Stranded in Siliguri

The last few days have been completely and utterly crazy: Full of active resistance, passive resistance, road blocks, strikes, demonstrations, hunger strikes and ‘tourist exemptions’ amongst a million other experiences which I can only now begin to reflect upon. Basically I ended up in the middle of a ‘lock in’ in Darjeeling – which meant that although I had the choice to leave initially I decided to stay. After two days the situation looked far more serious, with possible food shortages and realized rumors of violence. I am now in the neighboring town of Siliguri – which has also closed down in retaliation to Darjeeling’s strikes. As I said, the last few days have been completely and utterly crazy and while I wait for the travel restrictions to be lifted the next few blogs are my attempt to try and share with you the current events of northern West Bengal - or rather ‘Gorkhaland’. Read on…