A Visit to Meerut

Our old friends Brij and Viola Lal, have lived in Meerut since retirement. This is a smaller city than Delhi, but has grown enormously since we first visited here back in 1996. Their daughter Deepa and her son Jason live with them. We are staying in a hotel not far from their home, and are kindly picked up by car in the morning to spend the day with the family. 

Our trip from Delhi by car on Friday went smoothly, although it took a long time to get from one side of Delhi to another. Once we crossed the River Yamuna, we got on an expressway that moved us quickly to Meerut. After settling into the hotel, we went over to the house for greetings and tea with samosas.

The cricket test match between India and South Africa was on the TV. We anticipated being able to watch it for the usual five days. However, the scoring was low and the wicket-falling was high, and the whole thing was over before the end of the third day. If you don't know anything about cricket, that won't mean much, but it was disappointing. And India lost.

On Saturday we did our laundry in their automatic washer. I hung it out on the rooftop terrace and it was all dry within just a few hours. Anju and Sandeep came from Delhi and we all had a good day visiting.

Saturday night we had an unfortunate incident; about midnight a large group of noisy people came into the room next to ours. They were smoking, talking, and laughing loudly. Dan went down to the desk but the overnight attendant had no authority to do anything. They finally quieted down about 4:00 AM. We were not happy!!

On Sunday Neelu and Sanjay came from Delhi. What a treat to spend time with three of the Lal daughters and their parents. In the afternoon I went shopping with Anju and Neelu; I was interested in the yarn shop Anju had been at the day before. I did find some very decent yarn for a project I have in mind, and the total price for a total of eight 100-gram balls was less than $10! After the yarn shop, the sisters had some more shopping to do. They are professionals 😉

When we returned, Deepa had lunch ready -- Tibetan noodles and momos. She is an amazing cook, just like her mother. I was happy to spend some time visiting with Neelu, whom we see very rarely.

Today (Monday) is our last day here. It will be quieter, as the Delhi folks have returned home to work today. We'll be leaving for the airport at 7:30 in the morning for our flight to Bangalore and our next visiting adventure.

I did take some pictures but the internet here in our hotel is extremely slow. I can't get anything to load. I will try to add some when we are in Bangalore, where we should have better connectivity.