The men are in military fatigues, loaded up on walkie-talkies and radio transceivers. They stand in a single file as their commander, an army captain, walks down the line. Then he pulls out a gun, fires a volley into the air and follows that up with a series of short, crisp orders. The men jump to it. It is a war out there. Then again, may be not.
The Sinclairs resort in Chalsa, where this little leadership training tableaux is being played out, is probably one of the quietest places on earth. That’s why pharma giant Ranbaxy picked it as the venue for team-building simulations for its executives. Coke has been here too. So have ITC, Glaxo SmithKline, Sony, LG and the Aditya Birla Group. Till a few years ago, if you weren’t a tea garden owner, or hadn’t watched Goutam Ghosh’s Abar Aranya, you probably wouldn’t have heard of Chalsa. And as a tourist with Darjeeling and Gangtok on your mind, you wouldn’t include it in your itinerary either. Even though this hamlet in West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri district has everything that travel guides gush about: breathtaking scenery, wonderful weather and nestled-on-a-hilltop kind of seclusion.
“You won’t find Chalsa on the map of India.” Says Vikash Kuthari, general manager of the Sinclairs group, “if you’re lucky, you might just find it on the map of Bengal.” May be that’s what makes it the perfect holiday destination. In many ways Chalsa is just like a retreat –which is exactly what the Sinclairs Group has called its newest property. In 1996, the group acquired three-fourths of a hillock, at about 1,000 ft above sea level, and set up this 21-acre resort. As Sinclairs Group chairman Navin Suchanti puts it, “We want our guests to communicate freely with nature. The Sinclairs Retreat, Dooars is functional so that people can relax and rejuvenate. And sometimes rough it a little.”
Rough it ? With 66 air-conditioned rooms and three suits built into 12 cottages, game rooms, bar and swimming pool and more, the only people roughing it at The Retreat would be the couch potatoes and those too lazy to make the 400-m walk to the dining room for meals as there is no room service here.
Every room overlooks the eastern Himalayas. The split-level patio offers a dramatic view of the sunset. Recently, The Retreat opened a Nature Cure centre with ayurveda treatment and massages. Now patrons drive up from Siliguri for a detox weekend. “We want tourists all year round, so we stepped up our corporate hard-sell.” Says the net-savvy Kuthari, who e-mails clients and updates the group’s website. As a result, footfalls at The Retreat have shot up to almost 8,000 a year.
Still, The Retreat’s biggest advantage is its location. Chalsa sits at the confluence of the wildlife sanctuaries of Gorumara, Jaldapara, Mahananda, Chapramari and Buxa. Enthusiasts can head out for some rhino, elephant and bison spotting or birdwatching at the nearby Lava bird sanctuary. The Retreat has also planned activities for visitors like hiking, white-water rafting down the Teesta river at Malli and short visits to the tea estates of Aibheel and Matelli, “Everything is within a short drive time here.” Says Delhi-based Shantanu Chakraborty, who found Chalsa on the Sinclairs website and has already been here twice. The group is doing its bit for diplomacy too. Several Bangladeshis are using the resort as a base camp to explore north Bengal. The Retreat is also building bridges with Bhutan. About 25 per cent of The Retreat’s patrons are foreigners and almost all of them do the Bhutan route.
Chalsa has found a new lease of life with the Sinclairs property. From supplying fresh greens from the village to teleconferencing facilities and staff for the hotel, it has become a vital provider of services, says Suchanti. He is also planning to increase activities at his resort as a payback to the area. (He had approached the exclusive Chalsa Club, a closed circle of tea gardens owners, for permission to use their nine-hole golf course but was refused.) Suchanti needn’t worry much about that. He has already helped put Chalsa on the map.
by Labonita Ghosh |
