Taj Mahal closed for two and a half years

Imagine if Taj Mahal would be closed to visitors for the next two and a half years...the world, the nation and the local people, all would get together to question the situation. The Toy Train or DHR, the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, the oldest heritage railway in the country, the model for the world is not running her stretch from NJP (the main Railway terminal for Siliguri) or Siliguri Junction (the Railway Terminal of great importance from the metre gauge days) to Darjeeling for the last two and a haif years. Yesterday at the DHR annual meet, held at The Cindrella Hotel in Siliguri, in presence of the International members of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway Society (DHRS) and Darjeeling Railway Community Support (DHRC), the officials from DHR, NF Railway and the local members of the DHR-India Support Group, David Barrie, the Chairman of DHRS commented that, “across the world, most of the narrow gauge railways have a journey distance of 5 to 15 miles, we are proud to have a narrow gauge railway here, the DHR which runs a stretch of 55 mile”. He also said “it is the great grandfather steam engines, which are so strong and simple that they can still pull 04 coaches uphill if maintained and run in an ideal manner”.

We have several shortfalls here for not being able to address the issue of immediate repair of the DHR track, both nationally and locally. The history of track and road damage at Pagla Jhora is more than 100 years old, but we do not know of any period when the running of the train or cars on the parallel road (Hillcart Road, now NH 55) have been out of function for such a long time. There seems to be hardly any understanding for the HERITAGE, for the traditions and cultures which we have inherited. In a press release yesterday by DHRS says that the society has been awarded the most prestigious award sponsored by the Steam Railway Magazine, which recognizes the Society’s work in improving the reliability and performance of the world famous ‘B’ class steam locomotives on the DHR. Engineering Director, David Mead and steam engineer, Mike Weedon were the men behind this project. We in India need to do our part, atleast restore the railway track damaged by landslide, or atleast do the NH 55, which connects thousands of villagers and Railway people to Siliguri for their basic needs.

The DHR is like the Taj Mahal for us who live in North Bengal and Sikkim in India and are proud that several places and their people are an integral part of this heritage. 

All pictures used here is between 1865 to 1930, undergiven are the DHR Annual Meet pictures from yesterday.

    

An address damaged and a region after shock

When anyone called me up to reach my residence at Siliguri, I would say 'Reach Hatimore, Subhaspally, turn left, from Ashim Sweets or now Monginis turn right and then straight, keep coming till you reach a Shiva Temple near Vibgyor Sporting Club, take a U-turn left from the Children Park...the earthquake today has brought down the roof of this Shiva Temple and a wall close to my house. This is the visual all of you must have been watching in almost all television news channels.

 

The temple has been there since time unknown, a prominent conical roof, which used to be coloured during every Shivratri, was supposed to have been after the 2^nd World War, when the American troops of the allied forces had left some cement at the present FCI Godown just opposite to the Shiva Temple. Things must have turned worst for Sikkim. None of the phones that I have been trying since long seems not reachable. Earthquake is not new to this area, but I don't remember a time when it has happened so strong, that it shook people out of their confidence.

Today morning, I could get through with several of my friends and relations in Sikkim and Darjeeling Hills. Mangan gave the message of the damage at Chungthang, Hee told about damage in Jorethang. Situation does not seem to be at its best, as electricity and telephone connections were not working in several areas, but since morning some places it resumed and the people could be contacted. The Government at the centre and the states are at their toes, about 500 reserve forces have arrived last night at Bagdogra. The major concern is the panic among the people and the fright of repetition.

Knowledgeable people have said that we have been saved because of the type of sedimentary rocks that we have, but have shown their concern about the several dams on the different rivers. As general public all of us believe that we have been saved because it was Biswakarma (God of all construction and engineering) Puja yesterday. Most of the time we tend to forget that we are in the Eastern Himalayan Syntaxis, an area for major earthquakes, which repeats almost after a little more than every 50 years. The last major in the region was the one in Lohit & Dibang areas. We need to be extra careful about what we build.   
02 major concerns about East Himalaya, when the bamboo flowers, and when the earth shakes...the 1950 shake of Assam is still fresh.

Say No to BANDHS

All over the country, infact the Indian subcontinent, strikes or bandhs are very common. It is quite strange that like several Indian words, the word ‘BANDH’ has still not made to the English dictionary. The worst hit area in this regard is India’s East and Northeast. Talking about it at different forums, everyone present agreed to the fact that Bandhs are by no way needed and does not achieve any goal whatsoever. While talking at political forums, the individual leaders agreed that Bands are not only useless, but also detrimental to any kind of development. Irrespective of political parties they all agreed that they have to support Bandhs as it is a political decision.

Long back with the one month long blockade at Manipur and the continuous strikes in the Darjeeling Hills and Dooars of North Bengal, I had taken a email feedback on this from the tourism fraternity of Sikkim, West Bengal and Assam and everyone 9In hundreds) opposed to the Bandhs. For the last few months at EHTTOA (Eastern Himalaya Travel and Tour Operators’ Association), a leading travel association for the entire Northeast including North of West Bengal, we have been running small workshops at local levels at the tourism destinations in the Sikkim-Darjeeling Hills-Dooars region (a single popular circuit in Northeast India) and have been able to create a common consensus against any kinds of Bandhs. All this we did to create a political will against Bandhs.

 

The recent development led by Anna Hazare has shown the way that “people’s decision is the political decision and not that political decisions are people’s decision”. This is an opportunity to put our hands and heads together and oppose to all kinds of Bandhs or Strikes and initiate passing another ‘Lokpal Bill’ saying no to Bandhs.