Jammu Notings

Date: Mid July, 2007

• North Indian weddings are full of fun and frolic.


• Aditya's family is very warm, especially his brother Atul, his sister Manisha and his cousin Sachin. His friend Amit is a fine chap.
  
• Jammu is a quaint city. It has small gulleys with shops loaded with dry fruits, clothes, woollens and cricket bats. Thinks work at a languorous pace.
• Jammu has a lot of temples. The legacy of the Hindu kings - Hari Singh, Charan Singh, etc...is present all over. Though Jammu is the summer capital of J&K, it hardly feels like a capital city. Instead, today it survives as the stop-over junction for pilgrims headed to Vaishno Devi and Amarnath.
  
• I understand why Aditya wanted to leave Jammu. It is a small temple town with petty trade. Not the place for one with Aditya's talents and ambition. It is like Vitla or Mangalore.
• Nice place for shopping, it's cheaper than the metros. Apples cost Rs. 25 a kg!!
• Lots of greenery like in Bangalore.
  
• Shop keepers ae not nice, you feel they are out to cheat you. Mean petty traders.
  
• Women are very beautiful. Sharp features and fair complexions. Demure and conservatively dressed. They are nice to look at.
  
• Sigh... Jammu is a city under siege. Every vantage point is occupied by a gun-totting army jawan. Every street corner has an army SUV with the trademark green camouflage. The army presence intrudes into daily life. They are there everywhere.