DARJEELING MONSOON FESTIVAL AT GLENARY'S

Ajoy's come up with a great idea to make the monsoon more lively in Darjeeling. He's organising a Monsoon Festival at Glenary's with lots of fun, food and music. There's special monsoon menus for the food enthusiast, discounted beverage for the booze freak and great music lined up for anyone wanting to shake his/her wet and damp body.

The Festival started of with AJNISH performing Ghazals on 17th and 18th evenings at the restaurant upstairs. Special performances are lined up for the entire month with the legendary LOU MAJAW from Shillong performing on the 1st of Sept at The Buzz. AJNISH will be performing his Ghazals again on the 24th and 25th of August followed by CRABH from Gangtok at The Buzz. The grand finale will be performances by the only Latin and Salsa band of India THE ORIENT EXPRESS on the 15th and 16th of Sept.

We have our very own local bands playing every evening at The Buzz also - Smooth Riff, G.Maximus and Herb Therapy. Given a chance these guys can compete with any of the best bands in India and come out a winner!

When everyone's scared of taking risks, that too in the monsoon Ajoy's gone ahead and taken a bold step in making people enjoy the monsoon for the first time. Keep it up Ajoy. Oofcourse, Threshold Entertainments' always there to support you!!!

MY BIRTHDAY AT THE BUZZ

16th of August was my birthday and I never expected it to be such a great day. As we grow older birthdays stop being important-its just another mark on your calendar. I have been drifting from year to year ever since I finished school. (Back then Dad used to make it special by preparing the entire dinner himself). But this time it was different. I got so many birthday wishes from everywhere. People started calling up from 6 in the morning and the sms were going on till midnight! I was on a high the whole day...
After much coaxing from Ajoy I decided to invite my friends for dinner at The Buzz and wow, what an evening it was. The music was good, the food was great and two birthday cakes were smashed on my face. Some of my friends (esp Ajnish) felt let down cos they couldn't taste the cake at all!
What makes me write about my birthday is the feeling that struck me, that there are good friends who are around you and who care about you. People who remember you on your special day and go that extra length to make it even more special for you. I am so fortunate to have good friends in my life. I love them for that. Ofcourse the gifts were great too!!! But hey, who cares for gifts when you got such precious friends as I have...

DARJEELING CARNIVAL 2006

Well its time again for the Darjeeling Carnival and we are on to the fourth edition. God, hardly seems like yesterday when we sat down and talked about organising a festival that would bring Darjeeling back to the tourism map and also bring back normal life to the Hills. We've done it three times in a row and against all ods. Now its time for Carnival 2006.
Everythings's so festive during the 10 days of the Carnival but people hardly notice the amount of hard work and sweat that goes into making those 10 days perfect. Preparations start from September onwards and reaches full swing by October end. Fund raising is a real pain and every year I have to spend atleast a month in Delhi and Calcutta tryng to raise sponsorship for the event. I guess I have to start packing my bags once again.
Every year there are a set of new volunteers and team mates. People have to carry on with their personal live also. This is what I keep telling my friends. We have to be prepared to let go and allow new faces and new leadership to carry the Carnival forward. The show has to go on.
But I really miss my old team... Karma, Yankee, Navraj and so many more who have gone ahead looking for greener pastures. I wish them luck and pray that some day they will return for another edition of the Darjeeling Carnival.

WHEN THE SUN SHINES ON DARJEELING

The rain seems to have suddenly stopped and we are blessed with great sunny weather. I could even see certain parts of the kanchenjunga range this morning. Blessed are we to be living in such a beautiful place. Blue skies, candy floss clouds, green hills... so colourful. Feels so good to be alive on days like this, everyone seems to be happy and cheerful. Chowrasta is full of people lazing around or taking walks around the mall. Children out for horserides and teenagers gorging on ice creams and soft drinks. Lovers crossing hands and trying to the live the moment to its full. Can't even dream of getting a place on the sun deck of Keventer's! Housewives freaking out trying to finish washing their clothes and drying quilts and pillows on verandahs and walls. And the evenings, they are something to die for, so many different shades and hues painted all over...

I guess this is what the real Darjeeling actually is and not the negatives that we talk about all the time. Can we spare time to observe and soak in the beauty of nature sometime and be thankful that we live in such a beautiful place...?