was just reminiscing my times abroad. actually started by looking up the street address of our new temporary address (a friend’s place) that we are moving to in a few days. was sorting out which bus i would need to catch to come to uni.

and then started to marvel at the ingenuity of google maps. i could actually look at our friend’s cars parked at our new destination. this prompted me to look at maale to see if any 3-dimensional attributes have been added to it. but nah. to my dissapointment it still is the still-aerial image. then i went on to check out bhutan. just wanted  a feel of those mountain air. but bhutan seems to be at a more unaccessible state than even maldives. couldn’t zoom in too much. moved away and checked american samoa - the satellite image looks wonderful but could not get any closer.

i then moved on to india, new delhi to find the CSIR apartments and also NISCAIR. it was harder than i initially thought. and only a street map here too. since i had already forgotten the address of either of the palces i went into NISCAIR website and got the following addresses.

NISCAIR, 14 Satsang Vihar Marg, Spl. Instituttional Area, New Mehrauli Road, New Delhi 110067

C-25 CSIR Scientist Apartments, Maharani Bagh, Ashram Chowk, New Delhi-110065

we were taken to NISCAIR from Maharani Bagh everyday on bus and it was about a 30 minutes ride. 

we also went to Agra to see the taj mahal. i went with nayna in a hired car. there was a white man too in our group. don’t remember talking to him too much. on our way back it was just me and nayna. it was only a day trip.

we went to old delhi (on an old rickety bus) for some sight seeing and also went to the lotus temple which is not too far from NISCAIR.

we also went to shimla. it was cold and mountainous. we were there overnight. had some lovely hot chocolate (back then i didn’t drink coffee) and nice photos and sight seeing, not to mention the friendly company. we went there by train around the mountains. it took us a few hours to reach tehre.  jk arranged all the travelling routes and times. i just tagged along. it really was one of the magical places i have been to, apart from Bhutan.

i also accompanied nayna to a buddhist temple (have already forgotten the name of the temple). i was told it was one of the biggest and sacred ones around new delhi. got the chance to see their monks and their decorated gods up close. it felt surreal. at that time it was really strange that they were bowing down low to other humans (dressed in an orange piece of clothing). but today i am more at ease with other peoples’ cultures and their beliefs and rituals. if they find peace in their reglion so be it. we muslims do some strage stuff in the name of religion too. other people will find our galaa ghadharah eemaan vun a bit strange and maybe the namaaz rituals too. what matters is what one believes right!!!

and then there was all these bazaars. chandhni chowk, dilli haat, (and once again i can’t remember the names of the other bazaars). human mind is such a fallible piece of equipment. anyways, there were all these bazaars and the highlight of these for me was the fruit stalls, especially the red luscous lychees on both sides of the roads in their special carts. and then there was the alu gobi and samosa, and alu something (i have forgotten the name). the rickshaws and the autos. all the flies and human odor we just had to tolerate for the joy of all the bargains we found

ok, once again i did it. i found something more important to do than work on that darn thesis i came in with very serious intentions of working on it and half of the day is gone (i wouldn’t say wasted)