www.kalimpong.info

- Dr. Sonam B. Wangyal

We dealt with ‘haat‘ and today we will continue to examine some other parts of our body. The Nepali tongue has many double words that add emphasis to the first one e.g., sato putlo, phuk phak, pit pat etc. Where our anatomy is concerned I have chosen a couple of double-worded general terms and the first one is ‘dublo patlo‘ which easily translates as lean and thin but it is a bit more wiry than that and is closer to meaning something like emaciated. The other is ‘patali putali‘ where the first word is a gender reverse of ‘patlo‘ and the second provides us with a choice between a butterfly and a doll. My choice, and probably yours too, is definitely the latter one because the accepted meaning of the compound word is a slender and beautiful woman, a doll-like creature, but a ‘butterfly-like slim woman’ does not sound too bad, does it!

Now on to some specific body parts: ‘Pate‘ (pronounced as in rate or mate) or stomach has its own nuances and we take on ‘pate palnu‘ which literally translates as nourishing the stomach but actually means to earn a living. Well our ancestors who coined this term and Napoleon who said, “An army marches on its stomach.” were both very much on the same wavelength for they knew how important it was to nourish the ‘pate‘ before anything else. No wonder our forefathers took the logic a notch higher by bequeathing us the term ‘pate kholnu‘. It does not mean to commit suicide and neither does it imply any surgical procedure but to, as the English speakers would say, spill it out, open up the heart. Yes, our ‘pate‘ is in the heart of everything and therefore our profoundest thoughts would come not from the bottom of the heart but from the bottom of our stomachs which the following phrase aptly illustrates: ‘Hami pate kholera bolnay manchay ho!’.

In the first of this Nepali Nuances series we dealt with the verb ‘katnu‘ and I mentioned ‘nak katnu‘ but there is more to it than a single poetic expression and an almost opposite meaning is implied by the term ‘nak thamnu‘ (uphold one’s nose) or preserve or guard one’s social standing. If you are capable of ‘nak thamnu‘ then, believe me my ‘nak phulcha‘ (nose will swell) or you will do me proud. The neighbouring ear is also not few, I mean ‘kamtiko chhaina‘. ‘Hati kanay‘ implies big ears and not elephant ears while ‘kanayguji‘ (guji = insect) does not mean insect in or of the ear but rather the wax in that orifice and the word ‘kanay‘, by itself, has nothing to do with the ears but surprisingly means a one-eyed person. Older people are used to saying ‘kanma tail halyo‘ meaning blocking the ears and therefore not heeding or not responding to a command or request. Some people claim that the actual meaning is ‘to keep silent’ (which probably is also the result of indifferent ears!). But to consider more familiar terms I would like us to mull over ‘kan khayo‘ or to irritate the ears through noise or words and when the irritations are of different nature we normally yell out, “Tauko khayo” and that would amount to something like ‘to get on the nerves’. To the person who gets on our nerves we often tell him/her off by saying, “Tero tauko!” which despite translating as ‘your head’ actually means “You blockhead (idiot, stupid)!”

Talking of ‘tauko‘ we have the famous term ‘ghantaukay‘. Most dictionaries translate the term ‘ghan‘ as ‘a large hammer sledge-hammer’ but I think the prefix ‘ghan‘ has no relation to a hammer but it just means what it is supposed to mean, big (cf.ghan kanu = to make a big sound, ghanandhakar = pitch dark, ghanera= excessive etc.) and so the word does not mean a sledge-hammer head as given by one the most famous dictionaries but simply big head, nut, cranium or skull.

At the opposite end of ‘tauko‘ is the ‘khutta‘ and with it is connected a marvelous expression, “khutta jhiknu“. It is almost opposite of ‘haat halnu‘ (to meddle) and suggests an act of total disassociation. My favourite for this week is ‘nang ra masu‘ denoting an intimate relationship. What could possibly be so closely related than the flesh and the nails and we are all aware of the soreness that can be caused when the two are separated. I wish that any relationship
you strike will be of the ‘nang ra masu‘ nature and hope the day will never arrive when you have to ‘chhati thoknu‘ in regret.

Ajako lagi dherai bhayo hola, abha ma khutta jhiknu paryo.

www.telegraphindia.com

Kalimpong, March 17:About 2,000 Tibetans marched through the main streets of the town today as the outrage against the Chinese crackdown on the protests in Lhasa found its echo in the hills.

The marchers carried placards and shouted slogans against the Chinese government and in support of Tibetan independence. Cries of “Free Tibet” rent the air. Women protesters were seen weeping to mourn the deaths of their brethren back home.

“We will never give up until and unless Tibet is free. The Chinese must end their occupation of our homeland,” said Chumgdak, the president of the Kalimpong chapter of Tibetan Women’s Association.

Chumgdak added the world should come together to boycott the Beijing Olympics slated for August this year, especially since the Chinese aggression was there for all to see through international news channel.

A large number of women members in the crowd turned up in traditional Tibetan dress, while many youngsters wore bandanas carrying messages of freedom. Monks in their maroon robes were at the head of the procession.

“Tibetans from different parts of the region will gather in Siliguri tomorrow to march from Salugara to Court More. The Kalimpong contingent will be 100 strong,” Chumgdak said. (more…)

http://savethehills.blogspot.com/2008/03/now-that-rains-are-here.html

(Mr. Praful Rao has been spotlighting the landslides issue in the Darjeeling Hills in the site, savethehills.blogspot.com since Sept 07. The site contains detailed records of the work done by ‘Save The Hills’, along with photographs of the landslide affected areas, and correspondences with various agencies and experts. This latest post contains expert advice on recognizing landslide prone areas, warning signs and the emergency responses in the event of a landslide. )

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Yesterday we had the first big premonsoon shower in Kalimpong… since nothing much has been done by way of landslide prevention, I thought might as well post the do’s and don’ts from the Geological Survey of India website (kindly help by giving as much publicity as possible) :-

Areas that are generally prone to landslides

• Old and/or recent existing landslides,
• Base or top of slopes
• Base of minor drainage hollows
• Base or top of an old fill slope
• Base or top of a steep cut slope

Areas generally safe from landslides

• Hard, non-jointed bedrock that has not moved in the past
• Flat-lying areas away from slopes and steep river banks
• The nose of ridges, set back from the tops of slopes

Landslide warning signs

• Sticking or jamming of doors or windows.
• Appearance of cracks in plaster, tile, brick, or foundations.
• Pulling away from the building of outside walls or stairs.
• Slow development of widening cracks on the ground or on paved areas such as streets..
• Breakage of underground utility lines.
• Appearance of bulging ground at the base of a slope
• Emergence of flowing ground water in new sites.
• Sudden decrease in creek water levels though rain is still falling or just recently stopped.
• Tilting or moving of fences, retaining walls, utility poles, or trees.
• Faint rumbling sound that increases in volume as the landslide nears.The ground slopes downward in one specific direction and may begin shifting in that direction under your feet.

Immediate steps for imminent Landslide

• Contact your local fire, police or public works department
• Inform affected neighbors
• Leave the area quickly

Actions to be taken before Intense Rainfall

• Become familiar with the land around you. Slopes where landslides or debris flows have occurred in the past are likely to experience them in the future.
• Buildings should be located away from known landslides, debris flows, steep slopes, streams and rivers, intermittent-stream channels, and the mouths of mountain channels.
• Observe the patterns of storm-water drainage on slopes near your home, and watch especially the places were runoff water converges, increasing flow over soil-covered slopes. Observe the hillsides around your home for any signs of land movement, such as small landslides or debris flows or progressively tilting trees.
• Contact your local authorities to learn about the disaster management response, and develop your own emergency plans for your family and business.

During Intense Rainfall

• Be observant. Many landslide and debris flow fatalities occur when people are sleeping. Listen to radio for warnings of intense rainfall. Intense short bursts of rain may be particularly dangerous, especially after longer periods of heavy rainfall and damp weather.
• Unusual sounds might indicate moving debris, such as trees cracking or boulders knocking together. A trickle of flowing or falling mud or debris may precede larger landslides. Be alert for any sudden increase or decrease in water flow in streams or channels. Such changes may indicate landslide activity upstream, so be prepared to move quickly.
• If you live in areas susceptible to landslides and debris flows, consider leaving if it is safe to do so. If you remain at home, move to a part of the house farthest away from the source of the landslide or debris flows, such as an upper floor, but keep an escape route open should it become necessary to leave the house.
• Be alert when on the roads. Embankments along roadsides are particularly susceptible to landslides. Watch the road for collapsed pavement, mud, fallen rocks, and other indications of possible landslides or debris flows.

After Intense Rainfall

• Be alert for signs indicating land movement. Landslides can occur weeks or months after intense storms.

Things to Remember

• Mudflows tend to flow in channels, but will often spread out over a floodplain. They generally occur in places where they have occurred before.
• Landslide and mudflows usually strike without warning. The force of rocks, soil, or other debris moving down a slope can devastate anything in its path. Take the following steps to be ready.
• Plant ground cover on slopes and build retaining walls.
• In mudflow areas, build channels or deflection walls to direct the flow around buildings.
• Remember: If you build walls to divert debris flow and the flow lands on a neighbor’s property, you may be liable for damages.

Precautions to be taken during landslides

If inside a building:

• Stay inside.
• Take cover under a desk, table, or other piece of sturdy furniture.

If outdoors:

• Try and get out of the path of the landslide or mudflow.
• Run to the nearest high ground in a direction away from the path.
• If rocks and other debris are approaching, run for the nearest shelter such as a group of trees or a building.
• If escape is not possible, curl into a tight ball and protect your head.

After Landslide

• Stay away from the slide area. There may be danger of additional slides.
• Check for injured and trapped persons near the slide area. Give first aid if trained.
• Remember to help your neighbors who may require special assistance–infants, elderly people, and people with disabilities.
• Listen to a battery-operated radio or television for the latest emergency information.
• Remember that flooding may occur after a mudflow or a landslide.
• Check for damaged utility lines. Report any damage to the utility company.
• Check the building foundation, chimney, and surrounding land for damage.
• Replant damaged ground as soon as possible since erosion caused by loss of ground cover can lead to flash flooding.
• Seek the advice of geotechnical expert for evaluating landslide hazards or designing corrective techniques to reduce landslide risk.

-praful rao

www.nepalnews.com

Darjeeling district legislators have demanded that India’s West Bengal state government give proper clarification regarding the killing of 1,200 people by its police two decades ago when the ‘Gorkhaland’ agitation was at its peak.

According to Kantipur daily, legislators Gaulan Lepcha and Pranaya Rai had put forth this demand before WB chief minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya at the Kolkata legislative assembly Thursday.

After chief minister Bhattcharya gave clarification for the shoot-out that took place at Dinhata of West Bengal during the Thursday’s session of the parliament, the Nepali speaking legislators had demanded that the government also give similar clarification regarding the people who were martyred during the Gorkhaland agitation that broke out in the year 1986. Similarly, they have also sought an explanation regarding the killing of Krishna Subba and Dev Raj Sharma by the state police on August 7, 1981.

They said that the police took the lives of more than 1,200 people during the Gorkhaland agitation by indiscriminately firing at the protestors demanding a separate Gorkhaland state. Thousands of people were also injured and rendered homeless during the agitation.

“The government should own up the responsibility for all the killing that took place during the agitation,” Lepcha said, “or else we would engage in further protest.”

nepalnews.com ag Mar 15 08

www.telegraphindia.com

Darjeeling, March 14: Drinking water, rural electrification and repair of roads top the priority list of the new caretaker administrator of the DGHC.

B.L. Meena, the divisional commissioner of Jalpaiguri, who is now at the helm of hill council affairs, said more meetings would have to be held to streamline the projects. He had called the council officers at Indira Gandhi Conference Hall in Lal Kothi here today to review the status of the schemes and prioritise them on a need basis.

The three-hour meeting was attended by heads of various departments, who apprised the administrator of the pending work at hand.

Sources said the council has already received around Rs 20 crore for rural electrification under the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojna and the total funding could touch the Rs 75-crore mark. (more…)

www.telegraphindia.com

Kalimpong, March 14: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s meeting to select a new set of office-bearers in different wings of the Kalimpong branch witnessed a lot of drama today with party members shouting slogans for their favourite candidates.

The drama unfolded at the Town Hall where hundreds of activists had assembled from early in the morning. At the very start of a rather chaotic meeting it became apparent that the selection of office-bearers would be anything but a smooth affair with activists openly hankering over posts.

Some sections of the jam-packed auditorium resorted to sloganeering in support of their respective candidates.

When it became obvious that tussle for positions in the party was being enacted in the open, Morcha secretary Roshan Giri took the microphone and requested journalists to leave, forgetting for the moment that they had been invited by the party.

This is not the first time that reporters have been prevented from covering events. During the no-confidence vote in the Kalimpong Municipality on January 24, Morcha activists had stopped journalists from entering the office of the civic body to report the incident.

Harka Bahadur Chettri, a central committee member of the party, however, tried to soothe ruffled feathers. “Although I was not present when the incident occurred, I feel it could have been handled in a more diplomatic manner. I apologise to the media for what was an unfortunate incident,” he said.

Chettri was also at the receiving end of sloganeering by the section of party activists who favoured Kalyan Dewan as the branch present. As it turned out, Dewan was selected to the post, while Samuel Gurung was nominated secretary. The remaining office-bearers will be selected on a later date.

The women and youth wings of the party in Kalimpong will be headed by Nanita Gautam and Pravin Rahapal respectively.

Shift in loyalty

Bimal Gurung, the vice-chairman of Darjeeling Municipality, has announced that he along with two other commissioners — Jigme Sherpa and Lhamu Sherpa — has resigned from the GNLF. The leaders have not yet joined any other party.

Statesman News Service

DARJEELING, March 14: The Jalpaiguri divisional commissioner Mr BL Meena, held his first meeting with the heads of the various departments of the DGHC at the DGHC secretariat, Lal Kothi today. The meeting focused on the various projects initiated by the DGHC, the pending sch-emes and the future plan of action to be undertaken. The important issues dealt with were safe drinking water, health, sanitation, repair of roads, power, tourism and education.

Emphasis would be given on the development of the entire Hills but the rural areas would be of paramount importance. The prime focus was on rural electrification scheme and the accelerated rural water supply scheme.

Mr Meena assured that he would personally meet the heads of individual departments to discuss matters in detail and chalk out the future plans. Regarding the nine vacant positions at the DGHC, the divisional commissioner, said that he had forwarded a memorandum to the government to appoint new officials immediately.

As of now he has requested the government to depute at least five officials from the district collectorate’s office to handle the vacant posts.

www.telegraphindia.com

Kalimpong, March 13: Till a year ago, the GNLF had used the Maghe Mela at Tribeni to establish the tribal roots of the Gorkhas and build up its case to demand Sixth Schedule status for the hills.

A little more than 12 months later, about 20,000 people from the Darjeeling hills and the Dooars descended on the picturesque venue of Tribeni, the confluence of the Teesta and Rangit, to celebrate the success of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha in stalling the special status bill and in ousting Subash Ghisingh as caretaker administrator of the DGHC.

As in Singla, Morcha president Bimal Gurung was present at Tribeni, 50km from Darjeeling, today to join in the revelry. However, unlike yesterday when he only did the listening, Gurung did speak, albeit briefly. Conscious of the presence of a large number of people from the Dooars, Gurung reassured them saying: “We will not part with even an inch of the Dooars during our struggle for Gorkhaland.”

Predictably, this was greeted with a deafening roar of approval, which all but drowned the mighty currents of the Teesta. (more…)

/www.telegraphindia.com

Siliguri, March 13: The Darjeeling district police chief has showcaused the inspector-in-charge of Darjeeling Sadar police station, N.T. Sherpa, for raiding the houses of retired DGHC officers without search warrants to retrieve official files in their possession.

Police had already made an inventory of the files seized on Tuesday. On that day, the supporters of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha supporters were demonstrating outside the houses of Tshering Bhutia, Tika Khati, Tshering Wangchuk and M.N. Pradhan, accusing them of removing the files on the sly. The law enforcers initially arrived to control the law and order situation.

“Suddenly, Morcha supporters started demanding that the houses be searched. Without any warrant, the police conducted raids and seized 200 files,” a source said. The Morcha later lodged a complaint with the Sadar police station, alleging that files had been removed from DGHC offices.

It is mandatory to have a court order to conduct a search or seize articles, a senior police official said. “As for taking home official files, it depends upon the administrative capacity of the person concerned.” (more…)

Hindustan Times
March 12, 2008

Mahendra P. Lama

At best, Subhash Ghisingh had become redundant to the aspirations of the people of Darjeeling and its adjoining Dooar areas of northern West Bengal. At worst, he was an obstacle and was perceived to be ’sleeping with the enemy’, the Left Front government. So very few will be disappointed as the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) chief, literally hounded out of Darjeeling by the Gorkha Mukti Morcha (GMM), resigned as administrator of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) on Monday.

Over the last few months, the violence of the Gorkhaland agitation that affected Darjeeling in the mid-1980s seemed to be re-emerging. Ironically, this time the GNLF and the state government, which were at loggerheads then, were pitted against the people of Darjeeling. The GNLF that spearheaded the movement for separate statehood has been in tatters for some time now — the baton being taken by the DGHC. The immediate cause for this has been the way the DGHC, set up in 1988, was being brought under the purview of the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. The real resentment was against the Sixth Schedule Amendment Bill, 2007, that is based on the ‘in principle’ tripartite Memorandum of Settlement (MoS) signed on December 6, 2005, by Ghisingh, the Union Home Secretary and the Chief Secretary of West Bengal Government. The GNLF chief, after losing his political clout, negotiated the MoS and signed it as an DGHC ‘administrator’, not as an elected representative or even as president of his party.

The fragile situation in Darjeeling today is largely due to the cascading effects of the Left Front’s step-motherly treatment of the hill people. The signing of the 1988 accord and the poor running of the DGHC by the GNLF only consolidated what civil society in the hills called ‘internal colonialism’ practised by the state government. People were worried that the agitation this time was going to be more violent and protracted as the levels of frustration have been deeper and wider.

In the last two decades of DGHC’s existence, many of the tea gardens and all cinchona plantations have closed down. Most traditional means of livelihood have been destroyed. There are incidences of hunger deaths, suicides and human trafficking. The environmental deterioration has reached its peak with the people in Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong towns not getting drinking water for months on end. The DGHC has never made any development plans except the one in 1989. It had been drawing and utilising the funds on a purely ad hoc basis. No one knows what its annual budget is. Added to these are serious issues of political violence where civil society members and councillors have been murdered, while the media have been intimidated. With great difficulty, a village-level panchayat system was introduced in the last few years. It remains non-operational today. This is the ninth year that the DGHC elections have not been held.

The West Bengal government remained quite content with this arrangement as Ghisingh surrendered the demand for separate statehood and compromised on all the major aspirations of the hill people. It was a win-win situation for the government as it did not need to share any development resources and authority, as it functioned with a weak DGHC. It only required to oil the latter’s creaky and corrupt machinery as Ghisingh was allowed to run the DGHC like his personal fiefdom. For years together, the Left Front maintained that there are no opposition parties in Darjeeling. In the process, it lost support in its traditional bases and among its hill cadres.

In order to escape this deteriorating situation, Ghisingh had come up with the Sixth Schedule idea. He never consulted the people, political parties, social organisations or any civil society organisation. He assured that the entire hill people, including the scheduled castes, will get the Scheduled Tribes status under the Sixth Schedule. Remember, he’s the same man who had misled the people by announcing that the fate of Darjeeling was in the International Court of Justice in the Hague, by stating that Darjeeling was a ‘No Man’s Land’, by inciting people to burn the India-Nepal Peace and Friendship Treaty of 1950, and by taking the case of Darjeeling’s ’sovereign status’ to the Supreme Court. As recently as in 2005, Ghisingh had declared that the entire district was in the grip of Pakistan’s ISI. It was the fear that the Sixth Schedule status in its present form will not bring anything substantive to the people that cooked Ghisingh’s goose.

Till the Darjeeling hills and the adjoining areas of Dooars are given the status of a full statehood, people want a new and amended tripartite MoS among the West Bengal government, the Union government and elected representatives of the hills. This amended MoS must be the basis of including the Darjeeling hill region in the Sixth Schedule. The alternative is to hold the hill council election in the next few months and renegotiate the Sixth Schedule status with a new leadership.

Dr. Mahendra P. Lama prepared the First Development Plan of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council in 1989