Pong Wetland
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On November 14, I did a side trip to do some bird watching at Pong Wetland. This is a 3-hour drive from Dharamsala. This was organized by Jan den Besten from the Dutch Consulate. He wrote a book about the birds of the Kangra district. There were about 30 of us packed into 3 jeeps. We had a nice picnic on the side of the lake, but we were attacked by bees at some point, and I got stung 3 times...
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Udhampur
V.S. Parmar had told me that on November 15 we could go to Udhampur for the inauguration of a new operating theater in a clinic that was financed through the Rotary Club of Udhampur and Matching Grant Projects. Sushil Gupta, RI Director 2003-05, was going to be there. He is a friend of Ron Beaubien, our RI Director from District 5340, and I had tried to meet him a few times in the past without success. This would be the opportunity to finally meet him, so I said I would come. We would drive there and stay overnight at V.S. Parmar's nephew's.
On the morning of November 15 I get in the car and we drive off. 30 minutes later V.S. Parmar asks me if I did bring my passport. I said no, why do I need my passport? It turns out I had no idea where Udhampur was, and it happens to be in Jammu & Kashmir, a very unstable region because of the conflict with Pakistan. The military is everywhere and there are lots of controls, so everybody should have their passport. It was too late to drive back, so we decided to take a chance and go without my passport. I kept imagining the worst, with headlines like "Rotary Volunteer Attacked and Killed by Terrorists in Kashmir." I was wondering how my family and friends would feel like if they knew where I was. Well, I will worry about that later...
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The eye hospital in Udhampur was very nice. District Governor Beena Misra was also there for the inauguration. There was a reception afterwards, and they placed me at the head table again, and asked me to make a short speech.
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Captain Rajdeep Jamwal
We stayed overnight with Captain Rajdeep Jamwal from the Indian army, V.S. Parmar's nephew. Rotarian Y.R. Bakshi also stayed and drove back with us. he is a very active Assistant Governor and will be the District 3070 Secretary next year. On the drive back to Dharamsala we went through some very picturesque landscapes, and saw a railroad bridge that is supposed to be the highest bridge in Asia.
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