Casino Sikkim

BHARAT DARSHAN Part 2

Deep into inhospitable terrains and on windy, foggy roads I traveled: the airs, the peoples, the beauties, the marvels that I was witness to deserve a narrator much better than me in writing potence. Yet I give it a try.

I wish I had a laptop and a net connection at the various places I visited, for the people I met, the food I ate, and the roads I traversed can not be accurately described now after the end of Bharat Darshan (BD). Hence rather than following a chronological cycle, I shall narate just a few episodes of my journey deep into North East...

27th Feb onwards...

Our first stoppage post-Kolkata was Siliguri. The city is well connected to Kolkata by both road and rail. Though we travelled by rail, I would suggest any one going there to take an innova - since the beautiful landscape one sees on road travel is not one to be missed. From Siliguri station we were immediately escorted to Darjeeling - Queen of the Hills, so they say. The stay wasn't much eventful except that it helped us acclimatise for regions much colder and at much higher altitude we were set to begin.

A word of advice at this point: never directly drop in at a place of high altitude and extreme cold after being in a warm place for a long time. That was the case with the other group from NADT... they had directly gone off to Tawang after a flight from the academy. When we met them (after their descent from Tawang) they were "battle fatigued" and didnt give that good a feedback about Tawang.

Coming back to Darjeeling, a few musts are: Darjeeling tea, the first Tibetan refugee centre, and Darjeeling zoo that houses the endangered red panda. The Tibetan refugee centre was a moving picture of Tibetan struggle for independence. In my interaction with rustic Tibetan people involved in handicrafts, I came to know how politically well informed they were. But my interaction with Tibetan refugees was just the beginning of what would be a tour of political strife for autonomy, statehood, and even secession! All over Darjeeling you can find "WE WANT GORKHALAND" hoardings. All hotels and business places necessarily had the hoardings. It appears that they were compelled to do so by Gurung-led GJMM.

Talking of Gorkha gals, I found them simply the most beautiful of Indian girls I had ever seen then. This view was reinforced on reaching Kalimpong (a Gorkha student hub). Later when I would reach Sikkim I would realise that not the Gorkha but the Sikkimese girls are the most beautiful of Indian women. A few days later, in Tawang I would realise that Monpa not Sikkimese girls are the prettiest of all. But then, in Kohima, I would be damn confused and tired of beauty. That is the place wherein I would finally get enlightenment and liberation from the illusion of beauty. But before that, lets get back to sikkim.

CASINO SIKKIM

Sikkim, as you know, was a kingdom and an Indian protectorate after the end of colonial regime. It was only in 1975 that Sikkim was incorporated into India as a state after the India-Sikkim Treaty. This was made possible because in a plebiscite held in Sikkim about 99% people opted for integration with India. Possibly the high turnout was because the huge immigration of Nepali and Bihari people into Gangtok.

An interesting aspect of the treaty is that all the original citizens of Sikkim and their descendants are EXEMPT from any form of taxation from the central government. As a result, many things are extremely cheap in Sikkim. The duty on hard drinks being generally low in the North-East, I didnt have to touch cheap liquor ("RS") all through my trip, even though drinks that went down our throat would fill up a mini-Brahmaputra.

In Sikkim we stayed in the Royal Plaza, a hotel that boasts of being the first in whole of NE to provide 5-star facilities. The prime attraction of the Plaza is that it had a casino - Sikkim Casino. Before being to the casino I was under the perception that casinos don't just exist in India and one has to go to Nepal to get the OCEAN'S 11 feel. However, as I found out there were two casinos in Sikkim (the other belonged to Mayfair hotel group) and few in Goa too.

Sikkim Casino was not as glamorous as the ones of Las Vegas you see in Hollywood movies, nevertheless "jua" is always entertaining. There are so many games a guy can derive pleasure from, but none is as good as gambling. In the said casino, we found some heavyweights dealing in (and losing) huge sums of money. Neither did we government servants have that kind of money nor do we come from a background so as to take great risks. So at first we were reluctant. But then Sandhu, the juari in the gang hatched upon a plan. He collected 100 bucks from each one of us in the casino, thereby taking the total to 800 bucks. 100 bucks is something we are ready to lose and 800 bucks is reasonable enough to start playing Ratatouille. It was a beautiful idea: distribution of risks and collection of good amount from small players who wanted to play just for the fun of playing. I would call it the Gambling Mutual Fund Scheme!

At first we won. I could not believe it. Sandhu the Jat was a magician at gambling. But then he was after all a Jat. When we had 2000 bucks in our hand, we were in a mood to withdraw. But Sandhu was hell bent on playing on. That's what a real gambler is like. No wonder in the end we lost all the money. At a later time however, I got hold of some other chaps of my group and convinced them to invest in my Gambling Mutual Fund Scheme. I started out with 500 bucks but soon made 3600 bucks of it. Ahh! Is gambling the true calling of my life? I was never before this convinced about a career as I was at this point. I was so sure that I could make a living off gambling. It took some thousands lost in the same casino to bring me back to my senses.

Talking of senses, the casino was also responsible for driving my senses dumb. There was this beautiful Sikkimese girl in flashy traditional wear who made me go mad. It was like love at first sight. I looked at her. She looked at me. And there was love. Since the last time I fell in love I never thought that I would ever again fall in love. But as I found myself proved wrong yet again, I realised I was in love. But like all my earlier "love affairs", this time too I became dumb and acted weird when in her presence. I couldn't even ask her her name.


In the world of my dreams, this girl - this pretty beauty - had fallen madly in love with me. I was playing hard to get, but finally I yielded. Later we marry, have kids, fight over silly issues, and grow old together. By the time our grandkids interrupt my evening siesta, the RED group had already left Sikkim. And thus came to an end yet another love story of Smarak Swain. Short, yet tragic. What if I had stayed on for a few more days? What if I had the courage that Casino night to ask her her number? What if I had won millions in the casino that night? These are some questions that, O reader, will remain unanswered for all time to come.