Statesman News Service.
KALIMPONG, July. 31. — Notwithstanding the understanding between the hill Opposition coalition of the PDF and the CPI-M, the former has claimed that Marxist administration, along with the GNLF, has played a major role in snatching the “democratic rights” for the hill people. (more…)
Statesman News Service
KALIMPONG, July 31. — The Bar association of all three hill sub-divisions — Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong — will cease work tomorrow in demand for a judicial officer to take care of tenancy disputes. (more…)
www.telegraphindia.com
Kalimpong, July 31: Flowery days are here for Kalimpong.
The West Bengal Comprehensive Area Development Corporation has sent a proposal to the state panchayat and rural development department to set up a tissue culture laboratory here with the aim of mass production of cut flowers. (more…)
Statesman News Service
KALIMPONG, July 28. — Hours after the celebration of Martyrs’ day, the All India Gorkha League today asserted that their dream of establishing a separate state for the Gorkhas will be impossible under the leadership of the GNLF supremo and DGHC chairman, Mr Subash Ghisingh. (more…)
Statesman News Service
KALIMPONG, July 27. — The GNLF (C), a front formed in memory of late dissident leader Chandra Kumar Pradhan, today said that the GNLF should now demand a separate state instead of opting for special status under the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution. (more…)
www.thestatesman.net
KALIMPONG, July 26. — After their demands failed to elicit the desired response from the state authorities, the Lepchas are now thinking of approaching the centre with their grievances. (more…)
Statesman News Service
KALIMPONG, July 25. — The Swatantra Nari Sangathan (SNS), a voluntary women’s organisation from Topkhana is all to set an example for citizens here.
Claiming that not municipality’s role in cleansing dirt is not enough, this organisation carried out a drive to clean the area of ward number 7. (more…)
Pudung, July 24: The little hamlet near Kalimpong has an extra asset to draw visitors that other Hill towns envy. The new swimming pool set up in the lap of green mountains, 5 km from Kalimpong, in April has started showing signs of becoming a sure crowd-puller. The pool at the Dab Eco-Recreational Centre (DERC) here is 80 ft by 40 ft in size and 7-ft deep and fed by spring water. After a swim, the visitors can also have a bite at the adjacent fast-food centre. Deenod Sharma, the proprietor of the DERC, said: “This will soon become very popular since there are only a few recreational centres here. The picturesque locale adds to the attraction. The charge is Rs 50 per head per day.” Plans are also on to set up lodging facilities at the centre. The total cost of the entire project on the 1.54-acre plot is expected to cost around Rs 25 lakh. |
www.telegraphindia.com
Kalimpong, July 24: The Hampshire police might have kept their promise, but the father of the girl tricked by Maninder Pal Singh Kohli said he did not feel it “right” to accept the award. (more…)
www.telegraphindia.com
Kalimpong, July 24: Fifty-six-year-old Hassan Ebudola Adebanke, a Nigerian national, was arrested today after she failed to produce valid travel documents. She was trying to enter Sikkim by the Sikkim Rangpo check-post on Friday.
A case under the Foreigners Act, 1946, will be initiated against her and she will be produced before the Kalimpong subdivisional judicial magistrate tomorrow.
Police said the woman had come to Sikkim for the court case of one James Frank who was arrested in connection with an international Internet scam.
www.telegraphindia.com
Kalimpong/Darjeeling, July 22: A year after the arrest of suspected rapist and murderer of Hannah Foster, a 17-year-old girl in Hampshire, England, people who helped police track down and nab the alleged offender Maninder Pal Singh Kohli, have been rewarded as promised. (more…)
Statesman News Service
KALIMPONG, July 20. — The felicitation of Paril continues. As an expression of solidarity towards the 13-year-old sub-junior national archery champion, the association of the heads of ICSE and ICS schools today handed over a check worth rupees fifteen thousand rupees to Paril Lepcha here at Dr Graham Homes. (more…)
www.telegraphindia.com
Kalimpong, July 19: The GNLF has condemned the state government for not releasing funds sanctioned by the Centre for an engineering college to be set up here. (more…)
Fiction by Prabin Moktan.
The Watch
The moon loosened itself from the clouds and a soft light shone down on Min.A scar very precise and geometric ran underneath his left eye to disappear into a cross-stitch of other smaller scars that were concealed by a mop of jet-black hair.Min and his two friends were on a mission. The three of them quiet, confident and almost feline stole into the darkness and positioned themselves below the broad leaves of the banana trees that flanked the dirt road leading to the cluster of huts. Slowly they began to work at the trunk of one of the trees, laboriously sawing away the wet tissues with a khukri. They worked quietly; the only sound was the muffled noise of the sawing and the patter of the waters of the dhara falling on the flat stones below. It wasn’t long before the upper half of the trunk was almost severed, held precariously by a few strands of stubborn fibre. They stopped and waited for the heavy drunken footfalls of Kaka to come dragging down the dark road. Presently the stooping figure of Kaka drunk as usual staggered along, swaying from one end of that narrow road to another. He had barely reached the dhara when Min and his friends let go of that unstable plant to make it fall at Kaka’s feet with a giant thud that disturbed the night and sent all the dogs of the hamlet nearby into a medley of very terrified barks. Kaka jumped out of his drunken stupor and in that sudden burst of uncoordinated, uncontrolled movement landed right into the slime pool with its cold sticky mess of soap water and mosquito larvae. Min and his friends jumped out of the darkness desperately trying to control their laughter. They pulled Kaka out of the mess and put him under the dhara to give that reluctant individual now reduced to a complaining bundle of flailing arms and gibberish, a swift and very undignified bath. They then carried that soft white naked mass of puffy flesh to his house and deposited it in his room so that he could regain both composure and dignity in the familiarity of his piss-stained double bed. (more…)
New fiction by Prabin Moktan…
AMALA AND THE WORM
Nabin Limbu lead as normal an existence as any 23 year old freelance DTP professional who dreamed of landing a government job before he crossed the age limit for such luxury. He did not smoke but occasionally hung out with his friends to binge-drink with them at the neighbourhood chaang joint run by amala, a middle-aged Tibetan hag who had come to Kalimpong during the early sixties.This woman had one daughter who was majoring in American studies from a university in the US and a son somewhere in Dharamsala with His Holiness’s government in exile. Both were acutely embarrassed by their mother’s present vocation but they could do little to convince Tshering Nima to take up an alternative career. Her daughter a pragmatic girl who valued the entrepreneurial skills of her people suggested that she sell noodles while her son would rather have her live a quiet religious life spent counting her 108-beaded rosary. But Tshering Nima would have none of it. She had struggled all her life and she would not suffer these upstarts to tell her what to do. So she religiously got up at five every morning to visit the beef stalls to fetch her daily quota of ox-tail bones, lungs and a general assortment of other bovine appendages from which she could conjure up a tasty side dish for Nabin Limbu and company. (more…)
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