Prashant's house

The best of doors

A helpful neighbour Beena Rai pops out of one of the tiny, neat homes to assure you that you have indeed reached Prashant Tamang's home.

She obligingly takes you to a locked door decorated with a Buddhist-style toran (curtain) and tells you that many people like to take a picture of this closed door and you could too.

Clicked, see image below.

"The family has not been here for a while. We don't exactly know where they are. They said his mother and sister was with him in Calcutta."

It is a tiny two-room home virtually part of a tenement. Ten to 12 families live here in modest circumstances. Ever since Tamang joined the West Bengal police force he has worked out of Kolkata and not lived in Darjeeling.

His family -- his mother and younger sister Archana; the second sister is married and lives in Kolkata --- began renting the place for Rs 1,500 per month, just about a year ago.

Prior to that they lived in different parts of Darjeeling, including for a time at the police lines, and seemed to have changed homes frequently. Madan Tamang, also a policeman, died when Prashant and his sisters were very young -- Prashant was about nine -- and his mother had a rather hard time making ends meet until Prashant got his police job. Prashant was studying in St Robert's, Darjeeling, located quite close to the Mall, at the time but had to give up his education to join the force.