Flying into headwinds

On the face of it, Udan looks like a neat plan. But there are some flies in the ointment

In October last year, I was happy to hear the news on the telly about a spanking new airport at Pakyong, near Gangtok, in Sikkim. My wife and I had made the somewhat arduous journey to Gangtok back in 1996, taking an overnight train to New Jalpaiguri from Kolkata. And then enduring a five-hour uphill bus journey from Siliguri to Gangtok, past the meandering emerald green waters of the Teesta. 

I’ve always wanted our family to visit Sikkim—and the prospect of a direct flight from Kolkata was alluring. The airport is, in many ways, an engineering marvel. Perched between the Himalayan