Columns




‘Madder than the Hatter’ and other stories

Amongst the popping hot popcorns was the Mamata meme (her face superimposed over Priyanka Chopra’s ‘Mad Hatter’ outfit for the 2019 MET GALA) leading to Priyanka Sharma being jailed. If that is not “Madder than the Hatter” move, I don’t know what is.


Bitter Sweet Andolan Memories – 1986-88

The mayhem went unabated for over 2 hours. Many people who were perhaps just sitting at their house were brutally beaten up. Later we found out that there was this 18 year old daju, who was chopping meat in his house, he had a khukuri in his hands when the CRP entered. Thankfully the CRP for some reason did not shoot him, but he got arrested on the charges of “possession of weapons” and was so brutally beaten that I still shudder when I think about it.


M – 19, Darjeeling Here, ASL Plz? F – 21, Philippines

If what’s written above, makes sense to you, then your youth was awesome… to those who are wondering what that title is all about, read on… maybe somewhere in this piece, you may find something you can relate to, and if you do relate… please share… spread some nostalgic cheer.


Koltey Gaon Darjeeling – Elections Cometh!!

Again, every other person in the village is spiritual, all of them being dedicated followers of Baba Ram Rahim Insaan, but there is no political interest in anyone at all. In fact, the village follows a strict non-political policy since time immemorial. To say the least, the village in its life has never seen a single political rally till date, except for the time when once General Aladdeen of Wadiya had decided to visit the village and had delivered a speech at the village community hall. That was the only time that the villagers had seen camels.



Alarming cases of Human Trafficking via NE States is Worrisome

In the most recent case of human trafficking in Northeast, 23 Nepali girls were rescued and eight Rohingya women were detained in Mizoram when trying to cross over into Myanmar and then to Southeast Asian countries. A few months ago in February, Manipur Police rescued about 180 Nepalese women who were planning to cross the Moreh border post into Myanmar from where they were scheduled to fly to Dubai and other Gulf countries.


Sri Lanka Bomb Blasts and other stories

This past week was full of heartbreaks. Over 290 people were killed in a horrific series of bomb-blasts in Sri Lanka. While our nation is continuing to vote for the next set of MPs and government, there have been many interesting new developments. Here is my Pick of The Week.