still here...

am in Islamabad... cant write long... but still waitin'... :( Wish me luck!!! :) Luckily, I've met some really cool folks and so am enjoying Islamabad. :)
p.s to Anonymous comment... Did you remember to say Hi to Sarah from me??? I STILL dont know who you are... so I'll tell Sarah that Anonymous from Strawbale Conference has said hi... twice!

waitin'.. and waitin'...

• Before I post... please write your name in the Leave Your Comment section. I have no idea who I should say hi to Sarah from (straw bale conference person, for sure... but out of 110 delegates... who are ya? ) -from the post below
• I'm still waiting on my visa application! And tomorrow is Pakistan Day, hence a holiday and some type of arms parade... The run around has been crazy! The rest of the straw bale teaching gang is already up in Abbottabad working on work strategies and talking to different NGO's and planning the work that is to be done. The fact that I was born in Bombay is really slowing things down!And as I was told, its also done partially due to the fact that the Indians bug the Pakistanis when they apply!Holding a Canadian passport is almost irrelevant!Funny how a person's birthplace can change treatment and perception, on a macro level. I spent a month as a child in Bombay and that is how the way I'm treated is determined.And I'm still one of the lucky ones, BY FAR!
• All said, I've had MUCH better treatment by the local Pakistanis than even the highly annoying Canadian Embassy!!! Two trips to the CDN embassy, soaking wet, waiting patiently to register myself in the country (for safety reasons) just to be told that they can't help me with registration, as now its only web based (and for a god-forsaken reason, the people at the front did not know that!) and can't help me dry my soaked jacket... for security reasons, and thats AFTER going through a thorough check while coming in!!!! Thanks! Oh... there's a Canadabad Cafe, for Canadians... wait... only for diplomatic Canadians... something they only tell you at the gate!Luckily, the local security guard at this Canadabad Cafe, seeing my sorry wet butt, gave me HIS umbrella for me to go to the Canadian Embassy! :)

In Islamabad and phone numbah

So, I'm sitting in ATV HQ's in Islamabad... having arrived here yesterday and staying at a new friend TS's pad in what's probably the safest place in Islamabad, the embassy enclave. Met up with the crew and went for a proposal meeting with a Lt. General and his entourage to discuss strawbale in the earthquake effected zone. Had a number of meeting in a number of offices to get my visa extended and need to do the same tomorrow. The rest of the crew is on their way to Abbottabad, where coincidently my grandfather grew up! So, the surreal time continues. The dhaba food here is awesome and the people are unbelievably hospitable! So, its time to go and enjoy their hospitabilty (sp?) and their dhaba food again!
Oh, my number here is 011- 92 (country code) - 3212991610. If you're bored or can't sleep... gimme a shout (incoming is free.. yeah... cheeky... innit!!!) :P

going from Punjab to Punjab

So, its 1251 am... many hours since a decent sleep... the 1910-945 overnight train journey from Dehra-Dun to Amritsar was apparently there in great time... ONLY an hour + late! Having forgotten its Sunday and that everyone and their mother-in-law were heading to the Golden Temple and that it would take me more than three hours just to get inside the main hall... compounded by the massive lack-of-chai-since-yesterday headache... I headed straight for the langar hall and chowed down... followed by quick, cold refreshing dip in the main sarovar. A lil' bit o' haggling later and I was off for my first Indo-Pak border crossing... and cool it was. First was the lecture that I couldn't take any Indian rupees across... which caused me to change SOME of my Indian rupees to Pakistani ones, at what I found out was a worse rate than the one offered across the border! Luckily, I know better than to trust the local Indian vendors (this'll sound quite harsh unless you've traveled here!). Immigration and customs on the Indian side introduced me to a Japanese fellow from Osaka who, on a Canadian Louis Garneau mountain bike, was cycling from Shanghai to atleast Iran. :) Who knows... I might join 'im! :) Anyhoo... the Pak side immigration was chilled out as Immigration was done on my behalf, while I sat on a manjaa and my passport and form went inside. Best was when I went for customs (i.e. baggage check) while my bags sat near the manjaa next to the really sweet guy who helped me with Immigration! All done, I went for a cup o' chai at the restaurant before crossing the checkpoint and the same sweet guy found my family friend uncle (who I hadn't met earlier and on whose laptop this is being typed on!). I guess I'm rambling on... but I gotta mention the Wagah border crossing closing ceremony. Totally cool... I'd say atleast 3000 ppl on the Pak side and 5000 on the Indian side... screaming, shouting while watching the border patrol guards trying to "intimidate" each other while closing. Never been to a more fun border than this... show and all!I think the link above even has a video... and the night ended at Lahore's famous FoodStreet for Lahori fish! Its 127am now and haven't slept for way too long... before I become incoherent, which I fear it might already be too late... so, like all the courteous ppl I've met sofar in Pakistan sofar, I'll apologize in advance! :)

updated: hail storm in DehraDun!!!

changes are definitely abound... I have never seen such a hail storm... golf sized hail... unbelievable!!!! am sending this before the comps crash!!!
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update:

• firstly... Anonymous comments... please give me your name too! I don't know who is "looking at Ldn and Spain in Early - Mid May!!"
  



• As for my plans... here they are (but fully aware of what "God" does when told of someone's lifeplans.... she/he laughs!): Depart from DehraDun 17th by overnight train to Amritsar. Leave the same day or next via Wagha border crossing to Lahore or Islamabad (depending on bus/train schedule which I'll find out upon arrival to Wagah border). Get visa extension process started in Islamabad by the 19th/20th March and start strawbale work with PAKSBAB in Abbottabad soon after. Work/teach/learn for a month and return to India via same route and fly from Delhi April 18-20ish. Stop in London for family visit and be back in Canada for May :) Inshahallah (as we say in Farsi & Urdu).



• As for the hailstorm, it was something never witnessed in the Doon Valley before. I exaggerated a little when I said the size of golf balls... I'd say about the size of Mike Tyson's knuckles and with about the same ferocity, as far as flora is concerned. As I'm back to my non-digital camera, ya'll will have to wait for photos!We also ended up rescuing two parrots who were literally beaten down from the sky by the intense hail. Entire wheat crops, lichee and mango seasons have been demolished in twenty minutes yesterday. The saddest look was on the face of the man who tends and sells the estate's mango's and lichee's, who at 10 am came and was happily proclaiming that this year will be a bumper crop of our homegrown mangoes and lichees. At about 4pm.... we'd be lucky if there are even 1/20th of the mangoes & lichees available!Here he is standing next to what used to be a Papaya tree!!! Not a single leaf left!!!

Well, its past dinner time here with my grandma (i.e. 1830!!!!) Quite the contrast to the wedding and Delhi timings! Dinner by 1830 and in bed by 2100 (but not sleeping and having snuck in a sandwich... till midnight... with my hotwater bottle, cheesey single station FM radio and those bloomin' honking cars breaking the gorgeous silence)

Wedding Photos

its been too crazy busy and then too tired to write.. so I'm hoping these photos will say more than a few words... These aren't all by any stretch and even the selection was bordering on random due to tiredness and such... but I know a number of ya'll have been waitin' for 'em.. so here they are! :) I hope you like 'em.. grab a mug o' coffee or more before starting... even in slideshow mode.. there are over 200 between the two albums...
Devigarh Fort Palace scenery shots
Sanj and Suz's wedding photos
Enjoy! :) and buenos noches... even though its only 1730

all coloured up...

Holi was today... crazy Delhi-style Holi... although less intense than two years ago!
Will write more as the "tiredness" wears off... ;)