An Old Timer’s View of the New Age Gangtok

TENZING GYATSO (Sajong, Rumtek)
The pace with which Gangtok has zoomed from a digital town to a high definition ‘city’ has left an old timer like me completely baffled and awestruck.
Let me share my lopsided outlook of this new age Gangtok with you….
I am perpetually appalled when I see tiny tots of the KG grade loaded with a couple of KGs of books tottering to their schools. In this context, I am also equally mystified to see our collegians in their smart forest green outfits, somehow inadequately armed, clutching a single  notebook for a shield and a dot pen for a sword, as they head into dubious battle to win their Holy Grail of Knowledge.
Our National Highway is currently getting a makeover. The smooth black carpet has reached the vicinity of the Holy Cross School. This sinking stretch of road is fondly called, “Hum Nahi Soodh Reng Gay Path” by old timers.
And somehow, the old bumpy, potholed road was an effective aid to the digestive system of the obese, sedentary office wallahs. It was also an efficient speed breaker….
The constant cavalcade of cars on our consistently clogged National Highway easily outnumbers the pedestrians on the adjoining footpath.
The familiar sight of the forlorn pedestrian trying to flag down a taxi with an extended third finger held high is sadly rarely seen these days. This endangered species of pedestrians can only be sighted nowadays during the puja holidays, when all SK vehicles make a bee line to K’pong and Darj to give the WB traffic cops their yearly puja bonus of premature grey hair.
Like the Ancient Mariner I could ramble on and on. You see my entire household is out foraging for firewood. But I’ve just remembered that my wife had ordered me to dig up the old ‘muttitel’ stove in our shed. I seem to have misplaced my LPG blue book.