that resembles the three chullas. As we waited for the sun to rise, we could make out a sea of clouds just below us swirling and wrapping themselves around the hills. It was as if we could see a white river meandering around the hills and stretching out into the vast horizon in front.

The red ball of sun ultimately managed to free itself from the cloudy womb and the day was finally born. Almost immediately we turned our attention towards the direction of the three peaks and there it was glowing like three burning ovens right in front of our eyes. The sight was one which has to be seen, to be savoured and admired. No words can truly delineate its mesmerising beauty. All of us kept our eyes hooked to the mountain tops and tried to capture the memory on our cameras.

We spent another half-an hour at the tower and then walked back to our cottage. Breakfast was followed by another walk around the place and soon we were ready to head back home via Siliguri and New Jalpaiguri.

The return journey was as beautiful, the sensuous beauty of the picture-postcard type scenery all around was enthralling. It was around 4 PM in the evening when we reached Siliguri and another half-an-hour of journey through the familiar bustling traffic of the city, which we are so used to, brought us to the New Jalpaiguri railway station. Our train arrived on schedule and soon we headed homewards enriched by nature and thoroughly invigorated.