An Old World Charm!

~~~

Two roads diverged in a wood, 

And I took the one less travelled by. 

The one classic line from The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost always finds relevance in various walks of life. What if we were to take it on face value, quite literally? 

Any avid traveller would prefer to take the offbeat and unseen path to embark on an adventurous journey. I am no different. However, the destinations which fascinate me on home turf in India are the ones which are yet to be visited by me! 

Not aplenty, I must say as only the acclaimed 'Seven Sisters' and the 'Western Frontier' lie unexplored on the Indian map by Yours Truly. 

If I were to choose my most fascinating city from among the picturesque Seven Sisters, it would have to be Darjeeling hands-down! 

If I were to elucidate my most favorite characteristics of the city, I would classify it under the parameters of Design, Drive, and Connect. 

Design: Given a chance, who would choose to discard the luring sight of snow-laden peaks overlooking a quaint hill town? Add to that the ever-expansive tea gardens sloping on rolling hills, orchids, pine cones, rhododendrons, and a cute Himalayan toy train whistling, while earmarking its way through the mountains. Bliss, right? 

Drive: Road trips are always amazing and the one from Bagdogra to Darjeeling, known as the trip over Hill Cart Road (NH 55) is no exception. It is as scenic as can be and the three-and-a-half hours long journey is sheer pleasure. From a township and market area to a University campus to a tranquil river flowing below a bridge to the vastness of green fields and the snow caps of mountains to a few shrines and cottages at a distance to a well-guarded military area to being in the middle of an unmindful herd of cattle left on their own on the road, grazing to their heart's content - this route has it all and is said to leave one craving for more. 

The rustic village area then makes way for a vast green stretch of tea gardens running parallel to the road for miles on both sides, complemented by sky-high peaks, which makes for an impressionable sight. After one has driven uphill for a while, there is a point towards the right from where one is able to witness  a breathtaking view of the Siliguri plains below. The sight of two rivers, Teesta, to the left and Balasun to the right - flowing side by side at a distance - is soothing, to say the least. 

Connect: At the mention of this parameter, I can think of nothing, but the Toy Train as it is lovingly christened and which has been the romantic heart of Darjeeling that has touched everybody who has witnessed this paradise. Introduced in 1881, connecting Siliguri with Darjeeling through a narrow gauge line, it helped cut down the time it took to for commuters by bullock cart and horse carriages along the Hill Cart Road. Of course, the city is well connected to the other six of its 'siblings' - the other six states of the East and it goes without saying that the East is a jewel in the Indian crown. 

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This post has been written for #madeofgreat Zonal War in association with IndiBlogger. 

Spanning The World And Beyond - Chatting Beyond Boundaries.....

A Great Opportunity - thanks to WeChat With Anyone, Anywhere.

Now I can have those people on chat with whom I always wished to converse - to unfold many mysteries, share many thoughts for the upliftment of my society and myself and have a good time of my life too.

First name --- (I wish I could or any company in the world could do this) --- is GOD whom I want to ask soooooo many questions but Alas!

OK. So now the feasible list :-

1. Guru Nanak Dev ji - Such a simple and pious soul he was - I want to chat with him to get my daily dose of life skills to attain solace and spiritual peace within myself and how to increase empathy among all which is the need of the hour.

2. Siddhartha aka Lord Buddha - Daily chat with him can certainly provide me clues to spread contentment which is required in plenty by the people of our society who are selling their souls to attain perishable amenities.

3. Madame Marie Curie - The ultimate female genius - to share the intellectual thoughts which she utilized to do so many discoveries and I hope can perhaps guide me to do something of that sort in future .She rightly quoted "Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood."

 4. The Iron Man of India - Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel - Chatting with him to get useful tips to unite our nation again which is crumbling to pieces thanks to (or certainly not to!) our modern day corrupt politicians who are dividing the nation again into new states to fulfill their infested interests.

5. Birbal - The ultimate combination of  intelligence, diplomacy and wit. I certainly want to share with him various problems haunting our nation and would ask him for the purely logical yet witty solutions which he used to give to Shahanshah Akbar.

6. Stephen Hawking - I salute his strength and willpower to live life so meticulously that millions can derive inspiration to overcome their disabilities and keep on churning their brains to shell out something progressive for the society. I would discuss the new innovations on daily basis on chat.

7. Charles Darwin - The biologist who worked hard and concluded The Survival Of The Fittest in Natural Selection. I want to chat with him and ask him how to conduct more research in today's scenario as all the corrupt ones are surviving well in the society. Are they the Fittest Ones! Should not be or society will crumble under their bad weight.

8. Nelson Mandela - The man who fought for the rights of his society with courage and conviction and succeeded too. Chatting with him shall help me to find solutions to all the existing problems prevalent in our society and nation.

  

9. Tom & Jerry - Now I want some leisure time too. Hey! My sweet, cute Tom & Jerry... Where are you ? I long to see you at the idiot box but you are not in sight. Instead I find Shinchan who is determined on bullying others and resorts to lying to his parents to make a fool of them and other cartoons who use filthy language and pollute the brains of the future generation of our nation. Hence I wish to relive the joyous time of my childhood when witty chases of Tom & Jerry used to give us the hilarious time of the day. I would love to chat with them.

10. Last but not the least - The Invisible Man - Corruption, fights between nations, politics, ego manifestations, economic slowdown due to illegal fraudulence by few crooked brains - all these termites hollowing the world are growing  day by day and not a single solution is in sight. Only an invisible man can stop all this. He must stop all the misdoings of these people then and there. Punishment procured on the spot shall certainly desist these people. While on chat with The Invisible Man, I shall try my best to see that no injustice is being done to anyone.