Sometimes there is so much news to take in from around the world that we miss something that is near to our hearts. Recently in Darjeeling civil unrest has broken out which has literally become a matter of life and death for our friends in Singla (where our school, St Mary’s, is situated) and the workers in the tea gardens which supply the tea to the shop in Borough Market run by our colleague Ratan Mondal.

This is a worrying time for everyone and we only receive sporadic bits of information about how people are coping. There is no public transport, the internet has been shut down and all shops and schools are closed. Food reserves are reported as running very low and there are reports of violence in the streets with injuries and deaths reported daily.

Here is an extract from the BBC World website – photos are also from that source

“An indefinite strike has paralysed life in India's tea-producing region of Darjeeling. A local party is demanding a separate state for the area's majority Nepali-speaking Gorkha community. 

The protests have followed a recent decision by the West Bengal government to introduce Bengali as a compulsory subject in schools across the state, including in Darjeeling.

The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha or GJM (Gorkha People's Liberation Front), which is spearheading the protest, has threatened "a fight-to-the-finish" for Gorkhaland, the separate state they want carved out of West Bengal's northern hill region.

Darjeeling has been hit at the peak of the summer tourist season. Tens of thousands of visitors who were left stranded in the hills when the violence began in June have left.

The leader of the movement, Bimal Gurung, has been in hiding ever since he announced the strike. His supporters are accused of attacking policemen and intimidating shopkeepers to keep their shutters down. 

The West Bengal police have raided his many offices and hideouts across the hills and arrested his supporters for burning down government offices and vehicles. Protesters have retaliated by burning effigies of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who leads the Trinamool Congress party which governs the state. 

In June, the army was called out to help police tackle the protesters. At least five people were killed and more than 100 others, including 30 policemen, injured in the violence. 

Darjeeling saw violent protests for a separate state in the 1980s in which more than 1,200 people died.

That ended when the Gorkhas settled for an autonomous council that promised a degree of self rule for the hill region.

But the leader of the 1980s protests, former soldier Subhas Ghishing, has now been replaced by his former lieutenant, Mr Gurung, who is more hard-line.”