20 March, 2004; NOW! 1 DETAILS ON pg 7 introducing Saturday, 20 March, 2004 Vol. 2 No. 45 Gangtok Rs. 3 Air-Conditioned State Grocery Shop Bank for Provisional Goods, Dry Fruits & All Hotel Requirements (for kitchen) VishwaVishwa WHOLE-SALES RETAIL-SALES ForeignYatraYatra Travel Card at the most reasonable prices No more foreign cash or Travellers Cheques. Just carry this magic card to RajdeepRajdeep access ATMs and shop Spectrum Color Lab Building, Near Amar/ anywhere in the world Chaman Garage, Sevoke Road, Siliguri Contact SBI, Gangtok. ph: 202224 ph: 2640799, 2640599 inside NEDFi rolls out the cash DECKS CLEARED FOR Rs. 1 CRORE IN INDUSTRIAL LOANS FOR SIKKIM BY MONTH-END ness loans for the state. It is antici- tions in the state in August last year. to get business loans from the banks a NOW REPORT pated that by the end of this month, “We are working deligently to- here. another eight will receive the go wards promoting economic activ- “All the commercial banks here GANGTOK, 19 March: In tune ahead. The total funding could ity in Sikkim. Everything, from are only interested in giving out with its aim of funding business cross Rs. 1 crore. mega-projects to small agro-loans, housing and car loans. They don’t ventures in the state, NEDFi [North According to NEDFi excites us,” states Mr. Tashi. want to take any risk with indus- Eastern Development Finance Cor- Sikkim unit Manager, Ugen This will come as good trial loans,” complains Karma, a poration Ltd.] has cleared 7 propos- Tashi, this is the first set of news and encouragement to young entrepreneur who has been als amounting to nearly Rs. 70 loans being given out since the scores of smaller entre- making unsuccessful rounds of all TURN TO pg 3 lakhs in its first installment of busi- NEDFi launched its opera- preneurs who find it difficult turn to pg 7 FOR DETAILS RARE GET EMAILS INITIATIVE THE LEAGUE OF REBELS IN DELIVERED DARJEELING BY HAND! GORKHA LEAGUE WINS OVER NEW CONVERTS DETAILS ON pg 3 DETAILS ON pg 3 Today was a morale booster for Prabin Rai, General Secretary AMITAVA BANERJEE it with supporters of other parties of DYFI Lebong Valley Commit- joining the Gorkha League ranks. tee, who is also a member of the DARJEELING, 19 March: The The list of new inductees included Darjeeling Bijanbari Zonal Com- Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League a DYFI leader, along with a few of mittee said: “Independence within [ABGL] is steadily gaining a his supporters, a Bharatiya Gorkha the DYFI is slowly coming to an strong foothold in the Darjeeling Janashakti [BGJ] leader and his end. Many of our good proposals hills and developing a steady sup- band and a panchayat member from were shelved by the higher-ups. My port base here. Thorbu Lower Division. friends and I think that the Gorkha League is the only party which is NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR HOTEL MANAGEMENT AND CATERING TECHNOLOGY, PUSA COMPLEX, NEW DELHI -110012 capable of reinstating peace, devel- [UNDER MINISTRY OF TOURISM AND CULTURE, DEPTT. OF TOURISM, GOVT. OF INDIA] opment and democracy in the hills AND and so we have joined.” INDIRA GANDHI NATIONAL OPEN UNIVERSITY ANNOUNCES JEE - 2004 He is confident that other com- FOR ADMISSION TO THE FIRST YEAR OF 3-YEAR BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (B.SC.) rades from his area would soon fol- PROGRAMME IN HOSPITALITY AND HOTEL ADMINISTRATION low suit. Last date for sale of Information Brochure and Application Form for Meanwhile Shiva Kumar Rai admission to the above course has been extended upto April 6, 2004 IMPORTANT DATES from Mirik has a different reason Sale of Prospectus at Institute of Hotel Up to 5th April 2004 for joining the ABGL. He has no Management, Near Ayurvedic Hospital, complaints regarding the BGJ ex- Tadong, Gangtok, Sikkim 737102 cept that the party has been main- Last Date for receipt of completed 7th April 2004 taining a low profile of late. Application Form “A politician cannot survive Date of JEE Written Test 18th April 2004 [2:30-5:30pm] Centralized Counselling for allotment of Inst. 7th June to 16th June 2004 without activity and since ABGL is Commencement of academic session 19th July 2004 fast emerging as the best alterna- for details access www.nchmct.org or contact Institute of Hotel tive in the Hills, I have taken this Management, Tadong, Gangtok, Sikkim. Ph: 270735, 270557 turn to pg 3 CMYK 2; NOW!; 20 March, 2004 ED-SPACE Sold! To a Sikh Merchant -8- one year old. Once the baby was elsewhere. NOW! t last, about two years af asleep, I might be cleaning pots and My age was eleven or twelve at FIRST WITH THE NEWS ter my father’s death, my pans or washing my own clothes. the time. There was a big merchant Aadoptive mother gave up Before I knew it I had been stay- in Kalimpong who wanted a boy to Stem the Rush the biscuit business because it did ing there for more than a year. Then go with him to Punjab. He had a not pay sufficiently well. She found one day at about ten o’clock in the Nepalese servant called Dil In the thirteen days that we have reported as a daily, there have work as an ayah in the Himalayan morning, my adoptive mother and Bahadur, who was twenty years of been two major drug busts. Both the busts happened in Jorethang, Hotel that belonged to Mr. David father came to my master’s house age and our neighbour. This boy did but that is more a pointer to the commitment of the cops there Macdonald, who knows all about to get me to go back to them. My not want to go himself, but he told than a suggestion that Jorethang has it worst as far as drug abuse master and mistress could not pre- my adoptive mother about it. This and peddling in Sikkim is concerned. If the cops all over Sikkim Tibet and has written two books, pulled up their socks, the number of drug-related raids they will one called The Land of the Lama vent it. And so, weeping bitterly and merchant was Sirdar Sone Singh, a have to carry out everyday will require them to set up a special and the other Twenty Years in Ti- feeling very unhappy I went away. dealer in hides, which he bought in cell for the problem in Sikkim. But why should they get so proactive? bet. I was now eight or nine and Kalimpong from the Tibetans. He Law enforcement agencies, after all, hack away at the drug sup- she sent me to work for Mr. David was a Sikh and belonged to the ply chain with one hand tied behind their backs. The preferred Macdonald’s son, Mr.John. Here I Punjab. He had two children: one drugs of abuse in the region are prescription drugs which can nei- had to do housework and look af- of them was one year old and the ther be banned nor can their supply really be controlled. To stay ter his baby. It was winter and at other five years. I was to take care on the right side of the law, all that an addict needs to do is secure that time I had no other clothes than a prescription for the drug. He can then buy them over the coun- those that I was wearing. Mr. John’s ter, carry them on his person and even consume it in public. As for wife was very kind to me. She did the peddler, except for prescription drugs [like Nitrosun-10 for ex- not like me to look as I did without ample] listed under the Narcotic Drugs & Psychotropic Substances a decent stitch to wear, and there- Act, he can deal in others without any real fear of the law. If caught, fore she took me one Saturday to he suffers one night in lock-up and a minor fine at the most and is the market to buy some clothes. I back to service the streets again in no time. Given such a sce- lived in this house like a son of the nario, if the neighbourhood cop is not too keen on raiding “deal- family, so nicely did they treat me, ers” for prescription drugs, you know it is not really for lack of and I felt that I never wanted to go Artist, filmmaker, keen photographer, columnist with international magazines... concern. It could be simply frustration. back to my cruel and adoptive Where does that leave us. We are facing an urgent situation. Drug It’s hard to pin Twan Yang down. Born to a Chinese father and Tibetan mother, mother’s house. he grew up in Kalimpong and worked in Sikkim. NOW! serializes Twan Yang’s abuse is no longer a closet affair. It has spilled over the streets My master, Mr. John was the autobiography, Houseboy in India... and is now interfering with your and my space. We can no longer eldest son of Mr. David and was a ignore it as something that is for the affected family to deal with and resolve. What demands a panic reaction is that newer and good master to me as long as I was For another two years I had to of the baby, and my wages were to more dangerous concoctions are being tried out and the age of with him. My work was to go in put up with the old unhappy life in be three rupees monthly, but these initiation into this realm is getting shorter by the day.