Tuesday 24 May 2011

Arriving at Nevis

I have made it to the island and it’s been about 25 days now but it feels as though I have been here for months. That’s probably because we have block exams once every two weeks and we are already done with our first block exams, which felt like the finals. Anyways, the name of the island is Nevis and it’s sister island is called St. Kitts. Together they make up a country called St. Kitts and Nevis. The former is a bigger island and also more touristy.  So, I landed at Basseterie International Airport at St. Kitts on 28th of April and I was travelling with Teja and Mustafa. As we approached out destination, we were greeted with some amazing views of the islands. In the beginning I couldn’t make out which island was which, but it became obvious after a while. Nevis has a volcano and the peak is called Mt. Nevis, so it was easy to spot that.  After the touch down, we had to queue up to go through the immigration and the employees at the airport were really slow and I was getting frustrated because I only slept for few hours before I started travelling and I was tired and hungry.  That was followed by me not getting one of my luggage; the one that had all my clothes and stuff like towels and all. Feeling low, I went to the luggage claim area and reported my delayed suitcase. Then, someone named Daisy was waiting for us outside and she drove us to the dock and from there we took a ferry to get to Nevis. We took the sea bridge, which is the fastest way of getting to Nevis. However, if you are taking the sea bridge you have to make sure that someone is waiting for you at the other side. Daisy had told us that Charlene would be waiting for us at the dock in Nevis. The ferry ride was about 20 mins long and the sun was just about to set. It was that time of the day when everything looks beautiful.  Like Daisy said, Charlene was waiting for us at the dock and she drove us to Rawlins, which is one of the student dorms. On the way she gave us our phones and told us about the orientation that was going to happen after few days. After we reached Rawlins, we had to go to the dorm-housing office to sign our 4 months residence lease. I was assigned a room at Potworks, which is about 10 mins drive from Rawlins or 5 mins walk from school. So, I signed the lease and was waiting for a ride to Potworks. Claxton, the guy in whose office I signed the lease came to pick us up. He was driving a truck and the funny guy told us to hop into the trunk of his pick-up truck. We did and finally reached our dorms that is going to be our home for the next four months, or may be for the next two years. Claxton handed me my keys and gave me instructions on how to use the switch when lights go off; there is a switch inside my room and if the lights go off, we just have to switch to 1 from 2 and that allows us to use the generator. We have to switch back to 1 when the lights are back. I had to call home and I tried using the phone that Charlene gave me and I was supposed to get a 5 EC top up for free with the new phone, but I didn’t. Thankfully I met a really friendly senior who lives in a building right across mine and she let me use her phone. I kept the conversation very short and she told me that if I wanted to use the Internet, I could walk to a nearby restaurant called Flavors as they have a 24hours free wifi. So, Mustafa and I went there and as the restaurant was closed, we had to sit outside on the steps. I called home again using gmail and this time I was able to talk to my mom for a longer time. It was already late and I was exhausted, so I went home and crashed. That was day one.








  Finally reached Nevis; the peak at the backdrop is Mt. Nevis which is a Volcano. No..it really is!!
 

Monday 11 April 2011

Road Trip- Bhutan 2011

Find below some of the pictures that were taken during the road trip while vacationing in Bhutan at the beginning of this year. Cheers


We started from the capital city Thimphu and the weather was perfect. Our destination for that day was Sarpang, which is in the south central side of Bhutan. Sarpang is 230 kms away from Thimphu, which would translate to about 7 hours journey on Bhutanese roads. However, it took us about 9 hours because of the terrible road conditions at Wangdue Phodrang. More than 40 kms of road has been damaged by the heavy machineries and trucks that ply on the road that transport stuff to the site of Punatsangchu Hydro Power Station. 

On the way we stopped at Dochula to take pictures. The place looked beautiful due to snow that had fallen just the night before....lucky us. 

Miami Bitch!!! haha...this was taken on the 2nd day of our road trip at Sarpang. It was my birthday and I know I was on a road trip but, it wasn't too bad because we were attending a wedding ceremony of one of our friends. So we partied all day followed by crashing into another wedding party in the evening. 


Day 3: This pic was taken at Sarpang when we were on our way to Samdrup Jongkhar via Gelephu and several Indian towns. We started pretty early~ around 6.15 am because we had to reach Gelephu by 7 am to line up in queue to be escorted by the Indian Army. Since there is no road network inside the country that connects Gelephu and SJ, Bhutanese travellers have to travel via Assam (India). The Indian Army escorts the Bhutanese travellers due to the militant problems. We reached Gelephu at around 7 and had to wait till 8 am when we finally started moving again.




Day 4: Pic taken on the way to Tashigang


Day 4- Typical road in Bhutan. Winding and Narrow and the massive drop/ cliff on one side as the cherry on the top. However, it's way more fun driving on Bhutanese roads than any North American road.

.

Day 4: Some silly road safety sign. I like it tho!!


Day 5- We went to Rangjung and visited a monastery and look what we stumbled upon. I couldn't help myself but take pictures of this cute lil puppy.


Day 5- Chorten Kora, one of the most visited places in eastern Bhutan.


Day 5. Some Random Chhorten on the way to Mongar....our final destination for the day. The road from  Tashigang to Mongar was simply unreal. Most of the time it followed the river and we also came across some passes. We stayed in Mongar for two days.


Day 7 was by far the best day of our trip. We were on our way to Bumthang and on the way we had to pass Thrumshingla and as you can see from the pics how beautiful that place is.



Heaven on Earth?


The winding road through the Black Mountain Range



Bumthang Valley


Sunset at Bumthang


Day 8- Mae-bar tsho (Burning Lake)


Some prayer flags




And finally we reached Trongsa. The fortress in the picture is called the 'Trongsa Dzong' and it is the biggest dzong in Bhutan. Our destination for the day was Wangdue Phodrang. It was almost 9 pm by the time we reached our hotel.


Day 9: On the last day of our road trip we went to Punakha and took some picture. The picture above is that of the Punakha Dzong.





Blogging

I haven't written in a while. It was sheer laziness if I am honest. Anyways, I have been wondering why people blog--is it to maintain an online diary? to advertise one's creativity? for personal reasons?. There could be thousands of reasons I am sure and the reason why I maintain my blog is because I have planned to write about my day-to-day life as a medical student. I started writing since last month so that I get the hang of maintaining a blog.  My classes starts from next month and although I will be busy, I am going to try and write as and when time permits me. Unlike my previous posts, I think the new posts will have more pictures. Anyways, we will see how this works out.
(photo source: google)
















Monday 21 March 2011

Oh, The many 'takes' of Life


It takes letters to make words,
It takes words to make a sentence
It takes a sentence to make 'I love you',
It takes a heart to mean 'I love you',
It takes a heart break to strengthen love,
it takes love to know what life is all about, 
and I just seem to be writing about things I truly don't know about?
anyways,
It takes courage to write about things you don't understand, 
It takes craziness to be courageous, 
It takes crazy friends to be crazy
and I have the craziest friends who are crazy
It takes beating to know parent's love,
It takes parent's love to grow up,
It takes growing up to be responsible,
It takes responsibilities to get people to trust you, 
It takes trust to find true friends, 
It takes experience to understand trust, 
It takes open heart to analyze experiences,
and I as keep writing, I keep convincing myself I am going loco,
It takes reasons to go loco, 
It takes 'going loco' to have an interesting life, 
It takes an interesting life to live,
It takes living to understand love,
and that takes us back to where I first started from?
It takes words to make lyrics,
It takes lyrics to make a song,
It takes 'I love you' to make a love song,
It's easy to love someone, but 
It takes years to understand Love. 
It takes understanding to understand love, 
It takes tears and hardships to know love,
It takes no pain to fall in love, but
It takes a honest heart to truly love a person  
It takes a lot of free time to write things that may not make sense,
It takes 'not making sense' to write things that makes you happy,
It takes happiness to be happy in life and to love life.

Thursday 17 March 2011

F.R.I.E.N.D.S

My Circle of Friends

1. Jigme : He is fat as hell..haha…well, not any more but we still prefer to call him motey or mottu master as of recently. Among our friends, he has been into relationships the most number of times and he takes pride in his ex's being pretty. haha..which makes all of us go 'whatever';  but sadly all of his relationships happened through the internet…haha….no no no, don't get me wrong, he is one of the best persons I have ever come across; a person with a big heart and he knows how to give time for his friends and he is one of the main guys who plans out things and so far all of them have turned out great. So much about him…and oh yeah, he has this nasty habit of asking for gifts…haha…kiddin…he is our 'pretty boy' and does a pretty damn good job at making fun of others. We two can pretty much talk about everything really and thus he is one of those people I talk to when I am down. Been best friends since grade 7
Problems: way too many online relationships

2. Tshotsho: She is my wife and will always be. We share a very special relationship where I am allowed to have affairs..haha…jokes apart, she has the biggest heart, a very kind hearted person and she pretty much agrees to any plans we make. She never complains and makes the best Suja (butter tea) ever. It's always fun talking to her cos she's really updated about what's happening around the globe and I think she is right now doing the coolest thing among our friends--studying something related to media…:p I see her online almost all the time and we get to chat quite often, so I get to share things with her quite often too. Plus she is one person you could talk to about anything, so that makes her special. Lucky to have YOU as a friend Tshotsho
Problems: Laughs too much sometimes

3. Taker: Well, he is our undertaker…one of the jolliest person in the group and also the most talkative. He is a damn good football player and also a good basketball player, but I wonder where he was gone he god was distributing 'heights' and thus he suffers from height cancer…haha….but despite all of that, he is still a very good basketball player. He also plays guitar quite well and like everyone else, he has a big heart too. 
Problems: Height cancer

4. Wangda: He is one of the truest friends and although he may not make it apparent, you have to actually analyze what he does for his friends to come to that conclusion. He will be there for you no matter what the circumstances are. He is also a very active person, a good basketball player and cracks factual jokes, which only he can make them sound funny. On the other hand, our motey (Jigme)has a habit of over-exaggerating…so you see, quite a characters we have in our group. Our Wangda is a bit short-tempered and that may hamper his judgements at times, but at the same time it may as well be his strength. Taker and Wangda are like magnets and they are quite emotional from inside; meaning, if someone in our friend's circle does something that hurts the rest of the group….Wangda and Taker are ones affected the most….true friends indeed. 
Problems: Short temperedness 

5. Jordan: He is also known as a 'hap rutoh' cos he is as thin as a skeleton (like me haha). One of the kanjuiest friends in our group and also the one most difficult to get to co-operate with us when we make plans. However, it's not because he doesn't want to co-operate but he is a very reasonable man. He makes his judgements very carefully and makes sure that his parents/ guardians are not hurt by his actions. A true citizen of the nation and he will never do anything that goes against the law and his present Job at the customs is perfectly suited for him. About the 'kanjuice' issue I pointed out up there, again he is not really kanjuice but he knows where to spend, how to spend and how much to spend; not lavish like the rest of us. Jordan is also a very good cook; his hoentays are the best and I am sure everyone will agree with me when I say that we miss his friend hoentays. 
Problems: Girls….he always shies away from girls.

6. Dinesh: His name should have been Dinesh Bush and not DP. This year when Dinesh hosted the New Year's Party at his house, I stayed at his place and when I entered his washroom, there were five different types of shaving blades…haha. But, we always make fun him being hairy, so it all made sense. Well, apart from that..he is very intelligent, knows how to organize events (I guess he's has quite of lot of experience doin that) and is a very kind person. He may say things right on your face and that may offend some of you, but I have a lot of respect for such people and Dinesh is one of them. A very talented over all guy and there's pretty much nothing that he hasn't had his hands on. He knows how to make time for his friends and he will always be there for you. And when he does something, he does it pretty damn well. One of the main organizers of events in our group.
Problems: Dresses up like Aamir Khan

7. Pema Choden: Well, what can I say….she is one of the backbones of our group. She comes up with plans and they have all turned out great. She is also very witty and can really come up with intelligent jokes and she is very persistent with what she says, so that makes her jokes even funnier. Can talk for hours and can go haywire once inside a discotheque. I think she owes a lot to Wangda and also to other friends whom she disappointed few months back. Anyways, Aunu has always been a special person in my life and she has done a lot to create a group that we currently have. She has a big heart and will always be there for you.
Problems: Hajmolas and relationships

8. Varun: AKA Deadman AKA Jumping jack or should I say he is the James Bond of our group..haha. He is one of the easiest person to deal with; you can pretty much talk to him about anything and unlike the rest of us who depend on parent's money or gov's money for that matter, this ass worked his ass off and paid his tuition fees all by himself. I think Wangda also went through the same thing. A very talented guy; kinda like jack of all trades and masters of all. A very helpful guy and will pretty much always say 'yes' to every plans the group makes. However, girls are his weakness and sometimes he does crazy things which ultimately lands him in the losing side. However, I am quite certain that his past experiences has taught him a BIG lesson and to re-assure that a fortune teller has said that he will have a good career life where he will get to travel a lot and will also get married when he is 24….hahaha
Problems: Girls








9. Sinchu Pem: She is the 'Bhai' of our group and also one of the most cooperative friends. She can sing 'Living on the Jet Plane' even if you wake her up at 3 am in the morning and will still be able hit all the notes that too while playing a guitar haha…well, she is a very cool person and is multi-talented. One thing I really adore about Sinchu is her braveness. We share so many good memories together…..lampelri episode, foosball at four degrees, movies, vast and I can go on and on.
Problems: leaving on a jet plane…haha

10. Apple: The reason why she is known as 'Apple' is because she has cheeks that are as red as apple LOL. One of the sweetest friends in the group and she is one true family person and is particularly close to her mother. She was my desk mate at junior high school and that was the time when I started to know her and I learned a lot of things from her. One particular thing that I learned from her was that your family should always come first that you should know how to strike a balance between giving time to your family and friends.
Problems: yet she forgets her friends sometimes

11. Japay: Well, he is our 'Japay' and he is one of the simplest guys in our group. He was even more simple than he is right now cos few weeks ago I found out that he has started smoking…haha…well. that shouldn't actually be a criteria to judge whether one is simple or not but you know what I mean. He doesn't talk much but when he does. he does it quite well. A well informed guy and I have a lot of respect for him; hard working too. 
Problems: Girls and he is quite shy., height cancer too.  

12. Bajay: I don't think there are words to describe this guy and I don't think I will do a good justice in describing him. Anyways, he is one of the kindest person and I have never heard him talking bad about other people. He is also one the most stable guys in our group and I hardly seen him getting angry. He could be the re-incarnation of M.K. Gandhi….LOL. A big fan of football and is pretty much into any plans we make. However, he can sometimes talk like an old guy with very less enthusiasm coupled with a coarse voice of his, which has earned him a nickname 'bajay' haha…A great guy overall. I have a great respect for him.
Problems: Lack of enthusiasm while talking

13. Puki: Puki is quite a character in our group; has one of the weirdest laughing styles and and amazingly can still talk while laughing haha….I think the 'Commando' incident was the best thing that happened between us and is one of the best laughed/talked about memories that we share. You will have to ask her or Jigme if you wanna know more about it cos honestly I don't find it that funny although the two of them think it's very funny…LOL.. Anyways, she is a great human being and a great friend and has a good heart too. 
Problems: always goes 'my ama will say this, say that'

14. Choday: "A tender bartender tending the bar" is how someone described her once. Random fact. haha….well, she is another character in our group. A cool person overall but does weird things at the same time. Hard to describe her really. However, we are kinda like partners in crime…haha. Few weeks ago, our friend Deepak took Choday, Tshotsho and me to AIIMS to show us his university and once we were done touring the campus he took us to meet his friends who were there at AIIMS in someone's room. Deepak's friend Vishma had just won the top prize for inventing a machine which they named 'Dhobi'  and they were celebrating by drinking. We joined them too. Choday and I were drinking as though we owned the place haha…I think that's the best memory we share and it has become a custom for me to have dinner at her place in Delhi whenever I travel back and forth to Bhutan…haha…I owe her a lot.
Problems: Goes loco once drunk

15. Bijay: We are also partners in crime and the best memory we share is the picnic episode at Lampelri on Urvashi's Birthday in 2006.Both of us got drunk and there are videos showing us doing some crazy 'stunts' and if you are lucky enough to get your hands on those videos you will be able to see Bijay talking about his fav food 'pannier' ..haha.  We have been best friends since grade 4 or 5, when I used to fascinate him by talking to him in Dzongkha. Yep, he started learning Dzongkha when he was in grade 6 just cos of me…haha…kiddin, that's not true. This guy is one of the kindest human beings you will ever come across and he will have nice things to say about you…haha….except that he calls me 'Anda' which is fine cos that gives me an opportunity to find a nickname for him. Any suggestions guys?
Problems: Always goes "my uncle with say this, say that"

16. Purtong: He's been my friend since grade 11 and we became close from grade 12 days and now we are almost like brothers. Like the rest of my friends, he's got a big heart too and is a very person. He doesn't smoke, hardly drinks, is very religious and never complains. A true friend and we share endless wonderful memories. This guy can easily go gaga over a girl; good thing for him tho….you will have to ask him for details.
Problems: Height cancer

17. Posh: She is my mentor, my elder sister and most importantly my friend. She is one of the best things that ever happened to me. I thought I was a movie freak but after I met her; she rendered me speechless….she knows a lot more than I do. At the age of ahem ** , she looks very young for her age; so much so that we always go "ama bhanda chori taruni (english translation: mother looks younger than her daughter)", whenever we see her. She is very open and you can talk to her about anything really and that's probably the reason why we are very close to each other. In the past we did so many crazy things and one such thing that stands out is our trip to Chelela. Had so much fun that day. She is also very smart and is my biggest competitor in 'Trivia' (online quiz game)..haha. A die hard korean freak and has a good taste in music. 
Problems: Sucks in Nepali…always goes 'abu jani' hahaha

18. Deepz: Well…what can I say…Your are the person that I love and I know this particular post is about my friends but tell you what, you are my friend first and then my girlfriend. We share so many good memories together and those memories were created within a short period of time. All thanks to you for sacrificing so much of your time for me. I love you and just writing that puts a smile on my face. I love you because of your sweetness, your thoughtfulness, because you are my friend and companion and because you laugh at my silly jokes…haha…I can go on and on but I don't want to make this sound like a love letter. You are one of the best things that ever happened to me and I am grateful to god for that. 
Problems: (no exceptions for you lol) don't open up easily and that can get quite annoying at times…yours truly