Shimla: Nostalgia and emotions overwhelmed Afghan President Hamid Karzai on March 7 as he was conferred the honorary D Lit degree of Himachal Pradesh university, of which he was a student.

"I came to Shimla with my cousin and we walked through the thick forests with tall trees and a large number of baboons playing on them. It used to drizzle, but it did not wet me and those memories are still fresh in my mind," he said in his extempore speech after receiving the degree from Governor Suraj Bhan.

Hopping down the memory lane, Karzai recalled his very first day in Shimla as he walked away from the railway station as an 18-year old youth.

"I was so fascinated with Shimla that I decided to stay back and joined the local SDB College and later got admission in the university," he said adding he felt sorry for those who had education in Delhi or other big cities.

Karzai remembered the guest house of All India Institute of Medical Sciences where he stayed for three months and recalled that the building belonged to Raj Kumari Amrit Kaur, a former Union Minister.

"My long walks from guest house to the college and back was a regular feature and it continued after I shifted to YMCA. The reason that I am fit today is because of those long walks," he said in lighter vein.

PTI