Maneesh in India

Okay so this is an email that Meechie wrote July 3, 2005 after his trip from India (on his vacation from studying Medicine in Nepal).

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hi guys!!

so i arrived back to pokhara after a nice visit to delhi! it was very, very hot in delhi though.. i think the temperature got up to 47 degrees! it was extremely fun. i thought i might get bored after a while but mommy and papa kept me quite busy. we went out to eat to some nice places.. we saw some nice monuments and tourist spots.. we even took a delhi tour for half a day.... we kept busy by seeing lots of our relatives .. i saw charlie bhaiya and mona and their kids, bonu didi and her daughter... kittie didi and gijaji ankur (her son), i saw raja and promil bhuji, urmil bhuji, balraj thuji and thiaji,sonu and chotu, akil and minder bhaiya...and i saw titu mama, jyoti massi and kalbushan massarde and anurag and aman.....

i also went to jammu.. that was fun.. i wanted to go there so badly b/c last time i was supposed to go there i got very sick.. but this time too i got a little sick but i wasnt gonna let that stop me from walking 11kms up and 11kms back down .. yup .. thats right the little cold didnt stop me and daddy from going to vashnudevi.. however, we did have to change the timing that we had planned out.. originally to beat the heat we planned to start our journey at like 4 in the morning.. and we had a late dinner the nite before.. i wasnt feeling that good and i knew that there would be now way that i would be able to get up at like 3 am to start getting ready to go to the base camp.. i needed about 6 hours of sleep.. so instead we changed the timing to go at 6pm at nite.. this way we could make it to the top by around 11pm or so.. it takes about 4 hours to walk up the mountain.. it was fun.. papa and i thoroughly enjoyed the experience..it turned out to be a beautiful nite clear and just the right temperature.. warm enough to wear a t-shirt and cool enough to not break a sweat..we even got to make a wish when a noticed a shooting star!!! it was the perfect way to spend father's day....

while in jammu i was asked papa if we could go to his old home just to see what it looked like and if it was still there.. it had been ages since papa ever went back to where he grew up.. it was really awesome to see the old place.. mind you it was totally renovated but it brought so many memories back to papa.. he started telling us how he used to run to and fro from one side of the building to the other side.. (his neighbours part) ...and they had such a nice view of jammu from the top of the house.. they could see the whole of jammu from there.. and it still was one of the tallest buildings in the neighbourhood...jammu too was very hot.. the temperature climbed up to 45 degrees when i was there.. the papers were saying that it was one of the hottest summers in the last 10 years!

i did get to do a little of shopping.. and the shopping is great.. i went to a place called sarojini market.. and i found some nice Zara replica shirts.. really nice.. and i bought an armani exchange and fubu and pepe jeans shirt there.. pretty cheap.. the zara shirts cost me Rs. 400 or about $12 for both! and i got the other three t-shirts for also Rs.400...
i got nice glasses made too.. but the way the lenses were made really bugged my eyes.. so i had to return them.. i was sad.. cuz they really looked nice and they too were relatively cheap.. i was able to get them for less than $80 canadian for 2 pairs of high index glasses.. which is really a good deal b/c my lenses alone in canada cost about $200!!!
all in all.. it was really relaxing .. and a much needed break from my hectic med school life..but in a way it was neither too long nor too short.. at some points i had an itch to back to school and start studying.. overall it was fun.. but extremely hot...
okay well take care and email me later some time!!!

love maneesh