From Tetulia to Kanchenjunga.
14 October 2019. I did not know in the morning where I will stay at night? I got a train ticket to go to Panchagarh to get oral leave from the office with only one hour’s notice. Note that there was only one train ticket at that time to make my journey easier. The goal is to go to Sikkim. I got in the car from the office on time but it was 8:30 to reach home. My train leaves the airport at 8:30 p.m. Which is not an ideal time for Dhaka city at all. Protect the bag as it is always tidy. Somehow with a little charge on my mobile, I started running after eating a little.
I knew there was no way to get to the airport from Mirpur 10 by bus in such a short time. So I took a bike and reached the airport station on time. The express train also arrived at the right time. I got on the train without much trouble as I had an AC room ticket. But after a while, the AC of the train started to feel quite cold. Bhagya’s bag is always tidy and there was a sweater in the shed, so I went to sleep free from the cold.
I woke up after reaching my favorite Parbatipur railway station. And from then on, it started to stop longer than the train. Although the pure nature on both sides was wonderfully enjoyable. Paddy fields swaying in the green on both sides of the railway line, a soft sheet of light fog wrapped lightly over the green, the dew particles of winter coming on the tops of the paddy trees, the red glow in the sky in the distant eastern sky signaling the arrival of Surya Mama. I was enjoying some wonderful, fascinating nature until I came to Dinajpur.
After that, as the sun rose, the tenderness of the morning gradually faded away. And the place of that tenderness was occupied by various annoying things. Stopping the train for an indefinite period of time, getting down from the train because you don’t feel good in your seat anymore, standing outside feeling quite hot in the sun, enduring the nuisance of unnecessary hawkers. At one point, the right-time train was delayed for exactly two hours and dropped at the dusty city of Panchagarh at exactly 10 o’clock. Is it that unbearable dust and pollution can not be finished. I asked myself, is there no one to take care of this city? Still helpless, I took a rickshaw and went to the bus stand.
The bus took a 10-minute break from Panchagarh to Tetulia. The mood worsened by 11:30 p.m. I thought to myself, I can’t go to Sikkim today. You have to stay in Siliguri. In this way, I sat on the bus with my mind clear. Exactly 10 minutes later the bus left for Banglabandha. Pretty good, I’m sitting with great annoyance. The bus began to walk straight through bushes, forests, and village paths. A frigid winter breeze began to blow. Why did I look out the window a little? The sun was shining outside and a couple of white clouds were flying in the bright blue sky.
And looking up a little, it seemed as if a line of black clouds in the distance occupied a lot of boundaries in the sky. Just above the black clouds is a wide line of white clouds of various sizes. But not in the same parallel, somewhere high, somewhere a little low, somewhere a little crooked. Yes, a lot like clouds. But still, why did I feel a little confused in my mind, the line of such black clouds across the sky so high seemed a little unusual, and at the same time, the spread of such white clouds just above the black line is not supposed to exist.
It seemed to me in a hurry, these are the mountain ranges of Darjeeling or not! And the white lines on the top of the black hill are not the ice-covered Kanchenjunga again! Oh no, is that so? At this time, there is no question of seeing the mountains of Darjeeling and Kanchenjunga so clearly from so far away. But no, as soon as the bus moved a little further, I realized that they were really the mountains of Darjeeling and the white ones on top of those mountains was not clouds, they were the Himalayas. I was thrilled at the moment. As the bus moves forward, the hills and the Himalayan peaks become clearer to me. What a strange joy to be floating alone can not be explained.
When the bus stopped, I started walking towards Zero Point without taking a rickshaw. And I took these pictures by zooming in a bit with my daredevil camera. Once I thought what the hell will happen to Darjeeling or Sikkim? Sitting here in my favorite Tetulia, Divya can be seen shining, glittering, shining with a smile, the unearthly Himalayan mountains, Kanchenjunga, and many other mountain peaks covered in snow.
But no, the Himalayas are like an intoxication, wanting to see as much as you can see, the closer you get, the closer you want to get, no matter how much I see it, no trace of seeing it will ever be satisfied. Just like this song …
“If I don’t look at you later,
Put it on my burn,
When you see it in two eyes,
Thirst increases … ”
And that’s why I finally crossed the border to Sikkim to quench my thirst to see him more closely.
The pictures are of 15 October 2019
Please take care that no nature harms us.