Home sweet home... Chandigarh

So last week I took a train (all by myself =]) from Delhi to Chandigarh. That was one fabulous train ride... it was like a plane ride, minus all the safety demonstrations and the take-off, landing difficulties.

I was there from last Friday to Thursday (day before yesterday). I got to visit some of the old places still in my memory. Most vivid in my memory is my old house and so I got someone to bring me there.




I have to say, it looks much smaller than what I remember from 11 years ago. It might have something to do with the fact that I was about half as tall as I am now the last time I saw the place. The house is also vacant, and apparently has been for some time now, and so there is grass growing through the driveway, some of the windows are broken, and the backyard is a terrible mess of overgrown plants and weeds.

It was a sad sight. The most depressing part was that I remembered a Jasmine plant right in front of the house, but it was not there anymore.


I also got a unique chance to visit my old school. St. Anne's Convent School. Ah... the memories. The fields I used to play in were now in utter dismay because construction is going on for a new auditorium. I was able to catch some sweet sights. Like this stage in this picture. There are two tunnel-like hollow spots beneath the stage, in which I have eaten lunch many times.




The church there is also very dear to me. This church started when my sister was born. Its extra special because the first 2 or 3 years the service was held at our house. The pastor and certain people there were very close to me as I was growing up, so there is definitely a lot of connections. The Sunday that I was there, Pastor insisted that I speak. Not terribly horrible for my first attempt, and I somehow squeezed out a 20 minute message, including translation.... and testimony...


Moving on...

I stayed there for another four days. Some people visited me... They all knew me, but alas I knew none of them. Its weird how I have forgotten EVERYTHING...

One day we went to visit a place called the Rose Garden. Unfortunately, it is not the season for roses, and so we saw very few of them. The best part was getting there though. We took the bus and unfortunately, the cord link connecting the accelerator pedal to the engine snapped. Under normal circumstances, that would be the end of the ride... but not today! The driver went to the back, opened up a compartment and began fishing out the snapped cable. He then brought the end he just fished out to the front and gave it a nice tug. VROOOM!!! the engine revved... and thus the remainder of the trip the driver PULLED ON THE CABLE to accelerate in place of pressing the pedal. I thought it was fantastic and ingenious.

=) (thats the back of the bus, you can kind-of see the cable...)


I'm back in Delhi now. Its 9:30pm on Saturday night. Tomorrow around 4 pm we are leaving for Nepal! I'm set to be driving for part of the time, so keep that in your prayers. They are also asking me to take 4 sessions at the youth camp in Nepal. So... please please PLEASE keep that in your prayers too.

Good Night and God Bless!