Akshay Kavra- A man with a big heart, Akshay sure knows how to make relationships last. Though his self-confidence becomes scary at times, he just knows exactly how to get any job done. Despite the challenges of his hotel job and fatherhood, he still finds the time to calm storms in his friends’ lives.
Day 1- November 8, 2015
Akshay is a firm believer in the self-drive rental philosophy and often takes cars in this manner for long road trip. Being a Banquet Manager at ITC Sonar Bangla, he did not have work at the time of Dussehra as there was a rush in the restaurants instead. This made him decide to undertake a road trip to Gangtok along with his wife Prachi, having three days in hand.
Banquet staffs are adept at arranging for resources at the last minute, and are highly ‘jugaadu’ under all circumstances. Once such staff member helped Akshay arrange for a Mahindra Scorpio from a regular taxi guy. The SUV was delivered at the hotel the previous night, a mere 2 days before Dussera. Here Akshay got to find out that the demand for cars during Durga Puja was very high in this world, which is why they needed to be pre-booked.
Akshay was living with Prachi at a residence right behind the Sonar Bangla. At 5 am, both of them came to the hotel, got their breakfasts packed and started on the trip. There were 2 major routes to Gangtok- 1 through Bengal and the other which crossed Bihar. The couple took on the road through Bengal, which had a healthy mix of bad and good roads.
At one point, they came across really bad roads in a village, where a Muslim festival seemed to be celebrated. Logs of wood had been dumped on the road, and one could only cross by giving the Muslims anything from 10-50 bucks, in the form of ‘chandaa’. After doing this once, Akshay decided he will return via a different route.
During the course of this drive, both of them first stopped at a roadside stall for samosas. Upon feeling hungry again in the afternoon, they stopped for lunch at a dhaba in Bengal. Now it is worth mentioning here that these dhabas are different from the ones in North India, by virtue of being smaller and quite simple. Akshay and Prachi consumed spicy, yet tasty meals for lunch and then set off on their way.
Once in Sikkim, the couple stopped at Char Dham Namchi, located in South Sikkim. This revered destination is built on the Solophok hilltop. The Hindu temples of Badrinath, Dwarka, Puri and Rameswaram have been replicated at this place. It has a massive statue of Lord Shiva and 12 jyotirlangas, a Sai Baba temple, replicas of the four dhams (abodes of Hindu Gods) and a statue of Lord Kirateshwar. The giant statue of Shiva looked magnificent at the hilltop.
From here, Akshay and Prachi moved towards Samdruptse, a wish-fulfilling hill with a massive statue of Guru Padmasambhava, recognized as the patron saint of Sikkim. The statue overlooks the entire city of Namchi, and the gold on it shines as sunlight falls on it. The repository here within the statue not only has old photos of Sikkim but also fading pictures of Mahatma Gandhi. By the end of it, both were feeling hungry and loaded themselves up with delicious momos and noodles.
By now, it was already dark as they made their way towards the monastery at Samdruptse. Unfortunately there was tremendous fog here, leading to a situation so bad that Akshay could not even see the bonnet of the Scorpio. The road was very narrow, and at a particular place Prachi had to get off and guide the SUV as it was very close to the hill’s edge.
After driving for about 20 minutes, Akshay and Prachi had a stroke of luck when the heaven’s opened up and it started drizzling, due to which the fog cleared up. They reached their hotel in Gangtok at about 11 pm and had to honk to wake up the hotel staff. Thoroughly tired after their 17 hour journey, both of them went to their room and crashed for the night.
Day 2- November 9, 2015
While planning this scenic road trip, little did Akshay and Prachi realize that the entire city of Gangtok was closed for three days, up to 10th November. All shops and offices, nice restaurants and just about everything was closed. Both of them did not know that Dussehra was celebrated in such a big way here.
Both of them started leisurely in the morning, around 9 am. Their original plan was to visit Nathu La, a high altitude pass which is a part of the Old Silk Route, and is at the border of India and China, and Changu lake. However, none of this was made possible because the Tourist authority office, from where the Nathu La permit can be taken, was closed owing to Dussehra.
Not the ones to be disappointed easily, Akshay and Prachi proceeded towards the Tashi view point, where one can get the best view of Mt. Kanchenjunga. A few steps have to be climbed to get there, though. They also visited a small waterfall, after which they moved towards their hotel, left their car and walked down to Mall Road for food.
At around 5 pm, they were making their way to the Ban Jakri waterfall, which was a large one. Akshay realized that local police did not take too kindly to dwellers of West Bengal. At a certain road with a V-fork, he took a right turn by mistake. GPS told him to take a U-turn, to which he obliged, and then got stopped by the traffic cops. After taking a look at the WB-registered Scorpio, the cop told him to leave his license, go to the local police station, pay the challan of 150 bucks and then return to collect the same. Akshay was left with no option but to go through maddening Dussehra traffic to get to the police station, pay the fine, return and then leave. It was a clear case of animosity with the people of West Bengal, which is also mentioned in history.
Instead of getting to Ban Jakri at 5:30 pm, they eventually reached at 7 pm. While returning, they made their way to Mall Road for dinner, only to realize that most of the restaurants had closed. Finally they managed to find a roadside ‘thela’ with kathi rolls, and filled their stomachs for the night. Both of them went to the hotel and went to sleep by 10 pm, as they had to start early morning to get to Kolkata in good time.
Day 3
Akshay and Prachi were ready to leave Gangtok at 3 am. They got into the car and started their journey, which also included a railway crossing this time. Akshay took the route via Kishanganj, and was pleasantly surprised to find excellent road conditions in Bihar. And so they reached their Kolkata home, with the aim of settling into their respective daily routines once again.
