01 April, 2004; NOW! 1 Bharat Sanchar Thursday, 01 April, 2004 Vol. 3 No. 05 Gangtok Rs. 3 Air-Conditioned Nigam Ltd. a Govt. of India enterprise Grocery Shop Office of the General Manager Telecom for Provisional Goods, Dry Gangtok : Sikkim Fruits & All Hotel NOTICE Requirements (for kitchen) WHOLE-SALES All BSNL subscribers are hereby informed that all tel- RETAIL-SALES ephone numbers in Gangtok at the most reasonable prices beginning 222, 223, 224 and 225 are being changed in a phased manner to now be- gin 20, ie is the second Rajdeep Spectrum Color Lab Building, Near Amar/ number of these phones will Chaman Garage, Sevoke Road, Siliguri henceforth be “0.” ph: 2640799, 2640599 KALIMPONG Bhandari’s REMEMBERS Chakung moves to Gangtok, bazaar THE yatra ROERICHS SARIKAH ATREYA TURN TO pg 5 wants Goley back GANGTOK, 31 March: “Yo pali, FOR DETAILS Congress lai jitauno parchha hai,” a female voice speaks from behind a circle of party faithfuls and curious onlookers even as the former Chief TAMANGS Minister greets a totally bemused and perplexed lady sitting behind a WANT sewing machine inside a tailoring shop at the MG Marg. An assistant hands over a khada to Nar Bahadur MORE Bhandari, who puts it around the TURN TO pg 4 lady’s neck and with folded hands FOR DETAILS seeks support for the Congress. In the next shop, the exercise is repeated. The SPCC [I] president, flanked by a group of party mem- CHEWANG bers, with a party Standard leading DADUL LASHES ahead, seeks every shop along the commercial hub of the capital, thus OUT AGAINST marking the official start to the Con- gress’ canvassing from here today. BHANDARI SDF supporters from Chakung in vehicles flying the party flag on the return leg after a show of strength in This may not be anything like support of PS Tamang, whom they want retained for their constituency TURN TO pg 4 Sonia Gandhi’s road shows. But FOR DETAILS I AM AN SDF SOLDIER, WILL Mr. Bhandari is sure trying to emu- a NOW REPORT late that here. So its paidal yatra for GANGTOK, 31 March: It was al- CONTEST FROM WHEREVER THE him through an area which sees no DETAILS ON pg 3 most as if all of Chakung had emp- vehicles after 5PM. And what bet- tied into Gangtok as some 350 ve- PARTY WANTS ME TO: GOLEY ter start to his comeback yatra than hicles [jeeps and trucks] carrying tional response at Chakung. wanted to do was try and retain me from the Capital itself? ruling party supporters from the Mr. Tamang, while speaking to at Chakung and given the high The former Chief Minister south Sikkim constituency rolled NOW! from Soreong, said that the emotions on display, I decided to looked confident and visibly happy into the capital in a bid to petition public response was “spontaneous” listen to them and stayed back. It is with the response he was getting. the SDF high-command to recon- and clarified that he had no role to a democracy and they have the right Some even offer him a khada back. sider its decision to take their area play in the show of support which to express themselves and I did not All greet him with folded hands. He DDRCDDRC HANDEDHANDED MLA, PS Tamang, known more spilled over to Gangtok streets. want the situation to spiral out of stops for small chitchats with the OVEROVER TOTO SOCIALSOCIAL popularly as PS Goley, away to “In fact, after hearing the party control, so I listened to them and shopkeepers. Addresses a few by Central Pendam. Reports indicate decision yesterday, I was planning let them go to Gangtok. Bear in their names. No bhashans here. Has WELFAREWELFARE that the party decision to pit Mr. to leave for Gangtok immediately. mind, there are no opposition sup- direct one-to-ones with the Janata. Tamang against SPCC [I] president People from Chakung, however, porters in Chakung, they are with “Our day has come, now we have Nar Bahadur Bhandari from Cen- came over and insisted that I did the SDF,” he said. to work together,” he cajoles. His tral Pendam, evoked a very emo- not leave for Gangtok. All they Mr. Tamang added that the pub- assistants distribute the Congress manifesto to the people. All look NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR HOTEL MANAGEMENT lic reaction was also understandable AND CATERING TECHNOLOGY, PUSA COMPLEX, NEW DELHI -110012 given the fact that a certain bond had pleased. It’s not everyday that a [UNDER MINISTRY OF TOURISM AND CULTURE, DEPTT. OF TOURISM, GOVT. OF INDIA] turn to pg 4 turn to pg 5 annual AND INDIRA GANDHI NATIONAL OPEN UNIVERSITY ANNOUNCES JEE - 2004 FOR ADMISSION TO THE FIRST YEAR OF 3-YEAR BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (B.SC.) saree PROGRAMME IN HOSPITALITY AND HOTEL ADMINISTRATION HONG KONG Last date for sale of Information Brochure and Application Form for admission to the above course has been extended upto April 6, 2004 IMPORTANT DATES BAZAAR sale Sale of Prospectus at Institute of Hotel Up to 5th April 2004 Management, Near Ayurvedic Hospital, Any Item Rs. 90 to Rs. 150 @ Tadong, Gangtok, Sikkim 737102 FIRST Last Date for receipt of completed 7th April 2004 Gift Items, Crockery & Other TIME IN Application Form Mimani’s Date of JEE Written Test 28th April 2004 [2:30-5:30pm] Attractive Goods! SIKKIM MG MARG Centralized Counselling for allotment of Inst. 7th June to 16th June 2004 Commencement of academic session 19th July 2004 ST TH for details access www.nchmct.org or contact Institute of Hotel 1 APRIL-30 APRIL Management, Tadong, Gangtok, Sikkim. Ph: 270735, 270557 HOTEL BAYUL, MG MARG, GANGTOK CMYK 2; NOW!; 01 April, 2004 ED-SPACE NOW! It’s Time To Move FIRST WITH THE NEWS On, Again The Next Without Prejudices -19- That same day I told my mis- could for a moment only show my The world as we know it might be turning into a global village and ow that I had begun to tress that I did not want to continue happiness by folding my hands and WTO might be fudging international boundaries as far as trade is think about this matter, working any longer in this house, smiling to show my gratitude for concerned, but people in general are becoming more and more Nthis desire to earn more that I would like to look for another the gift. parochial. Almost every district wants to express itself as an stuck in my mind and I could think place if she had no objection. She The cook gave me a letter of autonomous region and every autonomous council harbours of nothing else but how to earn said there was no objection recommendation, and that very statehood aspirations. Every locality frowns upon outsiders more and get as much as the whatever if I was not same day I asked my mistress for searching their futures amongst them and every community swears others. I begged the cook, happy to work for permission to leave, saying I was it has a unique identity independent of all others which is in need of who was always very kind her. This settled the returning to my country. I told this safeguarding. to me, to look around matter. How happy little lie in order to part from her in While it would be improper to deny anyone their right to self- from time to time to see a kindly way. My mis- expression, it would be criminal to ignore the fact that self expression in the present-day politically charged times almost always comes whether there might be tress raised no objec- at the cost of denying someone else. Our generation has abused anywhere some vacant tion, as she did not like with alacrity this fundamental right and mindsets are already fixated place suitable for me. to keep me if I was dis- on ideas which are prejudiced and illogical. There is little that can And one day he did find satisfied. She could af- be done on this front, but if we accept that things need to change, me a job about fifteen ford to pay wages and we should try and do so with the generation still untrained in the miles from Delhi in a obtain as many boys as biases which we have fomented. It is surprising how the secular small village called she liked instead of me. environment of the schools still leaves many young minds scarred Ghaziabad. Artist, filmmaker, keen photographer, columnist with international In this world there is magazines... It’s hard to pin Twan Yang down. Born to a Chinese with prejudices about other communities. True, Sikkim does not When the cook told only one great magi- have an obvious communal divide, but enter the homes and the father and Tibetan mother, he grew up in Kalimpong and worked in me about this job, I was Sikkim. NOW! serializes Twan Yang’s autobiography, Houseboy in India... cian, and that is money. opinions, which could later inflame into searing conflagrations, are in difficulty. How could I had knot known much all there. Passing comments, which never posed serious I go away from this place when I my heart felt! My face beamed and about money up till now. All I knew repercussions earlier, are no longer as innocent as they used to be had no excuse for leaving? Since I smiled: feet, arms and hands all was to make friends with that bag in times when violent expressions were rare. We need to be more careful and at the cost of sounding trite - more politically correct in had never made any error, my mas- worked nobly together on account in the body called stomach.