The past week was so exhausting. Overworked. And dragged myself around the office this morning. Needed tea. And writing.
The worst thing about the past week was pulling a 14 hour day at our company’s annual showcase on Thursday, and then realizing that I needed to be at work the next day all bright and early.

The best thing about last week – I had many seemingly successful interactions with human males. Haha. That rocked. Also, my best friends, Tony and Runa got engaged. It was simple, beautiful, private and sweet. That's about the most perfect engagement I have heard about in a long time. “Congratulations to you both. I am so glad you have found each other.”
Marriage scares me to the point of an anxiety attack. But when my best friends finally decided to take the plunge it made me well up. Tear, sniff.

Runa and I decided to spend some time together over Friday at this swanky new restaurant on our side of the city and then I bought myself a few books for this month - Milan Kundera's ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’, that I have read in college but I felt like owning a copy of this book. Kundera’s writing is fantastic, as always. Stieg Larsson's ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ is one of my latest buys. I picked it up for the most part because the book seems to be all over the place - everyone is talking about it, everyone is reading it and everyone is commending it. If everyone jumped into a well, I wouldn't follow them but I'm more interested about books than I am plunging to my death. I also own a Batman comic by Bob Kane now. I love graphic novels so I couldn't resist this. Would I recommend reading it? It's Batman - you bet.

The music this week – Santana’s and India Arie’s ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ is excellent. Thanks to Ajay for the recommendation. It is, lush shoegazing blues-rock at its insanely, very good best. I've owned the original Beatles version and always loved it. But I suddenly realized just how genius this one by Santana is. It’s totally different than I expected and I’m duly impressed. It, no doubt, is worth repeat listens.

Keep listening to good music.

I might sound like I love going to the gym but the idea of going after a blissful vacation is not pretty. For the last few years I’ve been getting by on a recipe of being blessed with a great body type and being a continual activity machine. Except now my life isn’t really providing me with the high intensity cardio like it used to, at least not in enough periods to cancel out my love of meat, chocolates and any other fat-related foodstuff.

So I’ve resumed my sessions at the gym after two weeks which got my almost-rusting muscles moving again and I’ve got back some of my missing energy. Of course, the dilemma only arrives when my work-out routine becomes boring and the pain, post-workout.
I was ready and anticipating feeling like I had the flu after the first couple of workouts. Oh my god, I really expected less.

My thighs, MY THIGHS! I discovered that this evening after the second workout. I was halfway to sitting on the toilet when my legs failed; I landed on the seat wrong, and nearly ripped my shorts trying to save myself.

It definitely felt like I had the flu, if that meant the sickest you’ve ever felt and then someone beats you up one side and down the other with a baseball bat and steals your cough syrup.

I’m hoping after day three I feel a tiny bit better, like the way you feel with a hangover. I still can’t walk without saying ‘Ow’ a couple of hundred times, but I’m determined to do the entire run-up to Christmas and then take a break. And if by some miracle the exercises work as I imagined and my arms start to look like this one below, I’m hoping someone will tell me I still look pretty and buy me a dozen donuts.

Photo By Rokovor Vihienuo 

Mr. Big is easily my favorite band that I cannot seem to describe to others. Or for that matter get other people to listen to. They’re a band out of the land of California and lead singer Eric Martin sings in one of the most beautiful voices I’ve ever heard. If the angels from on high sang in American then this is what the leading vocals would sound like. This release was part of their fourth studio album labeled ‘Hey Man’ containing this track called "Dancin' Right into the Flame".

For those of you who just found my blog take a minute to peruse other posts here at EC. I hope you enjoyed yourself this past month, November is sure to bring something amazing to everyone.

On Gangtok

Rescheduling travel plans has its good side and bad side, as most choices made after a couple of Jim Beam shots. Originally, this was planned as a trip to Sikkim, with a short beginning holiday to Darjeeling. Then, life happened. An opportunity presented itself to us when there were warnings of landslides in Sikkim and I decided to stay longer in Darjeeling. But changes to a plan are much more than a pleasant phone call to different hotels in Gangtok, asking for a vacant room. It is truly a pain, but I am of the certainty that it is well worth it.

After something like four hours of periodically interrupted sleep in one of Darjeeling’s most accessible modes of transportation – the taxi, I reached the hotel in Gangtok. It was the front desk, informing me that they would arrange for all necessary papers and permits for my travel to the beautiful Changu Lake and the Nathula Pass (the trading post between India and China). May God bless them, for pretending to give me time to get back to them and being so nice about it. The hotel belonged to a friend’s friend so they quoted about 1200/- per night (from the usual 2,500). I took it. The room was lovely and the view spectacular. It could have been a lot worse, the rooms could have been unavailable or the new rate (season time) could have been astronomical. The hotel was situated 2 minutes away from M.G Road and is highly rated as one of the best in Gangtok.

The city’s dining options are similarly impressive. Allen’s Kitchen, as I would find out later, is one of the popular restaurants in Gangtok. The food was some of the best I’d had all trip.

From there, I took off to drive around Gangtok, to see my friend’s school, the Tsuklakhang Palace and Monastery, various view-points and then back into the city to get ready for the evening out. If ever there was an almost instant way to fall madly in love with Gangtok, it is to walk it, sans map, just losing yourself in the area.

The nightlife in Gangtok is exactly what we needed to fall for the city. Little Italy was easy to like at first sight with its bohemian interiors and crowd.

And when they say the restaurants close early in Gangtok, it just means they won’t have tables available after that time.

From there, I went to Café Live and Loud to discover a new brand of fabulous. With flashing lights and a crowded bar, which we were told is the most popular club in the city, was packed with friendly people, all drinking, all singing along to a number of familiar songs performed by the band Route 66. You should know that by familiar I’m talking specifically about the following songs: Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door, Layla and finally, and perhaps most importantly, Wild World, dedicated to yours truly.

And to end my trip in Gangtok, I went to a club called Orange, which was quite far from the city. This place was underground and filled up fast, and by filled up, I mean there was not a single inch of floor on which to stand and with only two bartenders the wait time between drinks became significant. It was around the time that we decided to dance that the DJ announced the last song was playing. Pfffft! But I will be back. Absolutely.

I had fun, unabashed fun. It was one of those trips I will be saying to my friends, “Remember when we were in Gangtok and…” for quite some time.

For those of you who frequent these pages you’ll notice something odd about this post. I literally never post videos, ever. But this performance by the band Route 66 was awesome enough and the recording is interesting enough that I thought today I would make an exception. The song is ‘Layla’. So how could I refuse to post this video? It’s shot with my phone camera in Café Live n Loud in Gangtok (Sikkim) …it turned out pretty okay I think.

See Darjeeling Like Nobody’s Business – Get the Best View

Darjeeling is a beautiful town located in the state of West Bengal. Well known for its tea estates, this small town has a typically busy market center lined by British architecture.

Tea Estates

Darj. has a history dating back to the 19th century. It has good connectivity by road and rail with the other towns around it. The Bagdogra airport is 4 hours away.

Most of Darj’s attractions are concentrated in and around the city center and it is best to walk along the narrow winding paths. Just keep an eye on the traffic.

Start with the Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park, the most famous zoo in India, built in the 1958. It’s the home for many species in danger of extinction like snow leopards, red pandas, gorals (mountain goat) and Siberian tigers.

A Red Panda

The Market Square contains the Capital Theatre, which I was told, was once a movie theater.

Keventers (breakfast joint) and Glenary's which houses Darj’s most famous pub, Buzz is also situated in this Market Square, just opposite the Capital Theatre.

Meat Platter at Keventers

Friends made during a pub crawl.

I think I need an "I ♥ Darjeeling" t-shirt!!

The city is also home to some of the best schools in the country with the most gorgeous architecture and surroundings. 

Loreto Convent

Chowrasta

Aloo Dum - Darj. Tea - T-Momo - Tai Po

If you do plan on taking a year-end vacation there then enjoy the food, rich culture, including drinking the local beer, Dansberg Blue Premium Lager Beer (founded by Sikkimese Bollywood Actor Danny Denzongpa).

Another one of the things to do in Darjeeling is a trawl around the traditional open markets held in Chowrasta. Shop till your heart’s content, the next great bargain may be just round the corner!

Ten glorious days of authentic Tibetan cuisine, alcohol, Aloo Dum, history, music and more. (Notice how food was listed first? Priorities, right?)

As much as internet on my cell phone allowed, I shared "What I Liked" along the way on FB. I hope you will join me for the rest of the journey in my next post on Gangtok!

This song just felt right for the mood of today. It’s cloudy, there’s a slight chill in the air, and it’s a lazy evening complicated by the decisions and planning associated with what to do during this long weekend. Thanks to Silversun Pickups for making this track – ‘Rusted Wheel’ that essentially is the soundtrack for my life. This song hails from an album the band put out in 2006 titled ‘Carnavas’. It’s one of my favorite tracks of the band and if you are reading this you should totally listen to the song right now.

See you soon!

Adios.

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” – Henry Miller

Wikipedia: Crows Lake in Sikkim

Tonight I head off to the land of tea and Lepchas and Bhutias for a visit and to meet two old college friends. Darjeeling is wonderful at this time of the year, but I have to stock up on Benadryl and warm clothes somehow. I’m also going to spend a few days in Kalimpong and Gangktok, Sikkim, where my top priority after seeing my friends is to get to see as many places as possible, then regrettably drunk for what may be something like we did back in college. My friend told me she’d understand if I wanted to chain myself to the bar.

I am also going to eat every possible meat I can lay my hands on and have some decadent fun that involves alcohol and Valium.
Well, I shall trust my old friend to deliver the goods, or fun in this case. Now, it's off to bed early and a prayer that a good, long sleep awaits me. Making a note that it is past my bedtime now, I shall presume that a long sleep may not be applicable, but I'll hope for a good, restful one anyway.

To all you who sleep tonight, I bid you good night! And to God, I'm really a nice, harmless girl; please let this journey be as painless as possible.

It's not often that I feel like a glamorous jet-setter.

But every once in a while I do.

Like now.

This has been a glorious week. I gave the band Vampire Weekend another listen - 2 albums (21 songs, and a full 60 minutes of new music) earlier this week (Thanks to Ajay). Just listen to this track ‘The Kids Don’t Stand A Chance’ below. That, quite decidedly, does not sound like anything you’ve heard before. It also, quite decidedly, got me very interested in what the rest of their music would sound like.

As we transition into the greatest season (yes, I do declare that the melancholy days of B’lore Winter are the best of the year) I only thought it proper to post this track as I watch the leaves fall outside in the wind.

I’ll miss you almost as much as you’ll miss me. Have a fun week and enjoy the rest of your October. Cheers.