On The Lap Of The Silky Way, Part - 5

On The Lap Of The Silky Way,  Part - 5
(Sikkim Silk Route Tour)

The sound of conch shells came from the direction of Prabhadidi's house. I hurried to the kitchen in search of tea and pakoras. A wonderful rural evening was spent with tea, hot potato and onion dumplings and muri-chanachur. Then I discovered that the whole hillside that rolled down the sloping valley outside the balcony and went down to the houses below, was just woke up in the light of the newly awakened moon, soaked in an enchanted, soft, heavenly moonlight. Such a strange intense wetted soft light, wrapped on the shadows of the whole body of the big trees and created a pre-destiny enchanted mirage, which I have never seen before. As I felt intensely better, I stepped towards the view point of the upper step, i.e. towards the umbrella. Before me, a few more members of the team had reached there to click the picture of the moon. It was a cloudless sky; all the valleys seemed to be illuminated by that heavenly ray. Clouds’ clinging to the moon in the eastern sky, the intoxicated lazy moon is hiding its face in the clouds again and again in some unknown shame. This is like a perfect game of the goddess of nature. In the middle of that cold winter evening, we, the very small children of the nature goddess, witnessed the unforgettable calm play of her.

The call came from the dining room. All of us reluctantly extended our legs. The menu was Rice, Bread, Vegetables, Pulses, Pickles, Chicken broth, Pappar and Sweet Payasam. After the meal, I went to bed with a little more chat with friends. Outside, on a moonlit night, in the secluded insanity, the crickets only were singing.

I woke up very early in the morning; it was only four-thirty on the clock. I quickly entered the bath room with tooth brush. I can hear the voices of other members of the team outside. I got ready and went upstairs with a torch in my hand. In the dim light of dawn, there is a soft silence. Flowers are bathed in dew all night, purified and fully prepared, as if eager to be devoted to the worship of the gods. The iron chairs and benches are completely wet; these are in no condition to sit. The sunrise is still a bit late. The western sky, that is, the direction in which Kanchenjunga is, is full of clouds. It doesn't look like this pile of clouds will move too soon right now. For the time being there is no other way except to turn the camera towards the east sky and once towards the western sky like a thirsty hawk. The sound of frequent flash is coming from the surroundings. Flowers, trees, leaves, the faint fog of dawn, everything is being captured in the camera at the moment. Gradually the eastern sky began to lighten a little, while in the western sky the clouds kept coming from time to time. We don't know what sin we committed, so this morning Kanchenjunga became hostile and did not visit us. I came down with a broken heart. Two people came from Prabha Didi's kitchen with morning tea and biscuits. After having tea, we have to get ready quickly, finish the snack episode and travel again. We will go to a very little distance today. We will go to Aritar and will stay there tonight.

It was too late to get out. The geyser in the two rooms did not work. Eventually the problem was solved by bringing three buckets of hot water from the kitchen. It was about ten o'clock when we finally left after having breakfast. The four sides are full of dense sweet sunshine. We slowly rolled down the stairs. Our first destination today is Lake Aritar. The locals affectionately call this lake Lampokhari Lake.



The ticket counter is in front of the big wide gate. The man at the counter came out and counted the tickets for the car and the ride. A little open space in front to park the car. The huge lake surrounded by railings, there are endless huge mountains in the back drops of the lake. The huge lake surrounded by railings, there are endless huge mountains in the backdrops of the lake. The green shadow of the mountains has fallen on the water of the lake. The lake is surrounded by a beautiful paved road on both sides. On the right side, there is a beautiful two-storied temple, can be reached by walking the path surrounded by the shade of a large pine trees and the hill, and from above, the lake looks more beautiful. On the left is the beautifully paved boat departure jetty and ticket counter. I saw many people renting paddle boats and enjoying the boat ride for half an hour to an hour.  Quite a pleasant heavenly environment. Occasionally on the both sides of the lake, on the beautiful pavement path, there is few large colored cement umbrellas and an iron bench under it, to take a moment of rest in the midst of natural sweetness. Many large king ducks and several other species of ducks are roaming in the water here. The shores of the lake are filled with their sweet noise. I saw many people buying food for them and giving it to them to eat. Numerous large fish in the lake water. The fishing is prohibited here. People are feeding them by throwing puffed rice in the water of the lake. By stirring the water,  this giant fishes are eating those puffed rice by jumping on each other’s neck. After spending a lot of time here, we started to move towards our tonight’s stay.

This is a small village called Aritar. Shop, market, school, everything is there, a full of lives environment. Our abode today is on the way from Aritar to Kalimpong. Three storey big house. The first two floors are rented to passengers, the third floor is occupied by the land lady  with her family. Her name is Pema. The young girl inherited this property from her family. She is also involved in her husband's cardamom business and in his spare time the husband also giving time to his wife's business.  she has two young sons, one daughter and an unmarried young sister in law. We are all fascinated by the hospitality of this modern, educated girl.  Even then, on that late noon, she offered everyone red tea and salty biscuits in lovely porcelain cup. After washing our hands and face, we went to the dining room on the third floor to eat. Smoked hot rice, ghee taken from Kolkata with us, pulses with vegetables, thin fried potatoes, lightly fried mustard green leaves, just picked vegetables from her own garden, cauliflower curry, egg broth, chutney and papar. One of our team member brought sweet from Kolkata, and it was like a nice dessert at the end. After a hearty meal, I thought to take a short rest but it turned out as there was an ancient monastery in front of our stay and the food could be quickly digested by walking on a hilly road surrounded by sweet sunshine in the afternoon, so I went out with  few people.

           



The road was rough and the repair work was going on in some places. By Walking, first we went to see Mankhim View Point. About 200 stairs have to be climbed up from the main road. One side of the stairs is surrounded by railings. You can also take rest for a while on a big step for sometimes. On the other side of the railing, the green sloping valley descends straight towards the deep canyon. There are big trees like shawl, teak, pine, eucalyptus; I saw a cherry tree full of purple flowers. The marigold flowers of different colors have been arranged along the edges of the rising railings. Creeping squash trees have been carefully planted like scaffolding on the little empty step on the right side, the trees are scattered in the young squash and they have spread their stalks on the big trees around the scaffolding. Gradually I came to the top of the view point. There is a beautifully decorated Shiva temple here. Usually no one comes at noon, so the temple is closed now. Kanchenjunga is completely covered in the depths of the clouds at the moment. This view point is surrounded by iron railings. Aritar Lake looks very clear and beautiful from this top. The runway of Sikkim's only airport looks like a thin thread in the distance. From such a height, the whole place looks like a lively oil painting of Ravi Burma as if painted with a brush on the long horizon, even on this sunny afternoon. Although I have heard the word “stunned” many times before, today I felt the correctness of the word in a state of vibration less silence.

On the way down, we sat on a tea-coffee shop in the middle of a wide step. In the coming afternoon, the taste of hot espresso coffee on the top of such a dense tree-covered hill was absorbed in my mind, and the fatigue of riding the climb was also relieved a bit.



Then we went downstairs to see the monastery. There is no way to understand from the outside that this is such a big event. What a masterpiece this house of prayer is made of. There is also a huge religious wheel (dharma chakra) on one side. We turned the wheel saying ‘Om Moni Padme Hum’. The short height old man who had opened the lock of the prayer room and welcome us in the prayer hall, told us that he was the present priest and keeper of the monastery. This old man is relentlessly pursuing such a great endeavor in almost on his single effort which cannot be believed without seeing. This man left his parents at home when he was very young and took refuge only after knowing the truth of Buddha's words. Even today, at the age of about eighty, he is a tireless servant of Lord Buddha. I bowed in reverence to this innocent man who had taken refuge in Lord Buddha, and returned home this evening by hearing the sad music of the collective crickets, rising from the depths of the deep ravine on the left side of the mountain road.

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