A mass rally being taken out by pro-democratic forces in Sikkim. 1973.

Old Gangtok bazar filled with pro and anti merger group of Sikkim.

Kewal Singh (Indian foreign Secterary), Chogyal Palden Thundup Namgyal, K.S Bajpai (Indian Political Officer), Karma Tobden (Deputy Secretary of Chogyal).

Governor B.B. Lal and the Chief Minister Kazi Lhendup Dorjee Khangsharpa with the members of the First Sikkim Legislative Assembly.

Kazi Lhendup Dorjee Khangsarpa being sworn in as first Chief minister of Sikkim, by Governor B.B.Lal

The Angel of Mercy Mother Teresa blessed Sikkim with her visit to Gangtok on 17 February 1976.

Indira Gandhi being received warmly on her arrival at Gangtok.

Mr. N.B.Bhandari being sworn in as the Chief Minister of Sikkim by the Governor Mr. S.K. Bhatnagar.

Members of Sikkim Legislative Assembly under Bhandari Government.

B.B. Goorong being sworn in as the third Chief Minister of Sikkim by the Governor Homi J.H. Talyarkhan. 11th May 1984.

Mr. Sanchaman Limboo being sworn in as the fourth Chief Minister of Sikkim by the governor R.H.Tahiliani, 18th may 1994.

Sikkim Legislative Council in mid 50s

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Recently lots of people sent ecards from Sikkim Online. It was really nice to know how much people liked our ecards and cared enough to send them to their beloved ones. Thanks to our devoted members for sharing such nice photos at Sikkim Online Photo Gallery. Here’s the current stat.

Gurudongmar Lake (© saran)  - Sent 1221 times.

White water rafting - Teesta (© sam_sikkim) - Sent 805 times.

Panaromic View Of Pelling (West Sikkim) (© sam_sikkim) - Sent 723 times.

Monks (© amir_sereng) - Sent 622 times.

Mt. Kanchandzonga (© saran) - Sent 612 times.

The Kohinoor Restaurant welcomes you with a large blue and white sign board overhead the entrance and which is visible to its patrons, new and old alike, along the M.G Road from quite a distance. The first time I went there I knew that this was one of the oldest addresses in Pune. It houses two floors, one for ladies and families and the ground floor, which is ever so lively. It has a big space with low ceilings, four sturdy pillars, big open glassless windows, which makes sure that the fans are not required and seats about one hundred people at a time. The waiters in deep yellow shirts and the cleaning boys in colonial blue move around swiftly in perfect synchrony. Even the waiters won’t ask you what you want have. They present the menu to you and you have to do the talking.  They don’t speak much only quickly pass on the orders to the kitchen and rattle the total to the fat chubby smiling spectacled man behind the counter.
I come from the hills and well, I am naturally soft spoken (because of the clam and cold weather I suppose), so one time when I had seated myself comfortably in one of the cushioned benches of the restaurant, after ordering a cup of tea, a group of Marathi men, in their early twenties came and shared the seat with me. They sounded excited and were engrossed in their lively conversation. One man, seated in front of me shouted an order for tea known as ‘cutting chai’, a very popular form of tea drinking. An exhibition of both brotherhood and economy where a cup or a glass of tea is shared by two or more people (if it is enough!!!).
So teas came and one was shared by two people. However, I was not amused because I had ordered for a cup of tea before they came and they were served before me. It wasn’t a touchy thing but just that things like this are not really funny. So I voiced my displeasure, in Hindi.
The man in front of me looked at me and asked, ‘you speak Hindi?”
“Of course I can and pretty well too”. I replied in Hindi
“You ordered for a cup of tea?”, he asked me
“Yes I did”,
“Ok” he said, “…maybe you didn’t do it the right way”, he continued

I looked at him not sure whether I understood him right. Then he yelled at the waiter in Marathi and looked at me and said, “…these people don’t understand kind words. You have to shout at them”.

Traveling in a sleeper class compartment is never boring. It is really like a gathering of tribes. Introductions are frequent and bonds are formed, even if for temporarily. Sometimes addresses are exchanged, photographs taken for memories and the whole journey becomes an extension of our very own private lives. And when the train stops at the last station and the goodbyes and good wishes are exchanged and you suddenly find yourself among the coolies, the touts and the taxis, the journey would have already etched a fine memory in your mind which you shall recall at some point in your future as you do your routine, mundane chores in your life like reading a newspaper in the toilet, or watching some boring news on sitcom or having those familiar conversations with familiar people whom you see everyday in your life.
I looked outside the window to witness the day, the trees, vast rice fields which some economists around the world argued were the future of the country and all things stable, pass by in rapid motion. And suddenly amongst the now constant hum of the chattering of passengers there, resonated a loud but very melodious female voice. It was the voice which enraptured the listening ears. I looked around the compartment to check the speakers but was pleasantly surprised to see two women clad in colorful saris make their way in, dramatically from the aisle of the coach.  The chatter inside the compartment came to an abrupt halt and as if by the power of music, everyone inside, for once, had ears. One woman had a microphone in her right hand, the other hand held the cord. The second woman had a small cubical amplifier on one hand and the other hand stretched out for alms. The singer sang on an uninterrupted note, voice flowing, melodious and confident.

Youtube videos can be downloaded, converted into other file format and stored into your PC or in mobile devices. You can watch your fev music videos offline or while you are on a move.  All you need is a right tool to achieve this. There are may be hundreds of softwares that can easily do your job, but they all need you to pay certain amount of fee.

But fear not! I’ll tell you about a few free software that will do just that and much more.

Pazera Free FLV to AVI Converter is a nice free FLV convertor, it can convert your Flash videos into AVI and mpeg formats.

SUPER © encodes is another great tool that can convert any video files (including FLV) into various Multimedia formats, but there download page is bit messed up, you may face problem finding their download link.