new entries

hi everyone

well i don't really understand why i can't keep the promises i make........last time i promised to write a post in 24hours, and here i am writing the same after a gap of more than a month. well i guess better late than never........

ok, 1st and foremost the good news is that i have few new friends in my life from different parts of the globe.........well they are .......Anthony from Australia, Toussaint and Sandrine fron Burundi and Siddharth from India. they all are in 1st year, so they are my juniors in our college.

within this short time we have become really close friends, so close that we share a lot of secrets, without even hesitating..............

and well the bad news is that Ripu and I are not friends any more, well our relationship is very complicated, i don't think that we can ever have a normal friendship, there is too much of ego and sentiments involved, so i have accepted what has happened quite sportingly.
now let's talk something about my new friends........
Anthony is a complete cleanliness freak........and well he is hygiene conscious too, and well maybe thats what makes him unique. he is kind at heart, not at all selfish, humourous, and quite matured in giving advice.........i listen to whatever he says as his advices are quite helpful. now-a-days my favourite past time is pulling his leg, and well Sid helps me out quite a lot.



(left-Sid, me, Anthony in green)


Toussaint is a God fearing person, a Catholic. he is also very humourous and well behaved, but well he loves pulling my leg.........what Sid and I like in him is his accent, especially the way he says "may be".......it's sort of like "Mabbe".......its really cool. and as this is his first encounter with cold (its never so cold in Burundi), he is always dressed up like an eskimo.






(Sandrine and Toussaint)








Sandrine is a pretty girl, one of the prettiest in our college with a fantastic hair style, everyone just love her hair. Sandrine hardly speaks with people, all she does is giggle and say "Powell....." or "Sid...." and then she starts giggling again.......although now-a-days she has started opening up...............Sandrine likes cartooning when class is going on, and well her favourite past time is grooming herself.

Siddharth, fondly known as Sid is the kid of the group. well he really knows a lot, quite advanced for his age, but still a kid is a kid. he is very ticklish , just like me, so i really love tickling him. what i also like is messing with his hair. he is just like Rana, always flirting with girls........well according to him, he is irresistable....hehehehehehehe......he is just like a younger brother to me, i don't know what he thinks about me, but i guess he likes me too.


ok, so i introduced you all to some people who are very important in my life...............i just wish nothing goes wrong between us..........

Back from the Dead

hello everyone,
Don't panick, i am not a ghost, i am still alive and the same old luzhouboy....it's just that i got lost for more than half an year............but now i am fit and fine, as good as new..........

So many things happened in the past few months..........i stopped talking to Ripu and Sandy, i changed my room, my gf's parents are now ok with our relationship, i got the 2nd position in our college last semester....................and lots more...........so well lets start...............

some really complicated misunderstands cropped up between Ripu, Sandy and me and well we stopped talking to each other..........this was the case till this september.......for those who forgot Ripu and Sandy, here is a picture to remind you......

from left to right: Sandy, Ripu

well i only know how i spent such a long time without them.........crying whenever i am alone but avoiding them whenever i they came to sight.........all i was hoping was for them to approach me, but well guess they were thinking the same thing and thus passed 6 months..........

In the meanwhile i changed my room and shifted with another best friend of mine, Rana....















Rana and me on my birthday

well Rana has been with me in all times...whenever i was upset or sad he was there, so he became a very close friend of mine, so close that i confide in him regarding everything.......

Although Ripu and Sandy were not there my life was going at a smooth pace, i received my 1st semester scholarship money, which i completely spent on buying gifts for my family as i was about to return to India for a month's vacation..............

Things really changed when i went back to India.......there i talked to a friend of mine named Priya regarding Ripu and Sandy and well she told me that i am fat headed and that i should really take the 1st step to mend our relationship because maybe they were also waiting for me to approach.................the very next day i wrote about 6 e-mails to the two of them, apologising for my attitude..........after that was the long wait.............

sometimes i felt like it was a mistake to send the mails and sometimes it felt like the best thing i have ever done...............

reply came from sandy in just a Week.......but well no repy came from Ripu.........and Sandy also told me Ripu was pissed off and well may be things will get better in future.............

and things did get better after about 1 and half months.............we returned to China and within a week or two i got an offline message from Ripu which said that we should forget the past problems and move ahead...................................

what a relief for me!!!!!!!!!!atlast i got my friends back, and it felt so good.................it felt like heaven...............................................

and now we are the best buddies again........................the most positive aspect of this fight is Rana........i found a brother in him........................................

and well about my vacation in India, my gf's parents, my new possession and lots more.....i guess you all have to wait a little longer for my next post....... till then........take care..............

Guang zhou

ok, are you ready???????well don't you remember that i was supposed to reveal something more about my travels around China!!!!!!!!

my today's topic is Guang zhou. well it is the third largest city in China, right after Beijing and Shanghai and is located in Guang dong province. the place is about 3 hours from Hong Kong by bus. so you can very well imagine how far it is from Luzhou.


actually at first i didn't know anything about Guang zhou. i will tell you all how i came to know about the place. every night at 10:30 pm i go to Tanya's room for our Bible reading and night's prayers.
(Tanya)



for those who don't know Tanya, she is our Senior in our college, a star student and a wonderful human being and she is from Shillong. oh i almost forget, her favourite time pass is pulling my leg. anyway, lets continue our story.

well that night when i went to her room, no one was there except Tanya, Lahun and Helbert, so we had to wait for 30 minutes more for everyone to come and we had our prayers. after that we started discussing how boring life was, stuck in Luzhou for 42 days, nothing to do, no classes.........then Tanya said that she will be going to Hong Kong to meet her aunt. well i thought atleast someone will not be bored. then suddenly Ban said that he will also be going to a place named Guang zhou. it was the first time i heard the name of the place and curiousity drove me towards asking him what he will be doing there.

(Guang zhou)
well he was a little surprised to know that i never heard of Guang zhou, he told me that the medical college there is very famous and he has got his friends there, so he wanted to spend the rest of the vacation there. i was too bored of the daily routine of Luzhou, so i agreed instanteneously to go with him when he asked. i didn't even think that i was short of money, i just agreed.

when i came back to my room, i thought may be he was just kidding, maybe he will not go or even if he does he will not take me. three days passed and i almost forgot about it. then one day at about 4:00pm he called me and asked me to get ready as soon as possible as we were going to buy our tickets that very day. imagine my situation, no money and was on my way to buy tickets for a place so far away. the only person about whom i could think at that moment was Suchi, i rushed to her room and asked for some money. Suchi was supposed to buy a laptop the following day, but then also she gladly gave me 600 yuans. i mean just imagine what a kind hearted person she is!!!!!!!!!!!!even Sandy gave me 900 yuans for my trip. so from almost bankrupcy, i had enough money for my tickets. but when we reached the agency, it was already closed. so we had to return there the following day. we got tickets for Guang zhou, but not from Luzhou, it was from Chong Ching. so we again had to buy bus tickets for Chong Ching.

Tanya, Mark and Reuel also bought their tickets upto Guang zhou along with us, they planned to leave for Hong Kong from there.

so on 26th January, all of us packed our bags and left the college campus at 7:00am to catch our bus for Chong Ching. guess what happened next??????????as soon as we reached the bus station, nature showered her love for me and i had to go shit. i mean it was so emberassing. and then when we boarded the bus, it was stuck in front of our college for 3 hours, because of fog. we reached Chong Ching in the late afternoon. Chong Ching is also known as Detroit of the East, well i don't know why, i am just quoting what Tanya said. it's a beautiful city with millions of fly overs.

but we didn't get to go around the city because we had our train at10:30 in the evening. so we went to a restuarant, ate our lunch, waited there till dinner, ate dinner and then proceeded toward the train station to catch our train. this was the first time i boarded a chinese train. it was small but very comfortable. and the service was better , much better than what we have in India. i was quite satisfied.

(Mark)

that night i was sleepy, but i didn't want to sleep, so Mark (not chinese Mark) and me, we kept on talking. he gave me advices about life and what is right and what is wrong. this is how Mark really is. he will help everyone with his advices and his knowledge, i feel so relieved whenever i talk to him. anyway, after a rather prolonged chat, we both fell asleep and didn't wake up till the next afternoon.

it was around 1:00pm when i opened my eyes. the first thing i did was brush my teeth, by that time everyone was awake and as hungry as i was. so "Brunch time" was declared by Lady Tanya. she prepared duck sandwich for all of us...........she even cut cucumbers, apply mayonaisse on the bread and put duck meat in between two pieces of bread. it was so delicious that i can hardly describe in words........i never knew Tanya has the qualities of a good Chef.

but that night we had to buy food from the pantry car, since we hardly had enough food left for the 5 of us.... after two night's journey we atlast reached Guangzhou. we took a cab to Nan Fang Yi Yuan (medical college and hospital) and i was given a fake note by the cab driver, which when i later found out, i had the urge to kill him. after reaching Nan Fang, we were recieved by Ban's friends..................Geraldo, Jeremiah (Jerry) and Anil.

when we reached their dormitory, i was full of envy. their dormitory consists of 14 floors with 3 elevators...............i mean , its such a luxury, don't you think???? and guess what they have in each room????????two "King-sized" Beds!!!!!!!!!we get bunkers to sleep and they get king sized beds!!!!!! well the only consolation was that i got to enjoy that luxury for the next few days. there we met the rest of the group...........Lakiewdor (Lakiew), Wilanika (Wila) and Percia, all from Shillong. we also met the twins from Manipur.....Ching Khei and Ching Len. it was quite funny to see two people who looked exactly like each other, i mean it's quite common in movies but not in real life.




(in front is Anil, behind him from left to right.....me, Jerry, Tanya, Ban, Wila, Lakiew, Percia...
and the two behind us .....the taller one is Reuel and the other one is Mark)


Tanya, Mark and Reuel left for Hong Kong that very day; it was Chinese New Year.

(Beijing Lu)
the rest of us went to Beijing Lu, a fantastic shopping area, all decorated for the New Year. it is such a wonderful place, i mean it is full of internationally branded shops but then also had such a chinese essence.


oh by the way, you won't believe what i ate there.............i ate Octopus. they are so tasty, just like prawn........cute baby octopuses............what do you expect me to do, it's China after all!!!!!!
we had a great time there and when we realized that it was time to return to the dormitory, it was to late to catch the bus. we had to return by a cab.

(Pearl River)



the next day, i woke up at 3:00pm. well i tried to wake up early, but the king sized bed said that it would be a serious crime not to enjoy the luxurious nap. that evening we went to the Pearl River. the colourful lights on the river bank, over the bridges and cruises created a perfect blend of true China. it was no less beautiful than any of the European countries. we spent all our time taking millions of photos, eating kebabs and teasing each other.

Guang zhou's beauty soothes the eye and its tasty cuisine nourishes the stomach, it's simply a wonderful city.


(Ocean World)





our next visit was the Ocean World. we saw Dolphins, seals, penguins, sharks and what not. but i must admit, the stars of the day were the dolphins who tossed their trainer in the air, as a part of the show. well unfortunately for me though, Lakiew got a little over excited by the show and started calling me a Dolphin. can you believe that!!!!me, a dolphin?????well i also gave her tit for tat. she is now officially known as a Penguin to me and to the rest of the world...... serves her right.







oh did i mention that there are regular presentations by mermaids in the Ocean World????well not real mermaids ofcourse, but well they are quite cool...



that day we had our lunch in an indian restuarant. it was after such a long time i tasted true indian food!!!it was as if we were back in india, feasting on chicken curry, mutton korma, paratha and Chilli chicken...............simply mouth watering.


(mermaids)

that evening we again went to Beijing Lu and did some shopping for our friends. after that for the next two days we simply stayed in room and relaxed. we didn't go anywhere except for the canteen to eat. we watched movies all night and slept the whole day.

but after that came the best part of our trip......................HONG KONG...............well .........i think i will talk about Hong Kong in the upcoming posts, not now...... so keep waiting.....bye...

Blessing of the Buddha

good morning everyone, or rather i should say good afternoon, its 12:55pm here and guess what???i just woke up!!!!!Yang Li is coming back today, so i am a little excited, i tried to call her but she is not answering.......i don't know what the reason can be, maybe she is with her family now.



well in the past few posts i have discussed a little about myself, but well most of you must be wondering how the life is in China, or maybe some of you might be thinking what do the people do here other than eating noodles.........



well for the past one month i have been travelling a lot, all around China, and frankly speaking the more places i visit, the more i fall in love with this country. maybe many of you don't know that the world's largest Buddha statue is present in China. it is located at a place called Le shan, about 7hours drive from where i live, that is, Luzhou. during our vacations, my first destination was Le shan.

well actually it was completely unplanned. my best pal Ripu was supposed to go there along with a chinese friend of ours whom we named Mark. Mark is a local of Le shan and he invited Ripu to spend the vacation with his family. Ripu was waiting for me in front of Mark's dormitory, so i rushed there...........and guess what happened..............he (Mark) invited me too and i accepted. so that very evening Mark and Ripu went to the bus station and booked my ticket.

i was so excited because it was my first trip outside Luzhou, but to tell you the truth the journey was not very comfortable..........i mean imagine sitting in a bus for 7 hrs, nothing to do, can't even move your legs properly; and to top that nature's call..........it's really hard to admit but i was dying to shit, but unfortunately i had to control myself. Mark told us that we will have to stay in a hotel for that night and he will come in th morning to take us to his home......so as soon as we reached Le shan we found a room for us at the cost of 90 yuans (6yuans=1$) a night, had our dinner (before which i didn't forget to shit) and went off to sleep.

we woke up early in the morning, the weather was cold, but we some how got ready, so that we look at least presentable to the chinese family with whom we were going to stay.........Mark was one hour late, but that was nothing compared to what he had in store for us. he told us that his friend had a terrible accident and was admitted in a hospital in a different city and he will have to rush there, so we will have to stay in the Hotel and go around Le shan on our own.

just imagine, a new country, a new city, a still hardly understable language, how were we supposed to go places on our own??????i mean no one there speaks english, the only mode of communication is either chinese, or the alternative is what we applied........sign language.

i don't blame Mark, but i won't deny i wanted to shoot him at that moment, i was so angry with him, but as Ripu asked me to control, i behaved myself. Mark took us to the entrance of the Giant Buddha, helped us to buy our tickets and then bid farewell to us and left.

well we didn't let this incidence spoil our vacation though. we were determined to make use of our time and money, so we entered through the gate..........although we were a little upset at first, the place cheered us up. it is located at the top of a hill and had many magnificent things starting from the Dragon Pool with colourful fishes, to the artificial as well as natural waterfalls.
but the statue of the Buddha out shines everything which ornament the place.


Leshan Giant Buddha is an enormous statue carved into the cliff side of Lingyun Mountain. The Buddha is over 71 meters (230ft) tall with 28 meter (92ft) wide shoulders and a 15 meter (49ft) high head. More than 100 people can sit between the Buddha feet.


The carving of this massive statue commenced in 713AD during the Tang dynasty and was only completed in 803AD. The Buddha overlooks the confluence of the Min, Qingyi and Dadu rivers just east of Leshan and is reputed to be the largest carved stone Buddha in the world. A local saying explains, "The mountain is a Buddha, the Buddha is a mountain".

Standing in front of the Giant Buddha, we were awe struck by the unrivalled audacity of the ancient sculptors. to the right of the Buddha is the "Nine Turn Plank Walkway" which is made up of 250 narrow steps moving downwards. as we moved down these steps, at one point of time i thought that i will surely fall down and that would be my end, it was the first time i realized that i was afraid of heights; well any normal human being would feel the same in my situation.

but once i got to the bottom, i felt like all the trouble is worth it. i was so amazed that i could hardly do anything other than taking photographs.




if any of you come to China someday, the Le shan Giant Buddha is a must watch for you.


beside taking about a thousand photos, i bought a lot of presents for my friends and thus began my trip to bankrupcy. silk umbrellas for the girls, and laughing Buddha for the boys.........and for myself???????absolutely nothing!!!!well it's no fun to buy things for myself, but its a pleasure to buy for all.





after this, we returned back to our Hotel room by taking a cab, at first i thought maybe the driver will take us to an unknown part of the city because of the way we spelt the name of the place, but fortunately he took us to the right destination.



the next day was Ripu's 21st Birthday. imagine being stuck in an unknown place on such an important day!!!!! that afternoon when Ripu was asleep, i went to the reception of the hotel and asked her where i could find a birthday cake (in chinese ofcourse) and she gladly directed me the way. i bought a birthday cake, a bottle of coke, two glasses and two balloons and hid them in the cupboard. Ripu didn't notice anything because he was busy snoring, as usual. when he woke up, i understood that he was not feeling great being stuck in Le shan, so we decided we will return back the next day, that is, on his birthday. so we went to the Bus Station to buy our return tickets, but the counter was closed. a person told us that we can get tickets in the morning while taking the bus itself, so we didn't take much tension. since we were hungry we went to Dicos to eat our all time favourite "chicken burger".

in the mean time when Ripu was not noticing, i called Sandy and we planned to throw Ripu a surprise birthday party when we return to Luzhou. that night, although i was feeling very sleepy
i kept myself awake. every other minute i was checking out the watch, and this made Ripu suspicious. but he could never guess what was waiting for him in the cupboard.


as soon as it struck 12:00 i started singing Birthday wishes to him( although i can't sing) and i presented the birthday cake in front of him and hit him on the head with the balloons. he was so happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i made him cut the cake and open the coke just like opening a champagne bottle and we had a party of our own. although it was not much, we had a great time.



the next morning i don't know why nature was angry with me again. well what i mean is that i had a loose motion and to top that, we didn't get a reservation till that afternoon. i wish no human being should celebrate his birthday in the way Ripu did. stuck with me in Leshan all day long, most of the time sitting alone when i was busy lowering the pressure in my stomach. at last we got the bus at 1:00pm and set of for Luzhou. on the bus we had to unwillingly watch few chinese movies and wait to get back to our sweet Luzhou.

when we finally came back, everything was ready for Ripu, his birthday cake, the room was decorated, i mean everything was simply great. Ripu and me went to invite few of our seniors and very close friends.......Tanya, Mark, Reuel, Helbert, Lahun, Mount, Ban, Sweta, Paltrow, Suchi and others. that evening we had a great birthday party being celebrated in our dormitory.


later Ripu took Sandy, Rana, Sanjeet, Nihaal and me to St Marlow's, an italian restuarant for a special treat.
oh, i never would have guessed that the day which started with being stuck in the lavatory in Le shan would have such a satisfactory ending. thus i got no better title than "Blessing of the Buddha" for my today's post.

in the next post comes few more travel experiences around China..........so till then ........good bye.

Misunderstanding

hello everyone, its me luzhouboy, back again to proceed from where i stopped last time. last time i told you how the two people whom i disliked gradually became my best friends. now i will tell you something more about some other people, some very important people .

we three (Ripu, Sandy and me), we had few more friends here. infact we had a perfect group consisting of Rajat, Neekita, Gwenette, Suchismita, Sweta, Rana and Nihaal besides us. whatever we did, we did together, whether it is going to down town or having lunch together. it was more than someone could ever ask for. now you must be wondering who these people are, so lets talk about them individually.


(Rajat and Neekita)



i first met Rajat at Calcutta Airport. at first i thought that he is a little arrogant, but i liked him because he was quite outspoken, just like me. we chatted like two chatter boxes at the airport and it was unspokenly decided that we would be good friends there after. the best thing about Rajat is his sense of humour which is as natural as it can get. oh by the way Rajat is from Delhi, a good student and if you some day come across him you will surely say that he is also a nice person.







now come Neekita's turn. i first met Neekita at the passport office in Calcutta, we both had a little problem regarding ECNR (Emigration Clearance Not Required) in our passports. she came there with her father and on our first meeting i felt that she is a very innocent and nice person. for the first few months after coming to China Neekita had a small problem, well she didn't eat or drink something if someone else took a bite or a gulp from her food. but thank God she is changed now.Neekita is a good student and a nice person to know. she is a Nepali girl but she is from Sikkim.




Gwenette is the kid of the group. she is as innocent as a child and sometimes as naughty as a monkey. she is sophisticated, well mannered and the nicest of all. she is popularly known as Gwen, but to me she is Paltrow.......it is needless to say why i call her that, anyone who is a fan of hollywood will guess that. Paltrow is from a place called Shillong. the way she tries to speak in Bengali or Hindi will surely tickle anyone to death. she is a friend whom anyone will cherish till the end of his or her life. Paltrow is one of the best students of the batch and also the cutest.




the first time i talked to Sweta, i thought she was a Bengali, i was really surprised to know that she is a Bihari. Sweta is probably the youngest person of the group. she is nice, cute and hopelessly in love with her boy friend who is studying BBA back home in India, sorry people but i can't mention his name here. Sweta always promises to go on a diet, but she never does, well we don't want her to go on a diet either; we like her as she is, no need for any changes.















(in the front row Neekita in black and sky blue, Suchi in red, Sweta in black)

Suchismita was my aunt's neighbour till last year, but fortunately or unfortunately i never met her before coming to China, if you can just ignore the brief introduction at the airport. she is my big sister in China, always taking care of me, helping me with money whenever i am in need of it, always telling me what to do what not to do. she even manages my accounts. for the first one week when we came to China, we thought she is an arrogant, snobby, spoilt, rich girl; but thank God she is not. she is a great human being. Suchi's father is a successful neuro surgeon and she is also determined to be a successful doctor herself, so lets just pray that whatever my sister wish for comes true.


Rana is from a place called Birbhum and he is undoubtedly the person who is bullied the most, especially by me. well to tell the truth he enjoys that more that anything. well for quite sometime Rana was flooded with offers from chinese girls, but at present his "Date Book" says he is free till eternity. his most precious possession is his hair which by the way is in pretty disgusting condition because he coloured them brown. well he is also very much childish in his behaviour and doesn't miss a single opportunity to annoy me.









Nihaal is from Kerala and he is the only one in our group who never feels cold even when the outside temperature is 3*C. you will always find him in a casual t-shirt and a pair of jeans, no warm clothes for him. Nihaal has got a weird accent while he speaks in english and i make it sure to tease him about it all the time. he pronounces "muscle" as "Muzzle", can you believe that????jokes apart, he is a very good friend and a great human being.



what a perfect group we had. well you must have noticed that i am using past tense, well thats the truth............we no longer have a group. blame it on fate or on our misunderstandings, we are separated now. i pray to God day in and day out to get back what we had, but i guess all of us are too stubborn to approach each other. now we hardly say more than hi or hello to each other. i just wish if we could just talk to each other about our problems and solve them..........but i guess its too late or maybe someday we will do that. lets just hope for the best, i really miss all of them and want them back. all that i can do now is wait and pray.

next post will be on my love...............so till then..................good bye.

The Start

Good evening to everyone reading this, this is my first blog and i dont know where to start from. its been about six months that i have been living in China, for your record i am a medical student under an international MBBS Program. Most of you must really be wondering why China above all places???????to tell you the truth i dont know it myself why i chose China, but now i am glad that i did.

i set off from India on 10th September, 2005, completely unknown of what was in store for me. well i didnt have a very good start though.........on the flight i had to sit beside two selfish and disgusting boys..........well i will tell you the whole story. actually i wanted to see the take off so i requested the boy occupying the window seat to kindly swap places, but i was curtly denied, he was so cold.....and then when i tried to sit on the seat next to him, he "informed" me that a friend of his was supposed to sit there and it was beyond my reach.........how rude is that???????? well even after being so rude he didn't hesitate to ask my help regarding changing of channels and tying seat belt. and later on after the take off when his friend joined us, well it was worst than a nightmare on the 1st night away from my family. i felt that there is no way that anyone can be colder than they were to me. we had to take another flight from Singapore to reach Chengdu Airport (about 3 hrs from my college in Luzhou), and i took an oath not to even look at their faces ever again......

but i guess the 1st impression is always not the best one. in our dormitory, these two became my new neighbours!!!!!!!!!!how hilarious!!!and no one will believe what happened next..................i don't know why or how, these two guys because the closest friends i ever had. we three are now a part of each other. oh by the way their names are Sandipan and Ripunjoy and they both are from Assam. we are so close now that we do almost everything together, starting from buying our very own computer, washing machine to buying our regular groceries.

this is how my journey started and thanks to God i have got something now which i lacked for the past 18 years..............two best friends. in the picture, the boy near the window is Sandy and next to him is Ripu.


For the past 6 months, thanks to my friends, i hardly missed my family. oh by the way people, all three of us successfully passed our 1st semester as medical students.

this is just the start, wait up for the most exciting things that happened to me here in China, but that my friends will be in the following releases.