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

GANGTOK, JULY 7:   Sushen Pradhan, son of Shri T.B. Pradhan and Smt. D.K. Pradhan of Development Area, Gangtok has completed his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Biotechnology from Guwahati University on June 30. His topic was “Development of tissue culture system for in vitro regeneration, biochemical and molecular characterization of ginger varieties grown in Sikkim”. Pradhan was under the guidance of Prof. P.J. Handique, Guwahati University. Pradhan in his press release has acknowledged his family, Dr. B.C. Basistha (Additional Director), Department of Science and Technology & Climate Change and all the people who directly and indirectly supported him for the completion of his research work. Graduated from Sikkim Government College, Tadong, Sushen Pradhan did his schooling at Tashi Namgyal Senior Secondary School. He completed his MSc form Bangalore University in 2007. Presently he is working as a research associate in Sikkim State Council of Science and Technology, Biote...

  (This article is more like a grandfather telling a story to his grandson. The story is not found in the books but borrowed from the pages of the past. It is a story of a grand old man from Bom Busty, Kalimpong, a retired Gurkha soldier, a World War II veteran, a father, a grandfather, and a great grandfather. This is the story of the late Rudramani Pradhan, who passed away on November 26, 2006. The stories were recorded during my two-day stay with him at Kalimpong Hospital.) Being a grandson to a legendary Gorkha soldier was of little importance to me until I found out that he himself was a legend of his own. I was his grandson from his second daughter, settled at Singtam, Sikkim. For two days every year on Dussehra we would visit  Aja-Aji  (Grandfather and Grandmother in Newari Language) out at Bom Busty, Kalimpong. Those early days telephones were not heard off and occasionally sending letters by  Aja  to my mother was the only means of con...

SINGTAM , APRIL 17 : Sikkim ’s No. 1 Dancer, Search for the Sikkim’s best solo dancer started with a grand anticipation with 168 participants from different parts of the state making their presence felt. The two days audition round for Junior and Senior Category was completed on April 14 and April 15 at Nepali Dharamsala, Singtam . The inaugural day of the competition had Junior Audition Round that had 74 participants while the next day for the Senior Audition Round there were 95 aspiring participants dancing for the coveted title. A total of 41 participants from each category were selected by the three judges for the next round. The three judges of Sikkim’s No. 1 Dancer were Sushma Chetrri from Namchi , Hemanta Das from Assam and Bijay Tamang from Nepal . Remanti Rai , winner of North East Ke Superstar Singing Competition was the host of the event along with Chandra Bahadur Subba . One of the major attractions at the Junior Audition round was seven year old danc...

SINGTAM, SEPTEMBER 21: Singtam Basibiyalo , a popular monthly cultural and literature meet has decided not to hold its September 25 episode owing to the natural disaster that shattered the entire Sikkim State along with other nearby regions. Mohan Pradhan ‘Neeraj’, Sasthapak of Singtam Basibiyalo had informed that members of Singtam Basibiyalo are highly saddened by the loss of lives and property caused by the earthquake that occurred to our state on the evening of September 18. We also pray for the speedy recovery of all those who were injured. Since we (the town of Singtam) are also recovering from the Sunday evening frightening incident we have jointly decide not to hold our monthly program, added TB Pradhan, Advisor Singtam Basibiyalo. 

I am looking for the family members of late Bimshamsir Pradhan from Gangtok who left India and stayed in Sarawak, Malaysia. He went to Malaysia in 1961. He was married to Rohani (her other name is Pawi) and also have a daughter Lolita Bhimshamsir Pradhan. He was in Gorkha Regiment that went to Malaysia.

I am still looking for the earliest settlers at Singtam bazaar but with little success. As a student of Sikkim history when I try to wrap myself within the frame of that era where transportations and communications were only on the animal’s ride or possibly the “dollies” used by the wealthy social order, I would beyond doubt find myself the sole person to think what or how things could have happened then. When I look at the age old mango trees grown along the road side leading to Singtam Bazaar from the old Iron Bridge it makes me feel nostalgic. I could feel the thoughts of the people who had planted it. These trees are as old as Singtam and those people who first sowed the mango seed were the first to have thought to beautify this then small time river-side inhabitant. What was more fascinating was the fact that it was not the present business capital of Singtam that was sought-after marketplace more than half a decades ago but a little heard of Sirubari now angelized Sirwani that wa...

My daughter Sristikaa Pradhan My daughter, Sristikaa Pradhan started off her academic session today. She has been admitted to King George Academy at Singtam. Last Saturday, I visited the school and filled up the admission forms. I could not realize how soon the years passed by, it was as if yesterday I would carry her in my arms and today she started going to school.  I was worried she would cry her heart on her first day but to my and Seema's surprise, she didn't cry as told by her teacher. She was rather surprised with other students wailing and she just kept staring up. In the morning I took a few snaps of her first day to school in her school uniforms, as I too have a photograph of my first day at school more than two and half decades back.   In the morning there was a funny incident out at school, one of the teachers told my daughter " Say, Good Morning Miss!!", my daughter instantly did not reply but a little later when the teacher repeated her words to my d...

BY SHITAL PRADHAN Discovering Sikkim that has its own rich heritage, culture, its legend and many mysterical phenomenons has always been my passion and to learn that was something unknown to most of the people makes me a happy man. Some time back I was to a place called Pasting, a small village with 45 houses in the forest region when this time around the white chaamp flower is to its full bloom. I was born in Rongli more than two decades ago but never could have I gone beyond the place of Lingtam that is just a half an hour drive. Sometime back, I was at Rongli along with my father to visit my grandfather cardamom field at Pasting. Since grandfather was staying at Pasting for couple of week so we were four to visit him, kaka, nini, father and myself. There was a drive till the small bridge near the Lingtam. Thereafter there was a walk for half an hour across the jungle and finally we reached our destination. After taking rest grandfather took four of us to show the c...

BY SHITAL PRADHAN Sikkim is a home of religious front. Amidst the fact that these heritage sites are now a part of negligence but still richness lies in its glory of the past. With the wheel of clock things have gone through their mid way but there are certain strokes that pave its own path and remain the testimony of the hour. Through this blog I have always tried to give the best insight story to its reader regarding Sikkim, it’s past and present. Here comes a story of a Shiv mandir in Rhenock that has been weaving in a tale frozen in time. A Shivalaya at Rhenock Jeep stand near Bhanu Bhakta‘s statue had its own glory days and now lies in an affirm of deep silence. Once much crowded, Mandir is now on the verge of losing its charm. I met Sunder Kumar Pradhan, former Panchayat member from Rhenock in his early 80s some time back and have heard a fascinating story of this mandir. According to Pradhan, this mandir has been in its present position ever since he was a child. H...

Anushika Pradhan tending bar at the Dublin Pub in the Maurya Sheraton Hotel in New Delhi , India.  NEW DELHI — Yet another British-era law has been toppled like a drunk from a bar stool, in a change that gives women the freedom to make a living mixing the perfect cosmopolitan . In overturning a 1914 law that prohibited women from tending bar here in the capital, the Supreme Court of India this month not only raised a glass to change social mores in this country but also gave Indian women access to one of the most lucrative jobs in the new economy. Prosperity has resulted in the proliferation of trendy bars across urban India and, as upscale as some of them are, with a glass of Bordeaux costing as much as a labourer’s weekly wage, drinking in the minds of middle-class Indians is beginning to lose its whiff of vice and danger. On any given night, in any fashionable barroom in big-city India, women can be seen drinking merrily — sometimes even without th...