Darjeeling – My Muse
As a kid I remember waking up to the beautiful aroma of Darjeeling tea everyday along with morning chatter and my Dad sipping on to it while reading the newspaper. It is since then that ‘Darjeeling‘ has enchanted me. When I grew up, inevitably I too took to this drink as my favorite cup of tea. I had visited Darjeeling on many occasions earlier as a kid but that was more of a holiday with family. This year I am visiting Darjeeling again after 12 years, but this time it is with a different mindset, it is with the knowledge that this is the place which was the reason for my morning enchantment as a kid and continues to be, it is with desire to see the hills that bear them.
Darjeeling is classically beautiful, it is beauty that never ages, it is evergreen and elegant.
As I drove up towards Darjeeling from the Bagdogra Airport in a taxi few hours ago, the spiral hilly roads only added to my anticipation of seeing this old colonial hill city yet again, which was once the summer resort for the British during their rule in India. It is the British influence that I could immediately seen once I reached Darjeeling.
I will skip the part on where and which hotel I checked into because I will detail about my hotel & details of my stay in a following blog post as and when I travel around Darjeeling, since Darjeeling cannot be talked about in only one blog post. In this post I only want to sink into admiring this hill city right now as I stand there. I checked into my hotel a while ago, it is almost sun down now. In the same airport taxi I got dropped off at the next place I could not wait to get to, the Mall Road. Mall Road is a small stretch of road which ends with a huge open space with a stage at the very end which has an enormous live screen playing amazing music videos along side it. The place is busy with tourists and locals lazying around either sitting on the side benches or on the stairs to the stage. There are many horse keepers ready with their horses to take people for a ride around the mall road for a nominal charge. The place is so infectious as if it is inviting me to come, sit, stay and just stop for a while and take a break. Just down the road is the ‘Clock Tower’ with this huge clock standing tall in the heart of the city. It immediately reminded me of some Bollywood movies that were shot around the clock tower (latest Bollywood movie being ‘Barfi‘).
As I strolled past the several antique stores by the road the clouds came descending down to kiss me as if to say ‘you are welcome back’. There is a CCD cafe right in the heart of the mall road facing the valley below.
For now I am sipping onto a lovely cup of Darjeeling tea sitting on a couch telling you all about my first few hours in Darjeeling, while I watch the clouds form a garland in the valley below and I contemplate on my itinerary for my stay of next few days in these hills whom I call ‘My Muse‘.
