“Is this really a wish fulfilling lake ?”, my mother asked.
“This is Khecheopalri Lake. The locals consider it sacred. They throw a coin into the lake and wish for whatever they want.”, replied Adong, chewing on to his Haitai gum.
Walking back from the lake, we came across a tea shop. We stopped there for a while and ordered four cups of tea.
While the shopkeeper was busy making tea, I found his daughter, trying to hide behind him.
The little girl was playing with a bundle of straws. She was into some kind of mischief. She had brought these straws from somewhere and now was making the shop dirty. I approached her with the camera in my hand. She moved off, but was full of laughter. Visitors with cameras were not new to her.
She had a plump face with beady eyes, eyebrows so light that you have to look for it, snub-nosed, reddish brown hair falling on her forehead. The naughty giggle made her even more beautiful.
“What is your name ?”, I asked her.
Her father was very happy to see her daughter getting all the attention. But she payed no heed to my question, turned away her face and continued to play with the straws.
We were there for hardly ten minutes. But those ten minutes gave me one of my favourite clicks from the trip. There is definitely a lot more to Sikkim than just lakes, waterfalls and hills. People who consider Sikkim to be only picturesque and scenic, are greatly mistaken.
Akash Chaudhuri
Email Id: akashchaudhuri93@gmail.com
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