Gear
Only 30 to 40% of Kili summit ascents succeeed. The rest fail either due to fitness issues (lack of preparation, altitude sickness) or lack of appropriate gear. It can get extremely cold on the mountain, sub-zero temperatures are routine in the upper reaches, hence you need to buy sufficient warm clothes.

Our major purchases were -

• Backpacks with waist support (SavanD and Techpak), Balaclavas, mittens, Nalgene water bottles, Sleeping bag liner - from Wildcraft, Residency Road, Bangalore
• Hiking boots - Hi-Tech from Getoffurass.com (INR 3,500), CMH Road, Bangalore for Aradhana
• Hiking Boots - Montrail GTX for me ($160), Sleeping Bags (Polar Pods from REI, ~$100 each), Chemical hand/foot warmers, Petzl "Tikka"s ($30 each), wicking shirts/underwear, fleece jacket, hiking liners and socks, binoculars, sun block/lip balm, mosquito repellant, energy bars and Gatorade, First Aid kit including painkillers - all from REI outlets in the SF Bay Area (visited three REI stores to get everything i wanted. First Fremont and then on the last day of my US visit, Premshree (another Yahoo!) and I rode down to SF and then to San Carlos and then to the SFO airport, just in time to catch our flight back to Bangalore. San Francisco was the biggest and best stocked REI store.)
• Note on sleeping bags: Though the sleeping bags we bought were rated 0 deg. F, I can only guess what that rating really meant, since we needed all our layers to feel reasonably warm inside the bag even when the temperature was above 0 deg. F. I found the sleeping bag liner to be an excellent purchase to keep us warm inside the sleeping bag but sadly, between the two of us we had only one of those since Wildcraft had run out of stock. Sandy had fashioned a liner out of an old silk saree and reported that it worked just fine. I strongly recommend a liner (but test before purchase, Aradhana felt it was uncomfortable).
• Inners, woollen gloves/socks - from Eastern Store, Commercial St., Bangalore
• Fleece pants, track pants, sun hat - (real cheap!) - La Bamba, Brigade Road, Bangalore
• UV resistant sunglasses - from Fasttrack outlets in Bangalore (Forum mall)
• We decided to rent hiking poles, the outermost rain-proof warm layer and anything else we may have forgotten from the agent. Other than items that touch your skin its a good idea to rent the rest of the gear which you don't think you will use frequently.
• Other Notes: Buy eatables to suit your palate, especially since appetite nosedives at altitude. The "chilli pickle" that we had got was a great hit in the mess.
  
• Some useful links: http://www.zaratravel.com/kili/packinglist.html and http://www.go-kili.com/clothes.htm
  
• All inclusive, we must have spent a little over $1,000 on the gear for both of us.