THE REVELATION

Gangtok can be a sublime experience, especially if you're staying at Taj Guras Kutir

- By Juhi Saklani

It is a rainy 4.30 pm and a monk, his maroon robes creating their own private ritual with the flickering lamps, conducts a prayer. He chants - in front of a large bay window, in a lounge full of windows, all facing the mountain range ahead. By his side, a young Taj employee creates immaculate vibrations on a Tibetan meditation bowl. The monk is praying to the goddess we call Mt Kanchenjunga, though she can't be seen on this cloudy evening. I am completely in tune with the ceremony. I feel reverential towards the Kanchenjunga not only for her glorious silver self, and her status as the third highest peak in the world, but also in my capacity as a puny mortal who has been denied a glimpse by the capricious goddess on previous trips to Gangtok. Like the priest, I can't see her; like him, I am prayerful. Let it be this time. When the ceremony is over, the lady from the resort patiently teaches me how to play the meditation bowl and when I finally succeed, I hug her. We giggle like a pair of mynas.

If all this sounds like an unexpected introduction to a luxury resort, it really is not. Taj's Kutir brand of resorts are envisaged to blend in their context-geographic and cultural-and Guras Kutir (named after Sikkim's state tree: the rhododendron) is an homage to the mountains and forests, local culture and local foods of the area. An easy 40-minute drive from Gangtok town, the hotel is built on 16 acres of forest and has left a majority of it undisturbed.

The buildings lie low, the colours are subdued, the materials mostly stone and wood. All the rooms face the Kanchenjunga; anywhere you look, there is a carnival of green.