How do you prepare a speech that long? Speak that long? Listen that long? Found an answer to that last question in the faces of the couple I met at a restaurant that night. Having sat through Chamling's heroic effort, they looked shell-shocked. Part of that, I should say, may have been because they were arguing over all he said. They were almost physically drained. The long ride to Gangtok had tired me as well. But seeing these two, I remembered gratefully why I had chosen to travel on August 15: to escape the mouthings of politicians.