Striking for Gorkhaland

I woke up on Mon­day morn­ing to this text mes­sage.

There were some clashes the day before at a Gorkha­land protest, so the dis­trict went on strike the fol­low­ing day. The dis­trict of Dar­jeel­ing has renewed its agi­ta­tion for state­hood which they will call Gorkha­land. My meet­ings were can­celed; all the restau­rants were closed, as well as the Inter­net cafes. The only eco­nomic activ­ity I saw was the sale of news­pa­pers. The only peo­ple in the street were school chil­dren (school was still ses­sion) and dis­ori­ented Ben­gali tourists. I took some pic­ture of the closed mar­ket.  Note the Gorkha­land flag in the 3rd pic­ture.  They are all over the streets.

I spendt the day work­ing on my lap­top from my bal­cony watch­ing the clouds roll across the hills. Some back­door eco­nomic activ­ity is going on, but not much. I am online thanks to a friend’s con­nec­tion through his blue­tooth phone. I will be going to the tea gar­den tomor­row to start work­ing on the post­card project.  We send the post­card book­lets down to the gar­den in a milk truck, the only vehi­cles allowed on the road aside from police and med­ical assis­tance. If the strike is still on, we will have to walk most of the way to the gar­den. Today there was a protest, hun­dreds of Dar­jeel­ing res­i­dents march­ing and chant­ing peace­fully and fer­vently for Gorkha­land.  The march was fol­lowed by a rally in the town square.