On The Lap Of The Silky Way, Part -1,

On The Lap Of The Silky Way, Part -1,

Sikkim

People say that I have a wheel under my feet, moving always from one place to another. Probably they do not tell a wrong. At that young age, I started saying 'O my lord of the long long way, I bow to you again and again' and since then I have been running from country to country carrying only the blessings of the path god. This is not only at the urge  of the stomach, just to make the soft lamp of the soul shine from bright to brighter, a very unquenchable desire sits in the heart with a convincing vision, leading from eternity to bliss in every step of the way . I am not the progenitor of a great writer to express this matter in the right language. But the point is that the fun of holding the hand of this kind of tender affection and going out in despair is different. Everybody cann't understand it exactly and the person who wants to be confined in his own well house in a thought of an imaginary black ghost, simply leaving him in his own circle I move forward with insatiable desire to see the lively face of that world traveler. O worldly traveler, thousand time I bow to your holy memory.

Thousands of miles from east to west, the snow-capped unparalleled Himalayas stand like the scales of the earth. The majestic Himalayas, the king of all the mountains of world, who holds the soul of the gods, are always dragging me to him by a force of unknown pull. I find the most joy and peace in his chest. But I did not know exactly the news that there is an ancient mysterious and beautiful road lying just vey near to my state in the colorful region of the Himalayas near the northeastern frontier states. Leaving Bhutan on the left through the neighboring state of Sikkim, It went straight to the ancient China, passing through the top of the Nathula Glacier and Tibet. The several numbers of waterfalls, rivers, gorges, and small and big hill towns are looking at the beauty of that path in amazement.

I quickly set out on a new path with some acquaintances. The name of this road is Ancient Silk Road, or Old Silk Route. In ancient times, India used to trade with China along this road. There were many more trade routes in that era. However, this road was more popular with the merchants as other roads became more inaccessible. Although crossing the icy Tibetan mountain pass on the mule's back, ignoring the greedy bloodshot eyes of the mountain bandits, sometimes alone, sometimes in a groups, months after months, year after year, leaving their loved ones behind, this fearless traders would take silk and spices from our country in exchange of the products of their country. Their journey was not as smooth as silk at that time. The merchants of our country also used to come and go, basically they were the main persons of the commercial and cultural ties between the two countries. a lot of original stories of prince and princes, after being formulated from their mouth were tying up the souls of the mutual countries.  At that time, therefore, these trade passengers were highly respected by the common people, starting from the king of the country.

We packed our bags and left for our new journey. We will go to the neighboring state of Sikkim, so we left Kolkata by night train and arrived at NewJalpaiguri station in  the next morning. I had   already booked our cars with the number plate of Sikkim state only. With the Sikkim number plate car we do not have to change the car again in the middle of our journey. After getting off at New Jalpaiguri station, it was learned that the local leaders of drivers were obstructing the Sikkim vehicle from entering the station. Finally, after explaining a lot, and spending some money from my pocket we started from New Jalpaiguri station by car to our destination. Our first destination was Silarigaon, a small hill town in West Bengal bordering Sikkim. Re-discovering the calm river that was once lost in the soft bosom of the mountains near the banks of the Teesta, we finally came to the town of Kalimpong and took a tea break. A kind of hard, tasteless piece made with yak milk is sold here, as I have seen before. The locals call it 'Chhupri'. Putting a piece in the mouth will be lasting for the whole day, in fact this object never seems to end up melting in the mouth, it is so difficult. However, the shopkeeper told us that as this 'Chupri' is made by freezing yak milk, so it is able to give infinite energy on the way. Leaving a piece in the mouth, the journey was started again. The green shade of the sunny hills’ of the side roads were laughing at that time in the waters of the Teesta.

To be continued .............