Surat-resident Shailendra Kumar, who had gone to Sikkim with his family for a short vacation, hadn't imagined in his wildest dreams that their trip to the picturesque state would turn into a nightmare.
All went well for them initially until Wednesday's cloudburst and flash floods devastated their plans.
"The weather was fantastic during our visit to Gangtok and Pelling, a beautiful town in the West district of Sikkim. Trouble started after we left Pelling on Wednesday morning and started our journey back to the state capital when we got stuck midway because of landslides," Kumar told PTI over phone from Darjeeling on Thursday.
"Badly stranded and nowhere to go, I got in touch with Soumik Ghosh, whom I knew for a long time. He was extremely helpful and instructed us to head to Darjeeling and not to make any attempts to reach Gangtok," Kumar added.
With the help of Ghosh and locals, we finally reached Darjeeling, Kumar said.
Ghosh, a businessman and member of West Bengal Radio Club, said, "Kumar and his family were clueless and scared when they got stuck on the road amid heavy rains and landslides. With the help of various people I knew, I guided them to Darjeeling."
With the road blocked and no internet connectivity, Kumar and his family had no clue where they were stranded and the alternate road ahead. Locals went out of their way to help them and the family finally reached Darjeeling, he said.
According to Kumar, they were scared as they had never seen such torrential downpour and landslides.
In another incident, 138 members of Bharat Scouts and Guides from West Bengal, mostly aged between 10 and 15 years, braved their way back to New Jalpaiguri railway station from Sikkim before heading home to Barrackpore near Kolkata to narrate their harrowing experience.
The members had gone to the Himalayan state for trekking, hiking and scout guide activities and had reached Uttarey village in West Sikkim on October 1.
Senior scout Dhritiman Chatterjee said they were scheduled to reach NGP station on October 4 evening after sightseeing at Pelling.
But as the Jorthang to Malli Road was shut due to incessant rains and flash floods, the route through the Malli checkpost to NJP could not be availed, he said.
"The entire group had to take a detour to Darjeeling to reach Siliguri from Jorethang in small vehicles and as a result they missed their train from NJP on Wednesday late evening," he added.
Instead of travelling by buses, which they had booked earlier, they had to depend on SUVs as movement of heavy vehicles was not possible because of bad roads, Chatterjee said.
Around 15 to 16 small vehicles were arranged by HAM radio members, secretary of West Bengal Radio Club Ambarish Nag Biswas said.
Chatterjee added that these small vehicles took around 12 hours to reach NJP from Jorethang via Darjeeling.
He was unhappy since they did not get much help from Sikkim and West Bengal governments and the railways.
Of the 138 people, 20 boarded the Padatik Express to Kolkata in which they were booked while the rest took other trains later at night to reach the city.
