Sikkim - Requiem for a Himalayan Kingdom

In November 2022, I was on my way to Sikkim. My train to New Jalpaiguri from Delhi was delayed by six hours. We were about to board the train at 3 AM early in the morning. Reaching Anand Vihar from Saket was quite troublesome as winter and pollution had started to set in. It was just a career break—or, rather, a gap between my last job and joining a new one—and those were my last days in Delhi. Before leaving Delhi, I wanted to visit "Sikkim - a land of fairy tale." 

My friend and I were both technically unemployed and decided to be economical throughout our journey. We managed to get confirmed train tickets and installed the Splitwise app to track every expense. The journey to New Jalpaiguri was really tiresome; I literally stopped counting how many hours we had spent on the train. 

Upon reaching New Jalpaiguri, we had to travel further to Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim. The most economical way to travel was SNT's (Sikkim Nationalised Transport) green buses. It was a halfway tiring journey,  as the plain areas started subsiding, we slowly began climbing the mountains. The Himalayan air started soothing our bodies. We reached Sikkim around 8 PM. By this time, the city had already started sleeping. There was an aroma in the air. Clean and fresh air gave me energy, and some unknown spirit aroused from my dosed body. Sikkim, really a land of fairy tale.

From that moment, my infatuation with Sikkim began. That infatuation has now inculcated into love. There was something different in that air, that is very difficult to put it in words. I have decided to read books written on Sikkim. I need to read at least three books: 

1. Sikkim - Requiem for a Himalayan Kingdom by Andrew Duff

2. Smash and Grab by Sunanda K Datta-Ray

3. Dawn of Democracy by G.B.S. Sidhu. 

This may extend to Sikkim Saga by B.S. Das and many more. Three years after that trip to the land of fairy tales, now I grabbed this opportunity to read Sikkim - Requiem for a Himalayan Kingdom written by Andrew Duff. I thought this book might give more details about Thandup Namgyal (King) and Hope Cooke (there was a belief that she was CIA) and their love affairs. But it was more an account of what happened in Sikkim, with a brief history of the state. The author has taken his deep root interest in writing this book. He had drawn his love for Sikkim from his grandparents who eventually traveled to Sikkim in early 19th century. 

Indeed, it's well researched book, it provided me with great details about Sikkim and the political revolution during 1975. If you know the subject of history well, it is getting easier to correlate things: how the migration of an outsider community affected the political landscape and how the misplaced aspirations of the king led to the decline of the monarchy. These are beautiful insights from this read. I would say it's a good read. Recommended to read. 

Keep readings! Keep rediscovering!

Happy reading! 

Faith 

Amol