Writes: Ashwin Lama
We woke up today to the sad news of the demise of the Father of the Gorkhland movement in India ...Mr Subhash Ghising passed away in a Delhi hospital last night....must be in peace or may not have been..Where ever he is now may his soul "Rest In Peace"...I am a little down right now not because the man was personal to me but these days my moods have been such...I cant even call it the monthlys ...may be call it the "Cross Roads"...
I dont know how lucky we were or are to have been born in a generation which we today call "The Boot Cut Generation"...The magniicient 80's is what I am talking about..It gave to us torn jeans...long hair..a lot of heavy metal bands ...the so called Maiden...ACDC...Metallica...They all came up to us then or may be we went into them with our pencils knowing exactly how to rewind and forward and get to the exact song that we wanted to hear..
We get everything on a touch screen today...I don't know what to call the method we used then...the swing..the pencil or how good and accurate we are at knowing what we exactly we wanted and how went about achieving it. That small pencil and the way we swirled it around the cassete to go to the exact song we wanted to hear might sound weirdish in front of the life we live today...But then I am sure a lot of us have those beautiful pencil memories..
Talking about Pencils ...I was around six years old still writing with pencils(pens were for boys...infact North Point my Alma Mater didn't allow us to to wear trousers and use pens till the 5th grade...pencils were fine ..but the half pants in the cold wintry mornings still serves as a memory of bliss and beauty...We exactly know how does the cold wind blow...and where does it hit you the most..ask any North Pointer....It was during those years that we had major school breaks.....major in a sense that other than the mandatory three months winter break.
I still remember one long break for a forty day period..To us those days holidays meant fun ..fun and fun....And probably in the fun and fun...I saw my father fire a hand made gun into the skies just about where my grandparents lived. I could never understand the significance of it but then Dad used to say "Times are Such" we need to be prepared..I didnt really understand the importance of the preparation and what it was for but then as a I kid ..I was proud that my father knew how to shoot a gun...
Ah yeah...I learnt one more word then " Revolution"....Someone rightly said some where if its a revolution then we are sorry for the inconvenience...Today after all these years ...I would say they ought to be "sorry"...it was one morning as per my father right in front of the old "Bata" in town he saw three well combed and oiled heads without their bodies attached to them...
For us those days those were stories and tales...But then now after so many years of the sad and horrific 1986 that the people around our place saw and lived...They are not stories and tales from "Aesops Fables" any more...They are hidden silences of what we call the most tear ful times in the history of our place..It was 1986 when I first heard the name "Subhash Ghising"...
I am not writing a tribute on him..nor am I crticising what we did and didnt...or what could have been...They were funny stories too that we heard during the era .. A Pala (Tibetans adress the fathers as Pala}in toonsong made momos for his restaurant ...not trusting the fact the town would actually be shut down for forty days...Infact he had made momos in plenty (btw what they sell in streets here in delhi are not momos..they probably can be called "NOMOS"..injustice even there...they have killed the way our momos look and taste) but then the town didnt open....on the third day he had no choice but to throw away the momos as they had started stinking...he unwillingly served it his pigs and to his utter surprise the pig for once in his gulp and gulp looked up at pala and asked "Pala Gorkhaland Payo ki keh ho.?(Pala did we get Gorkhaland or wat?)..Never had the pala been so generous on the pig..lucky him at least an animal fared and was fed well..."
I guess that where i first heard the word "Gorkhaland" from a pigs mouth...The innumerable days when my father and the entire male members of the family had to sleep in jungles and forests cos they would be raids anytime of the day or night...and then once caught you never knew whether u were coming back alive or not...I still remember we used to have a small kitchen downstairs and a small peep window through which Ama used to peep out the whole night and watch what was happening around...
A lady with short hair was shot in her chest cos the CRPF guys took her for a male,,,My uncle and his band of musicians famously ccomposed the song "Hain Bharat Timilai Gorkha ko Maya Cha"(India do you love the Gorkhas or not)...We were taught small but significant war cries...I still remember my three year cousin always raping and humming "Ek Do Ek...Gorkha Marena..CRPF ko goli leh Gorkha Marena(One to one..the gorkkhas didnt die....the bullets of the CRPF couldnt kill the Gorkhas")
But know they did die...they died in plenty..they died in a counts which may be innumberable....had there been a survey like those that happen on tvs these days for everything...or Had there been an over the top Arnab Goswami shouting on News hour tonight we would have the exact figures and the extent of damage it caused...I dont feel sad or infact i feel numb about what exactly is "Gorkhaland"...
I mostly crack jokes on life and people...I hardly crack jokes on times and situations or causes or revolutions ...not my cup of tea at all(the Green tea is in right now..and how ironic infact the foreigneers made us realise its benefits and values though we boast that the best teas are produced in Darjeeling)...In so many years of drinking tea...I dont know but this is my personal opinion I havent come across a family in Darjeeling that actually knows how to brew tea the way its supposed to be..Arent we caught up there as well?Its like an Italian not knowing how to do a Feta or a French unaware of Riesling or Pinot Knoir....
Yes an "ERA" has passed away (in reality death is the only constant) it took an era away...But then don't you ever ask yourself that more than two decades later we are still at the "Cross Roads"...Will we ever actually be able to cross the road...
Cheers!!
[This is my own personal view point...No intentions to hurt feeling and sentiments...No intentions to defame or be insensitive towards any one.. Its a joke that I thought needed to be cracked today....Hope u all would share the joke around]
Source: The Darjeeling Chronicle
We woke up today to the sad news of the demise of the Father of the Gorkhland movement in India ...Mr Subhash Ghising passed away in a Delhi hospital last night....must be in peace or may not have been..Where ever he is now may his soul "Rest In Peace"...I am a little down right now not because the man was personal to me but these days my moods have been such...I cant even call it the monthlys ...may be call it the "Cross Roads"...
I dont know how lucky we were or are to have been born in a generation which we today call "The Boot Cut Generation"...The magniicient 80's is what I am talking about..It gave to us torn jeans...long hair..a lot of heavy metal bands ...the so called Maiden...ACDC...Metallica...They all came up to us then or may be we went into them with our pencils knowing exactly how to rewind and forward and get to the exact song that we wanted to hear..
We get everything on a touch screen today...I don't know what to call the method we used then...the swing..the pencil or how good and accurate we are at knowing what we exactly we wanted and how went about achieving it. That small pencil and the way we swirled it around the cassete to go to the exact song we wanted to hear might sound weirdish in front of the life we live today...But then I am sure a lot of us have those beautiful pencil memories..
 |
| The warriors who fought CRPF armed with automatic weapons... with their Khukuri and Khanduwa. |
I still remember one long break for a forty day period..To us those days holidays meant fun ..fun and fun....And probably in the fun and fun...I saw my father fire a hand made gun into the skies just about where my grandparents lived. I could never understand the significance of it but then Dad used to say "Times are Such" we need to be prepared..I didnt really understand the importance of the preparation and what it was for but then as a I kid ..I was proud that my father knew how to shoot a gun...
Ah yeah...I learnt one more word then " Revolution"....Someone rightly said some where if its a revolution then we are sorry for the inconvenience...Today after all these years ...I would say they ought to be "sorry"...it was one morning as per my father right in front of the old "Bata" in town he saw three well combed and oiled heads without their bodies attached to them...
For us those days those were stories and tales...But then now after so many years of the sad and horrific 1986 that the people around our place saw and lived...They are not stories and tales from "Aesops Fables" any more...They are hidden silences of what we call the most tear ful times in the history of our place..It was 1986 when I first heard the name "Subhash Ghising"...
I am not writing a tribute on him..nor am I crticising what we did and didnt...or what could have been...They were funny stories too that we heard during the era .. A Pala (Tibetans adress the fathers as Pala}in toonsong made momos for his restaurant ...not trusting the fact the town would actually be shut down for forty days...Infact he had made momos in plenty (btw what they sell in streets here in delhi are not momos..they probably can be called "NOMOS"..injustice even there...they have killed the way our momos look and taste) but then the town didnt open....on the third day he had no choice but to throw away the momos as they had started stinking...he unwillingly served it his pigs and to his utter surprise the pig for once in his gulp and gulp looked up at pala and asked "Pala Gorkhaland Payo ki keh ho.?(Pala did we get Gorkhaland or wat?)..Never had the pala been so generous on the pig..lucky him at least an animal fared and was fed well..."
I guess that where i first heard the word "Gorkhaland" from a pigs mouth...The innumerable days when my father and the entire male members of the family had to sleep in jungles and forests cos they would be raids anytime of the day or night...and then once caught you never knew whether u were coming back alive or not...I still remember we used to have a small kitchen downstairs and a small peep window through which Ama used to peep out the whole night and watch what was happening around...
A lady with short hair was shot in her chest cos the CRPF guys took her for a male,,,My uncle and his band of musicians famously ccomposed the song "Hain Bharat Timilai Gorkha ko Maya Cha"(India do you love the Gorkhas or not)...We were taught small but significant war cries...I still remember my three year cousin always raping and humming "Ek Do Ek...Gorkha Marena..CRPF ko goli leh Gorkha Marena(One to one..the gorkkhas didnt die....the bullets of the CRPF couldnt kill the Gorkhas")
But know they did die...they died in plenty..they died in a counts which may be innumberable....had there been a survey like those that happen on tvs these days for everything...or Had there been an over the top Arnab Goswami shouting on News hour tonight we would have the exact figures and the extent of damage it caused...I dont feel sad or infact i feel numb about what exactly is "Gorkhaland"...
I mostly crack jokes on life and people...I hardly crack jokes on times and situations or causes or revolutions ...not my cup of tea at all(the Green tea is in right now..and how ironic infact the foreigneers made us realise its benefits and values though we boast that the best teas are produced in Darjeeling)...In so many years of drinking tea...I dont know but this is my personal opinion I havent come across a family in Darjeeling that actually knows how to brew tea the way its supposed to be..Arent we caught up there as well?Its like an Italian not knowing how to do a Feta or a French unaware of Riesling or Pinot Knoir....
Yes an "ERA" has passed away (in reality death is the only constant) it took an era away...But then don't you ever ask yourself that more than two decades later we are still at the "Cross Roads"...Will we ever actually be able to cross the road...
Cheers!!
[This is my own personal view point...No intentions to hurt feeling and sentiments...No intentions to defame or be insensitive towards any one.. Its a joke that I thought needed to be cracked today....Hope u all would share the joke around]
Source: The Darjeeling Chronicle
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