Rapid urban development has ensured that the hills in Darjeeling are not right outside your doorsteps (like they used to be when I was growing up here) but are now at a distance, and that too is hidden behind a polluted mist.
However, two things have not changed in Darjeeling-the ‘queen of the hill stations’ that the British discovered and handed over to us natives.
The first is that the Kanchenjunga massif is still there in all its majestic glory, and the second is a small restaurant, incongruously named Washington Restaurant.
During my growing up days, in the late ’70s, Washington Restaurant served the best Momos & Thukpas in town and lucky for me (& my cousin Tootoo), it still does. The curtains of its quaint cubicles may have been pulled down for security reasons, and its dim tungsten light bulbs may have been replaced with swanky new LED ones, but the taste of its food has not changed and neither has the rest of its decor.
Outside Washington Restaurant’s Chinese curtains-across Darjeeling, concrete buildings may be competing against each other to host, and get a bigger pie from the ever-increasing number of tourists that flock to this town, but Washington Restaurant and The Majestic Kanchenjunga, only smile at this unnecessary hustle-bustle of humanity, and continue doing what they have always done…
…. bring a smile on the face of the discerning traveller
…. a smile that is getting covered 19 times a day with an ugly mask!
