Ruing the state of Darjeeling, a friend had recently told me, “हाम्रो दार्जीलिंग त टिका लगाएर छोड़ेको सांड जतिकै भई सक्यो जसको कोहि मालिक छैन, यहाँ जसको शक्ति उसकै भक्तिको चलनले गर्दा हाम्रो ठाउँ र जाति तुरी सक्यो…”
One of our readers has written the following to highlight how J.C.B led politics could lead to environmental catastrophe and how the silence of the government/authorities in this whole sordid saga is alarming
The Ghoom Jorebunglow Degree, Darjeeling has consistently been a source of news and stories in recent times, ironically most of the times for reasons not related to education. What should have been a centre for knowledge and learning has contrarily become a floodgate for controversies, debates and politics. The college has yet again become a centre of attention with the staff members of the college holding a complete pen down strike starting last Friday. i.e., 29th of April – their one point demand being for the college to be formally recognised by the state Govt.
It was just another March morning. My eyes were half awake and my fingers were already scrolling the phone screen shuffling between the headlines and news articles corresponding to my conventional practice of starting a day. Just then, I happened to come across a picture of a bhangera – sparrow. The moment hit me hard somewhere and took me for a long travel down my memory lane.
A roundup of this week’s political events and stories from Darjeeling
Back in 2017, when the agitation of Gorkhaland was going strong. People were killed, jailed, the internet was banned but the hope then was strong. At least for me- I had an entrance exam at Shillong. A good escape from the reality of being inept to the land, which I loved the most.
Damber Singh Gurung was the only Gorkha in the nation’s Constituent Assembly, which was setup to draft the Constitution of Independent India. It is in his name that Kalimpong’s famous Damber Chowk has been named… Yet there was no commemoration of his birth anniversary
There was something about the voice that felt so heavenly the first time I heard it in the National Panasonic tape recorder that my family had recently bought back in the mid 1980s. I was barely 12 then, and I had just started listening to greats like Mohd Rafi and Kishore Kumar, along with new singers like Kumar Sanu and Udit Narayan Jha. However, the Nepali songs like the ones sung by the legendary Kumar Subba were something else, and they swam through my cerebral cortex like a wakeful dream, the lyrics, the voice quality, the music notes, all easy on the ears and relaxing me to the hilt.
For many TheDC might just be a page and a website posting news. But if you look deeper enough, it is a voice – yours, mine and everyone else’s. It represents independence, freedom and truth even when there have been uncountable attempts to shut it down and destroy it. It represents hope to endure, with nothing in hand but a pen, passion, an idea and the truth.
There’s not one but three good news for Darjeeling. Fashion influencers namely Nirjal Basnet, Priyam Yonzon and Shrawan Chhetri will be seen on national reality show “Myntra Fashion Superstar” season 3 airing on November 11, 2021 on Voot and Myntra App.