rajdhania NOW! supplement for GANGTOK

11-17 Dec, 2002 NOW! Vol 1 No 26

THINKING ALOUD

7

Darkness! This is what one getswhile entering the shoppingcentre at the Old Children’s

Park. Many shopkeepers as well assome hawkers voiced their grievancesto this reporter on December 8, onthe day of the Sunday haat.

Ram Bahadur Chettri told NOW!that the new site has brought nothingbut misery, for business is low. “I missmy place at Lall Bazaar where myvegetables fetched me good money.Here I am stuck at this corner and totop it all we suffer from frequentpower cuts too,” he said.

Power failure is causing somefresh problems for the customers too.

Pickpocketing cases seem to be on therise. A lady recently lost Rs. 5,000from her purse here while a small boywas returned home with his walletpicked clean.

Nawang Sherpa, a vegetablehawker here confirmed the incidentsof pick-pocketing.

“It gets very dark here withoutelectricity and some miscreants are tak-ing advantage of this. If this problem isnot solved quickly it could lead to somegrievous misunderstandings with ourcustomers,” he said in a grave tone.

The erratic power supply is notonly hitting the pockets of the cus-tomers, but also the cash boxes of theshops here. Tsewang Choden, ownerof a “foreign shop” maintained thatshops were losing business thanks tothe frequent power cuts.

Mrs. Seeta Gurung, a customer whovisited this shop while this reporterwas there for instance, said that shehad already come to the shop twicebut could not decide on whether or not

to buy the shirt she had seen there sincewithout proper lights she could notreally “see” what she was buying.

“We used to do good businessdown at Lall Bazaar. There used to begood flow of customers back then,”says Chungden who sits in an emptyshop now.

Continuing with the horror storiesof shopping the dark, a shopkeepercomplained that she walked right intoa pillar while trying to find her way toher shop tucked inside the complex.

Vegetable vendors complained thatthey were spending more on candlesthan the profits they were making.While this statement can be taken witha pinch of salt, what remains confirmedis that shops inside the complex sufferwhen the lights go off. Shoppers pre-fer to pick up their vegetables with thevendors on the outside since they canat least see what they are buying.

“We do not blame our customers,

Id-ul-fitr was celebrated withmuch festivity here on Friday,December 6. The Imam of the

local mosque near Old West PointSchool, in his Takreer delivered priorto the Id Namaaz spoke on the rel-evance of the month-long fast whichcame to an end on the day.

A huge gathering of the town’sMuslim population was present atthe mosque to proffer Namaaz whichwas held twice - at 9:30 am andagain at 10 am. The limited space atthe mosque was woefully short to ac-commodate all the devout who hadturned up to offer namaaz.

The namaaz over, the mosquecompound was taken over by youngboys at tables with cute skull capsdoling out small cups of the favouriteMuslim sweet dish “sewaya” to any-one and everyone who passed by.

Id-ul-fitr is a major festival of the

Muslims and is the culmination of amonth long fast which they observeas Ramzan. During this fast neitherfood nor drink is to touch the lips of

those holding the fast as long as thesun is in the sky. The Imam made aspecial acknowledgement to thosewho had observed the fast.

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DARKNESS IN THEHEART OF TOWNTINA RAI reports on the travials of a haat shopping in the dark...

A safai karamchari cleans up the filth the OCP Shopping Complex leaves behind each day

a NOW! pic

Every night as I carry a bucketof garbage to the neighbour-

hood jhora I wonder at how irre-sponsible the people have be-come. There must surely besomething wrong with dumpingall the kitchen wastes (and givenour weakness for fermentation, Iwon’t be surprised if some of itwas also toxic) into the jhoras,which apart from accommodatingall the rubbish we can generatealso make room for a crisscrossof water pipes headed intohomes further downhill. I keepthinking of this till I have emptiedthe rubbish into the clogged jhoraand sometimes even wait to seethe neighbourhood mongrel diveinto the dinner we could not fin-ish at home. Sometimes I alsokick it to speeden his stumble intothe jhora and return home to an-other night without electricity.I am tired of this bijli business.The hiked tariff, the reduced sup-ply, the unannounced cuts and thethreat of an energy meter for myflat. But I am good at payback. If Ihave to go to bed without lights,I’ll darn well make sure no late-sleeper enjoys the batti either. Theroom heater is left on, the televi-sion, water heater and all lightsallowed to blaze if the supply doesresume. Am sure there are oth-ers in my surrounding who do thesame cause there inadvertentlyis a bang announcing the deathof another transformer wheneverthe electricity makes a late nightcomeback.For want of anything better to do, Isometimes also become con-cerned reader of the local ragsand keep shooting off anony-mous emails, typed manuscriptsmaking insidious allegationsabout everyone I know and don’tlike. They get printed sometimesand dumped otherwise, but thenervous giggles and furtiveglances in the office make it worththe effort of having typed on therickety typewriter which is miss-ing an “A”...And I think all the time, “Why havepeople become so mean.”

turn to pg (iii)

11-17 Dec, 2002iirajdhani

NAME: ............................................... Address.............................................

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8

GANGTOK: Deorali, Tadong, Sichey,and many parts of Gangtok faced amajor power failure for three daysfrom December 3.

When NOW! Contacted AmberGurung, Assistant Engineer with thePower Department it was learnt thatthe electric tower at 14th Mile nearSang Khola had tilted due to a land-slide that occurred some time on De-cember 3. Because of this the trans-mission wires had been snapped away.However, as soon as the departmentheard about this incident a team ofrepairmen reached the site and thewires have now been fixed.

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GANGTOK: Following the orders ofthe National Postal Employees Un-ion (NPEU) at New Delhi, the SikkimPostal Employees have decided toprotest against the privatisation ofpostal services. The NPEU had di-

rected the Sikkim Postal Employeesto go on a hunger strike; however, herethe postal employees have decided notto go for a hunger strike. They have,however, started to demonstrate fromDecember 9.

When this reporter reached thepost head office, on the following day,

a NOW! report

Sikkim Postal Services goon demonstration

S T O P P R E S S

GYALSHING: Rasta Man Rai of 37Chakhung Chumbong Territorial Con-stituency and Chandra Maya Subbaof 24 Lower Thambong LungcholSallyangdang Territorial COnstituencywere unanimously elected ZillaPanchayat Adhyaksha and Up-Adhyakshya respectively after theswearing in ceremony of ZillaPanchayat of the west district on De-cember 9, 2002 at the Zilla PanchayatBhawan here.

Altogether, 25 Zilla Panchayatmembers were administered the oathof office by the District Collector,West, Mr. S.P. Subba.

West Zilla

Adhyakshyas

Sworn In a group of employees were seen out-side the office demonstrating againstthe privatisation of postal services.KP Sharma, Divisional Secretary ofSikkim’s Postal Union informedNOW! That the postmen all over In-dia have not as yet received the re-vised pay scale, moreover there aremany vacant posts, which have notbeen filled, and then there are someemployees known as Extra Depart-mental Employees, who have beendenied pensions till date, all these fac-tors had forced the NPEU to voicetheir grievances against the Depart-ment of Posts. Mr Sharma further in-formed NOW! That the union is wait-ing further directions from NPEU.

Meanwhile work here at the posthead office is going on undisturbed.

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11-17 Dec, 2002 iiirajdhani

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13

how can they buy from us when theycannot choose the vegetables prop-erly since its so dark in here,” DeekiSherpa another hawker cried out.

The fewest complaints come fromthe hawkers selling woollen clothes.

They have been accommodated on theterrace of the Supermarket near LallBazaar. They did brisk business onSunday and informed with smilingfaces that they have been allowed tostay there for three months - rightthrough the winters. Most haven’tbeen as lucky it seems.

Contd from pg (i)

Darkness in the heart...

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11-17 Dec, 2002iv rajdhani

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14

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Someplace Else:

The main thoroughfare looks very unGangtokian

when shorn of its vehicles and people at around

5:45 in the morning. It actually looks nice...

pic KARCHOONG DIYALI

ACROSS1. Doctor8. Give consent9. Weapon10. Unlock12. Queue14. Jump15. Father or mother17. Guide18. Evident20. Passenger ship cabin

DOWN2. Pronoun3. Bulges4. Money5. Anthropoid6. Worthless7. Republic in South America11. Most bold13. Treat with excessiveindulgence16. Badly behaved child19. Commotion

INSTANT NIRVANA

Khangchendzonga means fivetreasures of the great snows

in Tibetan, an allusion to the Sik-kimese belief that the mountain isthe repository of the five holyitems essential for life. Minerals,grains, salt, weapons and the holyscriptures. To this perhaps onecan add a sixth. Sikkim Lotto. Eventhe holy men, the monks who aretrained to ignore wordly desiresare not immune to it’s great temp-tation. Regular sightings of thesemen in maroon robes inside lottobooths has been noticed. A younglama was quite adamant about hislucky number combination, it hadto add upto 108 - an auspiciousnumber.

POWERPLAY

The Power Dept. took a friendof a friend for a regular

chukker. The gentleman was keento begin construction of his newhouse only to find power cablesstrewn all over his land. When herequested the powee men to re-move it, he was told that he wouldhave to do it himself and also toensure that the cables were lifted

and removed very carefully sincethere were live wires inside. Thegentleman went through consid-erable expense and effort to getthe cables carried out by a dozenmen as carefully as possible, onlyto find it was all in vain. The cablewas empty, no live wires or any-thing inside. Last heard he wasplanning to present a hefty bill tothe power department . Can’tblame him.

HEARTBURN

The new look of electricity billsare causing much anguish in

middle class rented homes. Peo-ple who used to get a bill of 200 amonth are now presented withperforated dot-matrix printoutsamounting to Rs. 800. For salariedpeople living in rented premises itis a major difference and will makeit necessary to cut corners else-where. No wonder they are upset.How can rented houses becharged commercial rates, theyask. It is commercial for the land-lord only and he should pay for itnot the tenants, they say. Kind ofmakes sense.

NEW EATERY

After the success of theirlaunch in Gangtok, Glenary’s

opened a new outlet in Tadong.Next on their list is one in Deoraliwhich they say, will be even bet-ter. But thats after their proposednew year opening of a three-sto-rey bakery, cafe and restaurant atNew Market, next to Quick Bite.We’re inundated with eating jointsbut this one promises to give valuefor money, if their Darjeeling out-let is anything to go by.