Memories of Sikkim

Though here at journey's end I lie
in darkness buried deep
beyond all towers strong and high,
beyond all mountains steep,
above all shadows rides the Sun
and Stars forever dwell;

I will not say the Day is done,
nor bid the Satrs farewell....

I have been kind of subdued ever since I got back from Sikkim. I miss it very much, seldom do you visit a place which speaks to your inner self so intimately or awakens the emotion of belonging there. How I want for that inner voice to be true that I belong there and I wish I can keep going back there time and time again and maybe one day find my own Utopia there... a wooden cabin on the spur of a mountain, with a naughty brook of fresh ice melt, leaping from stone to stone on its way to find a bigger stream and its journey to the sea.

I am still reveling in my memories of that enchanted place. The sense of peace I felt there, is hard to express in words. There are times when you say That this is as good good as its gonna get. Well such was the feeling I felt there.

Every stone spoke volumes, each gust of wind brought a fresh smell and freshness of the rhododendron flowering forests and hillsides on its wings,

The lakes there had every imaginable shade of turquoise and blues from dark cobalt to aqua marine and millions of shades in between.

The skies shone with a clearness which you cannot experience in a city now a days, The local Lepchas and Bhutias derive a certain happiness living off the land with their Yaks and wild horses. They always had a smile to offer to you and it lit up faces and rosy cheeks, Somehow in the city we lack this simple joy of living...we are too busy in our own mundane existence to worry about LIVING LIFE for fun.... It was magical for the short time I was in that environ

Since I have been back, I have a far away look in my eyes. In my mind I am still there. I am quiet and have nothing much to say to anyone *which is normal*, but there is a reluctance to speak about it as if sharing the experience will somehow rob some of the luster off the visit for me. There is an emptiness that I feel which again is hard to explain. I feel like a foreigner back at home & homesick for Sikkim once again.

There are very few places left in the world which are unsullied from the march of progress and the everyday rat race and traveling in the valleys of Sikkim you come to just such a place, a bubble in time and space.

Life goes on there on its own pace, sure you find Coke and Pepsi there too..but still considering other parts of India, I am glad that Sikkim is relatively secluded from the rest of the country.
The only other place to evoke similar feelings in me was after my first visit to Ladakh & Spiti Valley....I like to call such places my Zen Locales where I find a completeness unlike anywhere else.