The bhataktiatma : Travelogue of a wandering soul

Travelling is the best way to enjoy the freedom , it allows us to witness natural wonders from close ,meet different people and witness different culture ,restrictions put on the travel can deprive you of all the fun. Inner Line Permits ( ILP) are the permits required to travel areas near international border in india , they are required for foreigners as well as for the indian's in North Sikkim. These permits are required for the security reason , enforced by the army ( atleast thats what the local say ) , they are required sometimes however most of the times they are way of exploiting money from the travellers in case of North Sikkim they have gone one step further and in the name of providing employment to locals restricted the tourist vehicles from other states. Our zoom car had a national permit but it was not allowed in North Sikkim , "You may have national permit but you would need North Sikkim permit " local would say. Here is how security reason has been use

“Sir !! Today is the last day of pooja ,dussehra ,the streets will be extremely crowded,if the mahananda bridge is blocked i will have to drop you there itself and then you are on your own” our taxi driver sanjay was trying to justify 700rs he had charged for bagdogra airport to siliguri drop while 4 of us struggled to fit into tiny alto car. We had landed in bagdogra an hour back and were on the way to pick up zoom car to start our much awaited sikkim roadtrip. North eastern states have always been on my travel radar ,we started making initial plans for all the north eastern states , sikkim won the race over meghalaya-manipur / Arunchal -assam . Sikkim had least daily travel distance and that meant we would get more time to explore the places than the driving itself.  7 people enrolled ,whatsapp grp was formed and the date to book flight tickets was decided , on the day of booking only 4 turned up , same 4 were now praying for godess durga to open the mahananda bridge