Proud to be a Sikkimese: Sikkim Travel, Culture & Local Heritage

RONGLI: Sangharsh , a local NGO from Rongli organised an AIDS awareness campaign at Rongli Bazaar to educate the general public on the occasion of world HIV/AIDS Day today. The day long program was supervised by Red Ribbon Club, Gangtok. On the occasion, the members of Sangharsh interacted with the common people on the streets of Rongli; distributed pamphlets and posters. A red ribbon symbolizing “AIDS” was also tied to the people. Speaking on the occasion, Praveen Pradhan, President Sangharsh told that, it is high time for people around to be made aware and educate about the significance of the increasing rate of AIDS patients throughout the globe. We should not discriminate those patients but should appreciate and help them fight the disease. We the members of Sangharsh are dedicated and devoted towards the welfare of the society, told Pradhan.

This article, published in the "Now" weekly newspaper from Gangtok, is a memorable one for me. It was 2003, and I was working as a reporter in Weekend Review, a reputed weekly newspaper from Gangtok. In one of the assignments, I visited Kopchay, a small hamlet, on the way to Rongli, where a man was supposedly reincarnated as Lord Vishnu's avatar and performed miracles, curing illness beyond medical limitations. I was at Kopchay by 10 am that day, and looking at the queue with around a couple of thousand followers, I thought I couldn't chat with the person. Yet I went to the registration counter and took out my journalist Identity Card, and immediately I found myself just at the door of the so-called " Kopchay-Baba ". As I was about to enter the closed door from inside, a person from behind took my camera and my handbag, I was led to enter the room with an empty hand. As I entered the room, I could see the man in jagged and torn trousers with a stinkin...

He has defeated death. Believe it or not, but it is true, a kind story in the world- a man from an Indian army on a Nathula border is still doing his duty even after his death some three decades back. 60km from Gangtok towards the panoramic view of the Nathula landscape, a road leads towards the valley of Kupup. Here is the shrine of Baba Harbhajan, popularly known as Baba Mandir. Baba Harbhajan has been guarding the international boundary of the two Asian giants, China and India, over the last three decades. But believe me, he does it alone. Even the army men on the other side of the International Wall confirmed that they had seen a man riding a horse all alone patrolling the border.  Born in Brondal village of Kapurthala, Punjab, Harbhajan Singh joined the 23 rd Punjab Battalion in February 1966 as a sepoy. The year 1968, when the states of Sikkim and North Bengal were under the rage of great natural disasters where, landslides, floods, and heavy rain had taken thousan...

Gangtok, June 4: After two months of overflow in tourism in the state beginning from April with different tourist hotspots locked in a fierce battle, the mountainous Nathu La-Changu corridor still stands out as the lifeline of Sikkim tourism. Nowhere in the world can one travel from an elevation of 5,000 ft (Gangtok) to the surreal heights of 14,400 ft (Nathu La) wihtin two hours flat, tourism stakeholders basking in the after-glow of a bumper season said here. According to the figures provided by the State Tourism Department, around 1.7 lakh domestic and 6763 foreign tourists had already arrived in Sikkim in the past four months. The figures of the peak month, May have yet to be accounted by the department. Among these tourists, especially the domestic tourists, a visit to Nathu La-Baba Mandir-Changu Lake axis is a must. Fifty tourist vehicles are permitted by the Army per day to visit Nathu La border, while a visit to Changu Lake and Baba Mandir carries no ceiling. ...