The Unanticipated Surprise: First look at Kanchanjangha

by Ananya Pan (India)

I didn't expect to find India

Shares

The life of a working woman is very mundane in India, she gets her fair share of involvement in all the household chores and office work; the only travelling opportunity comes with the work related travelling that really doesn’t leave room for your heart’s content. This year I needed a break from this routine and decided to take a vacation, I packed my small travel kit and left for Darjeeling, the surreal hill destination in north Bengal. Darjeeling is 2 hours’ drive from Siligudi, the nearest airport. On 31st December when we cam out of Siligudi, the Himalayan cold breeze welcomed us in the morning 5.00 A.M. In place of sharing the two hours with a lot of strangers, we thought it will be great if we book a cab and take several breaks on the road. The driver was from Siligudi only and a regular one on the route. We started our journey with the tunes of retro Bollywood music on the car radio. The driver, Hari, was not only the one taking us to our destination but guiding us in the unknown path as well. He gave us detail of every point on the road where some burglary took place in past, every blind turn where some accident happened, every small tea stall and their authenticity and variation of price of the real Darjeeling tea. We already told him we wanted to enjoy good tea on the way, and we halted at a small homestay restaurant. In the background of the hills it was looking like a picture from a calendar, I used to see in my childhood. On one side of the road the snowflakes from last night was winking with white sunlight. The added incentive was the tea and the home-made breakfast, it was quite cheap compared to other parts of India. Two girls with their apple red cheeks were running the restaurant and we came to know one of them is about to marry our taxi driver. I think in every cold place, you will find out the warmth in your way, we were lucky to find the warmth of love. After half an hour, we started for Darjeeling. The journey was quite hectic and a filled belly made me a little dizzy. But I got startled with our driver shouting after sometime, “Sister, don’t fall asleep, we don’t know how lucky you are. Just see outside.” With half open eyes I looked beyond the window glass, and that was the most awestruck moment of my life till date. Kanchanjangha at her best, with snow on her peek brightened with morning sunlight. Being someone living in plain lands, I have never seen such a majestic view. Hari shared that Kanchanjangha wasn’t visible in last week because of the snowfall and cloudy weather. Our journey began at that point, with an unforgettable view of the proud Himalayan beauty looking at us. The song playing in the car radio was just in tune with us, ‘Oh, where have I come, after walking together so long.’