With a song in my heart

(A week spent at Windamere Heritage Hotel in Darjeeling)

- NAVAMALATI NEOG CHAKRABORTY

At times when life and work fog the brain and life seem to be a huge chore, a brief break works wonders. It was thus that the travel agents chalked out a Darjeeling trip for us and chose the Windamere Heritage Hotel in Darjeeling, famed for their 'colonial legacy', for us to nestle in for a week.

Like other brief holidays indulged in earlier, I was prepared for a good time but was not really prepared to find this the best. In fact, the fact that due to low pressure, the weather had decided to pout and grouse for some two days showed us the other wondrous side of this place, so soothing, with memories of the British Raj legacy up there amidst the neighbourhood of the Himalayas.

Seated before a glowing coal fire in the huge dining hall, with soft, gentle music pouring in from the more than a hundred-year-old piano from Daisy's Music Room, we felt cuddled with a gentle feel of warmth and a mellow feel of happiness.

The Colonial Dining Hall (in fact, there are two big halls) is as legendary for the aura it holds. English food is as much here as is the service of the Indian dishes for the culinary tastes of the Orient. Everyone is special, and they are served likewise a full five-course meal: orthodox tea and wine, pink gins, spirits and the single malts.

The way I always do, I had carried with me my father's poetry collection, Musafirkhana, to translate if time and opportunity afforded. Such snatches of creativity have always helped me to advance with my work and not waste a minute.

However, I found the staff at Windamere so warm and polite, hospitable with a brimful of smiles about them, and welcoming too. It was such that the Mirik trip, which we had to forego due to bad weather, didn't upset us in the least.