He stood on the bridge over the River Mutha.

‘Oh, how cruel this world is, how thoughtless we are! How silently you bear!

Oh, how beautiful you are still. I wish I could be of some help. Oh, how insignificant I am!’

A man approached the bridge with a heavy plastic bag. He hurried along the pedestrians’ walkway and emptied his bag containing trash over the railing. The plastic bag with all its filthy contents poured down the river. The papers floated, the dirt plunged and the dust played with the warm breeze.

The traffic over the bridge concentrated only on the traffic lights. Hundreds of people passed by and no one said a word. Scores of people walked over the bridge then, no one said a word. The man walked away after emptying the bag and throwing it along with the dirt.

He opened his mouth but no words came. He looked at the plastic bag slowly settle on the river current and float.

A woman walked on the bridge, stopped suddenly and fiddled inside her handbag. She took out a small crumpled paper pack and emptied the content over the river. They were grains. The grains quickly scattered on the river currents and became invisible. Further down a flock of birds and ducks played on the shallower part of the river.

He smiled.

Life is here and it is now. There is all the time in the world where you live in but to use it with judgment is the answer to all achievements. But life also depends much on luck. I believe it is the key to the doors of all the answers. But the key does not belong to the one who simply asks questions. It belongs to the one who looks for it. There has to be an action involved. I believe luck is with everyone, sometime it just takes a little more time. It is like looking for a needle in a haystack. You’ll find it sooner or later. It may or may not take time but find surely you’ll because it’s in there. Those who have found it earlier are not luckier that you are. Nor are you unluckier. The time they use or waste after finding it more than covers for the time that you spend looking for it and having finally found it, the joy is the same…the time is right. And the ones who have found it earlier just have had nothing to do while you have spent it wisely by default. So, never stop looking.

It is not the journey or the destination that is important because neither of the two comes to a stop in one’s lifetime. The days and nights are inevitable, so are movements or thoughts…or life. Both are processes of living defined by the rotation of the earth. But we become tired because the process of growth is extraordinarily elusive. It doesn’t matter how far you have traveled or how many lovers you have had in your lifetime or how much money you have earned. Satisfaction of mind is the justification of the luxury that we own. Life is cloned. Life is repetitive. What we do today is not anything different from what others have done before us or will do after us. The picture is different but the process is the same, the enthusiasm is the same, the achievement is the same…the feelings same. Life is not a mystery. Nothing in living is a mystery.

Local legend associated with the annual dance of Tendong Lho Rum Faat Fastival.

“Teesta (female) and Rangit (male) were born at the sacred lap of the Himalayan Mountains. They grew up together happily and as they became adults, secretly they began to love each other. But their secret story didn’t last forever, people got to know about this and started talking things about them.  So they decided to leave the place, to go some somewhere they could be together forever. This place was no where but the valley where hill meets the plains, Lepchas called it “Pazook” which means place covered with dense forest (Now near Teesta bazaar).

Both didn’t know the path to “Pazook”, so the Rongnu (Teesta) took Parli-Bu the snake as her guide, and Rungit went with Tut-Fu (Danfey) the bird. It was like a little race, who will reach first.  Snake with agile body reached Pazaok in time, but Tut-fo (Danphey) had taken a longer road thought the rocky and difficult terrain. Being hungry he stopped on the way to collect insects for his food. On the other hand Teesta was waiting for her love to arrive.  When Rungit finally arrived, he was so ashamed to be defeated by a female even though fault was not his. So he decided to go back to his usual home back in Himalayas. As he started returning the water of the river began to rise up, swallowing the valley and the hill. All the people living in the valley gathered up to the Meanom and Tendong hill to save themselves from the deluge,  the water was still out of reach in these hills. Read the rest of this entry »