Cutting Loose

Siliguri as a destination has no redeeming feature. As a people, the residents boast of a high literacy rate but with an extremely low, almost negligible, civic sense. Surrounded by thick jungles and lush tea gardens, the city is considered the gateway to the east. Yet, it is a gateway you want to zip through! The city roads are filthy, the markets narrow and uninviting, the affordable hotels clones of that delightful Hotel Decent in Jab We Met, and the street life lowly.

Is it any wonder then, that the humble street-side tea stall, that quintessential nukkad meeting point, would find its way into the air-conditioned environs of an upcoming mall?   And for all you purists out there, here’s a revelation: superior Darjeeling flush tastes just as good in a kasora as it does in fine china, thank you very much.