The scrolling clouds, pinching cold and needling rain...as I saunter on the luxuriant green carpet of Temi Tea Garden.
It was another rain bathed pinching cold morning in ravishing Ravangla, a small and lazy, but picturesque town of South Sikkim with the snow capped mountain ranges of Kanchendzonga sleeping beneath the thick blanket of grey and white cloud cover. The sprinkling of the downpour on glass windows forced me to lie down for a while with my slothful soul as I noticed through the rain dripped window glass, a rain drenched little bird sitting on the window and desperately shaking head and shuffling feathers to dispel the rain water. And this astounding view took all my laziness away as I quickly got up from the bed and refreshed with a hot shower and quickly moved inside the car to proceed towards Temi Tea Garden which is located at a distance of 30 kilometres away from Ravangla and Temi Tea Garden happens to be the only Tea Garden of Sikkim hanging like a bird nest at the steep slope of a mountain leading towards a beautiful valley.
It took almost an hour to cover a distance of 30 kilometres through the narrow, muddy and slippery mountaineous tracks damaged due to continuous rainfall and these roads are prone to landslides during monsoon. As the car stopped near the destination, it was raining cats and dogs and I waited inside the car and stared through the droplets of rain dripped window shield towards a huge blurred canvas of blotted green and blue colours rolling and mixing on each other. As the intensity of the rain got thinner, I came out of the car and gradually entered inside the Tea Garden.
For a moment, my eyes got fixed into a huge white screen of clouds dangling infront of a lush green surface of tea plantations sloping dangerously downwards towards the steep ridges of the mountain ranges. I have never seen such a vast drooping cloud cover in my life. And I have never experienced such a huge carnival of lush green inclined downwards towards the steep slopes of the mountains like a bird nest hanging from the tree rooted in the edge of a mountain. For a moment I stood confused as I was not daring to climb down the rocky stair cases inbetween the Tea Gardens leading you right at the stomach of the tea estate. I felt that if I try to climb down the staircases, I will roll towards the slope of the mountains and reach the final destinstion of my life too early. I was not willingly to sacrifice my precious life for the astonishing canvas of nature. And the big question haunting me at that moment was that what is there behind the cover of the clouds ? A deep ravine, a narrow deathcalling passage with thick forests between the two mountain ranges or an unseen destination much beneath the mountains on the way to a deathtrap through air ?
I quickly got back to my normal sense with the sudden thick needling raindrops came floating with a stormy wind and hit my eyelids and pierced through my forehead and skull and dousing me within seconds. The strong breeze whooshing both my ears and the salty rain drops rolling down my forehead set into my nostrils and lips and soon I found myself completely soaked in rain. I was about to rush out of the tea garden but then a quick occurence of nature forced me to stop and made me peer at the mysterious screen of clouds which by then started scrolling on air and was thinning down into a smoky layer gradually swimming backwards creating a fast hollow inbetween.
For a moment I could not believe my eyes. I glared through the cavern of the moving clouds and gradually discovered a beautiful green valley at the slope of a bluish mountain range with thick layer of dark green pine forests and beautiful crystal clear blue sky and the smoky clouds scrolling backwards to gradually present an astonishing clear vision of a backdrop of an amazingly beautiful terrain with different shades of blue and green. As if the nature God while creating the beautiful landscape left over his palate of colours by mistake.
By then I have started moving down towards the slope of the Tea estate through the lean passage of staircases with thick bushes of lush green tea plantations at both ends. I had no other way than to surrender myself at the stunning lap of nature.
If you ever visit Ravanglaa nd Namchi, then do not forget to visit the heavenly beautiful Temi tea garden set at the backdrop of a mesmerizing valley surrounded by mountain ranges.
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