IV. College Experience ;Home away from Home

It was first time that within few weeks of missing home and trying to adapt to the big busy place, I with two of my friends landed up standing in front of the  familiar Bhutanese buildings. We are at Royal Bhutanese Embassy for the fresher's trip organized by Bhutanese Student's Association in New Delhi. It had everything that was Bhutanese. The paintings, Bhutanese National flag, Bhutanese food and of course lots of Bhutanese girls. I forgot to mention in my earlier posts that amongst 14 Bhutanese students studying in my college, we had only one girl, and she was one of the senior most students. Thus this experience of seeing lots of Bhutanese girls at a time in Bhutanese embassy was more cheerful than my whole experience thus far at college.

Every year, BSA Delhi organizes the trip which they call as fresher's trip, and after speech by Lyonpo Dago Tshering, then the Ambassador, and a registration of the new members, we set towards the place called Nainatal in Uttaranchal. It was really an awkward situation for three of us at the first glance. The students gathered there were all well dressed up, and spoke very friendly amongst each other albeit with three of us. We did not know anyone in the bus, it was like being amongst stranger Bhutanese in foreign land. The feeling like one we get when we first visit Thimphu from our village. and trust me, its worst than being amongst the strangers of other country. You think you know these guys just because they are Bhutanese, but you really end up not knowing any one of them. In a bus, around 8.AM next morning, I woke up to a fresh breeze of nature. The cold chilly breathe clouded my window glass, and we have reached our destination.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Nainital.jpg

I was on a horse, and the handy boy leading the horse tells me that the place is famous for Koi Mil Gaya movie and that most of the film was shot in Nainatal. With the big lake nestled at the heart of the civilization, the town was nostalgic of our home for us with hills and forest. on the back of the horse, we travelled in and around the hills. Our whole day ended up so quickly though, and we gathered near the bus to make our journey back to Delhi in the evening. I still remember that beautiful moment when I was actually introduced to two of the girls who were also with us for the trip. They also don't know much of the Bhutanese friends in the bus, and they were there in Delhi for the first time like us. The awkwardness that was clouding our stay suddenly disappeared.

I changed my seat with one of the girls. How things started, I really don't remember, but it was suddenly the beginning of hearty situation. We stayed awake whole night and had a chat over so many things. That was a perfect timing, if we talk about hitting at someone's heart. Being naive and young has its charm in doing those little lovey-dovey things. Perhaps, it's also because we think from our heart when we are young. However, I was not as successful in actually making her accept my proposal the whole night. And the journey too appeared shorter. Even without saying good bye, we departed. I had her number though, but I never dared to call her. She was a sweet girl, I used to speak to myself sometimes, and my friends knew that there are things which are developing within me, but our busy schedule kept me occupied mentally as well until I received a call from her friend that she is sick and why don't I visit her.