Murthy's Blog

USA Trip - Footnotes

2005-06-13T16:22:00.000-07:00

Here is a collection of footnotes on our USA trip. These are my observations on the people, place and environment of the country.

Roads and traffic : Overall it is a highway marvel and a good example of how roads and bridges are to be constructed and maintained, and how heavy traffic of all types of vehicles, is to be regulated. We have a lot to learn from this. This interstate system also gives an opportunity to a visitor to view the countryside of the US in close quarters. Road signs like, "Don't drink and drive, arrive alive", and "We are only safe and courteous drivers", are common.

Food and eating habits: Americans, of all age -groups, love eating. All food portions are maxi-size. Age and sex do not matter while eating. They all eat very well. Many eat fast and junk food. Eating joints are all over the place. They do not drink much water but guzzle lot of aerated drinks and alcohol. Usually one comes across posters on the highways saying, " Get out and stretch your mouth". !!!

People: People generally mind their own business and would like to maintain distance. They are cordial, friendly, and exchange greetings frequently.

Hygiene and Sanitation: Hygeine in the Americas is at a different level from India. They wash off their hands with antibacterial soap, hand sanitizer, etc. All public rest rooms are very clean and all public areas are very well kept and maintained.

Attitude to Work: Americans are extremely focused and dedicated at workplace - whether they do investment banking or they wait at tables. They don't cheat at their work timings. It is often said here, "our driving force are the people".

More Observations:

All over the USA, the Armed Forces veterans are treated with respect.
Traffic Police on the highways/exits are most efficient
Americans, especially in California are tolerant to other religions.
American enjoys their holidays fully. They plan their holidays well in advance. Some of them move in their Caravans.
Americans generally never stop learning. They follow rules implicitly.
Health care is largely facilitated by health insurance, which is a big industry.
In earlier years, Americans had great respect for Indian scientists and doctors. They now respect Indian software engineers as well.
All airports cater to complete requirements of the visitor with excellent infrastructure. Most of the facilities are self-managed.
Right from master planning of infrastructure of towns, and cities, till execution of micro-aspects, everything is documented and facilitates the end-user,
Standardization is mandatory in many areas.
Electric power supply, water supply, gas supply are all meticulously planned.
In the rest room areas, eco friendly tissues are used. "No littering,” signs are they’re everywhere. Defaulters are fined heavily. Owners even take responsibility of their pets shit. They dispose off these droppings in garbage areas.
In case of traffic jam, most of the time there is no losing of temper. People are calm and patient.
The concept of neighborhood watch is prevalent everywhere in the USA. In case of suspicious movements of people in the area, people are alert, and take appropriate action.
Americans take pride in flying their flag everywhere.
Weather forecasting is excellent and in conveyed to people through all available media (TV, Radio, paper, etc.)

USA Trip - Episode 8

2005-06-13T16:13:00.000-07:00

This was once again a rest and recoup period. We totally relaxed, first at Campbellsville, and later at Blacksburg. The proposed trip to Augusta was postponed to our next US visit, much to the discomfiture of friends there.

At Campbellsville, we visited the Green River State park area. It is a project, which is largely managed by the Corps of Engineers of the US Army. Surprisingly, there is more number of civilians forming part of the Corps of Engineers than the Combat soldiers. We were told that a number of Combat Engineering is in Afghanistan/Middle East. This State park is a very beautiful and scenic, which has certain historic places, connected with the civil war. The weather at Campbellsville is ideal for long walks, which we enjoyed.

On 3rd June, we drove back to Blacksburg. Although we had been on the route three weeks back, the entire stretch was most invigorating and breathtaking. The rain played hide and seek and there was foggy weather at some places. It was a great relief to be back at home in Blacksburg. In the USA, there is the concept of yard or garage sale, where unused and unwanted things are sold at near throwaway prices. Yard sales are haven for deal seekers and students. We bumped into one such sale on one of our walks, and found a Spalding golf set, priced at 5 dollars! This was a goldmine discovered. Also, a number of books were being sold for a dollar or less. These included some autographed bestsellers. The next day, we spent two hours in cleaning the golf set thoroughly. It was indeed a great purchase.

On 7th June, we drove about 25 miles (from Blacksburg) to the Jefferson National forest region. Here, we embarked on a four-mile hike to a very scenic waterfall called the Cascade Falls. We climbed around 750 ft along a flowing stream through jungle and hills. It was a stimulating and an enjoyable hike.

I decided to test the new possession, the “great deal” golf set in the Virginia Tech golf course. It is a fantastic course of nine holes. The green fees rates for a visitor are $18 on weekdays till 4 pm, after which a reduced fee of $13 (the twilight fee) is charged for play up to 8:00 pm. I enjoyed the game. (Compare this green fee rate in US & in Indian golf courses.)

Next day we visited the Virginia Tech library, and came across a book called Diabesity, written by Dr Francine Kaufman, a former President of American Diabetic Association. It talks about the obesity-diabetes epidemic that threatens the USA and what people must do to avoid it. It is a thought provoking and interesting book with ample verified data and examples. Experts predict that more than one third of American children born in 2000 will develop diabetes in their lifetime. A must read book.

Development of sports amongst school children and college students are an important facet of American education. Sprawling sports complexes with indoor stadiums dot almost all Universities and Schools. It is a pleasure to see such facilities at School and College level. No wonder the Americans is great performers in the Olympics. We saw one such facility in Virginia Tech.

We are now ready to return to Bangalore. During the last nearly 6 weeks we have seen quite a bit of America, American culture and people. It was been a fantastic learning experience. We would like to come back and continue with this experience as much as we can. We have, as mentioned earlier, a lot to learn from this great country.

USA Trip - Episode 7 (California)

2005-06-03T15:26:00.000-07:00

We took off from Campbellsville early morning to Louisville around 5 AM. It was cold and foggy. We were still clipping around 60-70 miles/hour. We reached Louisville airport at 6:30 AM. Incidentally we had to get up 3:30 AM to facilitate this time of arrival at the airport.

The flight to California (San Francisco) was via Memphis. It was an hour-long flight to Memphis. We had already crossed one time zone. We had a grandstand view of Memphis from the plane. It was a fantastic and exhilarating experience flying over the Rockies, which were snow-capped at most places. We tried to capture some of this sight on our camera. We crossed the Colorado /Rocky Mountains and almost immediately entered the deserts of Nevada. What a contrast in the terrain! It was breathtaking view from the sky at 38, 000 ft. In fact, we passed through a number of terrain configurations. This carried on for almost an hour before we landed at San Francisco. We reached San Francisco airport at 10:50 AM local time – 3 hours behind East coast time. San Francisco/Bay area is a huge valley surrounded by mountains. California reminds people of the Mediterranean coast, which we believe, has similar weather (warm wet winters and hot dry summers). From the airport, after a 45-minute drive we reached Sunnyvale - a very picturesque and well laid out city.

Sunnyvale, we learnt, was a huge orchard few decades back and every other house has at least 2 fruit trees. In the last 10 years, thanks to the Y2K and dot COM booms, the entire area is overflowing with Asian immigrants, especially Chinese and Indians. The Chinese have been there for the last 50-60 years. There are 260, 000 Indians in the Bay area and, naturally there are a number of Indian stores and restaurants. One side of the valley leads through the Bay area to the Golden Gate Bridge and on to the Pacific Ocean.

After a delicious lunch in our cousin’s place in Sunnyvale, and after some rest, we headed towards Stanford University and some of the famous venture capital offices in the Bay area. Venture capitalists fund new businesses. A number of Indians are in such businesses. We drove through and walked around Stanford University. It was great feeling being at this world famous university, which is home to many Nobel Laureates.

The next morning (27 May 2005) we re-started our regular morning walk, and caught up with relatives & friends in the Bay area. We went to the Sunnyvale Hindu temple and later took the Cal train (local Bay area train service) to San Francisco city (40 miles away). It is a double Decker train, extremely clean and punctual to the second. At San Francisco, we took a streetcar to Powell and Union Street, the heart of SF. This is also a cable car stop. Cable cars are famous old time transport in SF. As usual, we bumped and rubbed shoulders with fellow Indians. There were many other tourists from all over the world. We witnessed a tap dancer (American-African) performing to recorded music right in the center of the street. The cable car goes up and down the unique undulating (and dangerous to drive through) streets of San Francisco very smoothly. It was a great experience. We walked along the Fisherman's wharf and went to the Ghiradelli Square. Here we had the world famous Ghiradelli hot fudge sundae ice cream. It was out of the world. Later, we took the Blue and Gold fleet ferry, across the Bay to the island of Alcatraz. Alcatraz, a twelve-acre island, was the military prison for 25 years and later was converted into a Federal prison. All dangerous convicts, including Birdman and Al Capone, were housed here. The convicts included rapists, murderers, thieves, etc. We went through a well-conducted audio tour.

We took the train back to Sunnyvale from SF. While on our way to the train Station, the taxi driver showed us some apartments in the San Francisco financial district and mentioned that there were a few flats available for sale at a "reasonable rate" of 600,000 dollars for a two bedroom flat! He definitely considered us to be very affluent people!!! After an enlightening tour of SF, we had a good, sound sleep.

After the usual enjoyable morning walk, we left for Monterey Bay, a small coastal town, approximately 100 miles south of Sunnyvale. We crossed through many fields including the world-famous garlic town. The entire drive was extremely picturesque with changing landscape. Monterey houses an under-sea aquarium. The aquarium is home to several different species of fish, and other under aquatic life. After seeing the aquarium, we drove along the 17-mile scenic drive, witnessing the world famous Pebble beach area golf courses. It was an interesting car drive. Every golfer worth his salt would like to play in these courses. Maybe next time I will land here straight from India to play golf!! Pebble beach also has some of the most expensive real estate in the world, where a house could cost around 15 million dollars. In all these places, we came across the massiveness of the USA in every aspect possible (mountains, rivers, lakes, vehicles, animals, children, men, women, food, etc).

After this delightful drive, we visited the Fry's electronics store in Sunnyvale. In Fry's are can purchase any possible electronics item, some of which are however priced quite exorbitantly. We rounded of the day with a Pizza specially catered for the Indian palate, followed by watching a masala American movie - National Treasure. It was as quixotic as a Hindi potboiler!

We started off the day by driving to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. This well maintained bridge was constructed in 1936 with a great vision. It is a suspension bridge, which is approximately 1.6 miles long and uses 80,000 miles of cable. It is an engineering marvel. The color of the bridge is "international orange". When the sun's rays hit the bridge, it appears Golden, and hence the name. Thousands of tourists visit this bridge daily. The planners of this bridge were great visionaries and had catered for the kind of traffic almost 75-100 years later than it was built by suitably leaving room for expanding traffic. We viewed the bridge from different angles. From the bridge, we witnessed a sailing regatta in the Bay area. The view from the bridge is breathtaking with the Pacific Ocean opening out on the West.

We then drove through Lombard Street, which is the most crooked street in the world. It is a cute little paved road with steps going down on both sides. The day turned out to be very interesting.

We visited the San Francisco area yet again, the next day (30 May’05) and had several different views of the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco city. We drove up to Twin Peaks, which provides a grandstand view of San Francisco and the Bay area. We could clearly see the Market Street dividing the city into two halves. The football team of San Francisco is named "49-ers" after the 49-mile scenic drive that runs through the city along the Bay. Being the Memorial Day, almost all restaurants (including many Indian restaurants) were closed, and we ended up eating Chinese food for lunch. It was good. We than visited Sausalito, a small little coastal town west of San Francisco. Sausalito is home to a number of houseboats (similar to the boats in Srinagar- They are however much cleaner). While driving through San Francisco, we went through Haight Street, where the Hippie movement started in the 60s. Later, we drove through the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge to Berkeley. This bridge is a double-decker bridge and is more of an engineering marvel than the Golden gate bridge. It is a 6-mile long bridge. It was a treat to drive through this bridge over the Bay. Berkeley is home to the famous University of California. We drove around the University, and passed through Telegraph Avenue - a major hippie hangout. Livermore was our next stop. The 100-mile drive from Berkeley to Livermore passes along the western portion of the Bay and is home to a number of industries including many IT companies. At Livermore, we spent over an hour at the Hindu temple. This temple was conceived, planned, and constructed by die-hard Indians over 25 years back. It is housed in a 10-acre plot, and there are plans we were told for a 15-million dollar development program for this temple and connected activities. It is a beautiful temple. This temple is visited by almost all Indians in the Bay area/Indian visitor to California.

We spent the next day with old friends at Santa Clara and San Jose. Later in the day we drove through a number of IT companies in the Silicon Valley, including Google. It is time to return to Campbellsville/ Blacksburg.

On 1 June 2005, we returned to Louisville by air via Minneapolis. Minneapolis airport is very big, and is hub to many international routes. Minnesota State houses around 1000 lakes and is sometimes called the lake state. We could see many grand views of lakes from the plane.

USA Trip - Episode 6 (Mammoth Caves)

2005-05-26T15:10:00.000-07:00

After a hectic trip to New York, Niagara and Washington DC, we needed complete rest for a couple of days. We took it easy and lazed around in Blacksburg, and enjoyed the University area. We had wonderful morning/evening walks and visits to the shopping malls.

We left Blacksburg for Campbellsville around midday on 22 May’05. The drive through West Virginia State enroute to Campbellsville was once again very picturesque through mountains, valleys and thick jungles. It was a great drive. We halted at a rest area where sugar free yoghurt based ice- cream was being sold. It was heavenly. The maintenance work on the road being executed by engineers of the highway reminded me of my own work as Chief Engineer in Sikkim ten years back. The quality of work and planning, of these highway engineers, is of superior quality. After 3 hours of hill driving, the terrain configuration changed to plain country. There was absolutely no pollution on the road. At yet another rest area, an American greeted us with an enthusiastic "Namaste". He introduced himself and mentioned that he was in Nepal for 8 years. We had by now reached the horse capital of the world - Lexington in Kentucky. One could see miles and miles of green pastures and meadows, neatly trimmed &manicured, where horses and cattle were lazily grazing. It was indeed a great countryside.

We reached Campbellsville (Kentucky) around 8:00 PM. We had a quick bite and slept off early. My morning walk the next day (23^rd May’05) was a feast for the eyes. This place is also very clean and green.

The next day we drove to Fort Knox - a US Army town, where the US Armored Corps and Mechanized Infantry training center is located. It is a high-security area. Alongside this place is the famous Patton museum (General George S. Patton was a military leader of World War - 2 fame). I had always been fascinated by his leadership qualities. It was a treat to go through the museum. I was particularly happy to be here since I had been associated with tanks during my Army days. It was a great visit indeed. The American bullion reserves are kept at Fort Knox – a high security area. Later we drove to a place called Louisville, where we had a good Indian buffet lunch.

In the evening we went to the self-service car-cleaning place. I enjoyed cleaning the car with all the automatic facilities available.

During the walk next morning, I was quite disappointed to see garbage strewn all over on the shoulder of a part of an interested highway. It is surprising how a country, which boasts of environmental cleanliness, could tolerate such vandalism on the highway.

Next morning we drove on yet another interesting highway to the world-famous Mammoth Caves. The drive to the caves reminded me of my tenure in Siliguri. The Mammoth Caves are the world's largest caves, 368 miles in length. We went on a conducted tour to a part of the cave system, climbing down 300 steps (around 250 feet below ground). The caves contain many stalactites and stalagmites. Overall, it was an awesome tour of a unique place in the world. This cave system perhaps was one of the underground distributaries of the Green river thousands of years ago and the system seems to have gone through a lot of geological changes over the past many years.

We are off to California tomorrow morning (26 May). We are looking forward for this trip.

USA Trip - Episode 5 (Washington D. C.)

2005-05-21T15:00:00.000-07:00

Early next morning (16 May 2005), we left Youngstown for Washington DC. We traveled through the inner roads, which had quite a few loops and turns and were slower than the interstates. The drive was through wooded and dense forest area. We took nearly 10 hrs to reach Washington DC. The last 15-20 miles to Washington DC was simply marvelous and most enjoyable – A great welcome to any visitor entering the capital city of the world’s most powerful nation. We stayed in a hotel in College Park, Maryland, very close to the University of Maryland. We were tired, but managed to go out to an Indian restaurant for dinner.

The next morning, we took the metro train from the College Park station to Union station (which is a hub of most transportation activity in the Washington DC area). Washington DC is a very beautiful city with majestic buildings. Our first stop was to the Capitol Hill and the Senate office buildings. We then went to the Botanical Gardens, which is a greenhouse of plants from all over the world. Next to the Air and Space museum The Air and Space museum is a store house of exhibits that relate to all air and space activities of the world, starting from the Wright brothers flight to the state of the art technology in air and space discoveries.

Our next museum stop was the National Art Gallery, which had a number of paintings from world-renowned artists, costing a few hundred thousand dollar each.

On to a visit to the Museum of Natural History. This museum gave a glimpse of all one wanted to know on the evolution of living beings, environment, ecology, etc. It was a treat to watch the gems and precious stones section in the museum. This part of the museum deals with the geological features of the earth and how precious stones are formed.

A lot of effort has gone into creating and developing these massive museums. Of these, the Air & Space museum and the Museum of Natural History stand out. It is indeed a great learning experience.

We went around the entire city in the evening and saw the White house from as close quarters as possible. The FBI building, the World Bank offices, various other Government offices and memorials. Overall, it was a memorable experience today also.

Right opposite the barricaded portion of the White house, there were protestors of all nationalities. They were demanding a halt to American intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere in the world.

That evening one of our close Doctor friends took us on a drive to Massachusetts Avenue - the ultimate in affluence.

Today (18 May 2005) we visited Potomac City in Maryland and returned to Washington DC to see some more places, which we couldn't see the previous day - the Washington Monument, World War II Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial, etc. Later in the evening, we had a conducted tour of the University of Maryland at College Park. Another beautiful university, which exudes knowledge.

We took it easy next morning and left around 10:30 am for Blacksburg. En route, we stopped at the new facility of the Air and Space museum, near the Dulles International airport. This museum is six times bigger than the Air and Space museum at the National Mall (the area where all the museums, monuments, etc are located in Washington DC). Approximately 315 million dollars would have been spent when the construction gets completed (6 months from now). This is the ultimate in exhibition of air and space power of the US and other nations.

The rest of the drive back to Blacksburg was through picturesque and well-landscaped terrain. It appeared to be a very long unwinding road. We reached home at 6:30 pm quite tired. I must mention a word about my daughter’s driving capability. She had clipped close to 2000 miles during the last few days. A great achievement by any standard. Next time I will ensure that I have my International Driving License to share driving load!!!

USA Trip - Episode 4 (Niagara Falls)

2005-05-16T14:39:00.000-07:00

We left New York/New Jersey on 14^th May’05 2 hrs behind schedule, at 10.30 AM (since we were busy doing laundry yet again!). It took us almost 45 minutes to get out of the city, despite best navigational aids on the road and by Vidya (our younger daughter who was in the co-driver’s seat). Incidentally, it is very easy to drive to any place (even if you haven't been there before) in USA, using directions supplied by mapquest. It is a fantastic guide on the web, which gives details of lanes, by-lanes, streets, turnings, etc with impeccable directions to any address, from any address in the United States and Canada. The sign posting on the highways and streets give you absolutely correct and unambiguous information on weather, traffic accidents, speed limits to be maintained, exit information and distances to destinations. Also, at places one could find temporary signs on current traffic status and road information on detours.

The drive from Secaucus (New York/New Jersey) to Youngstown (upstate New York, Buffalo and Niagara Falls) was initially through heavy traffic (in spite of this, we were cruising at 55-65mph) on the interstate. The terrain was undulating hills with dense forest on both sides of the highway. It was hill driving which needed precision control. After 2 hours of driving, the terrain became wooded and rugged with pine trees (lots of them had fallen down due to winter storms). We also came across a lot of water bodies all through. It was a fantastic drive.

During the drive invariably we halted for 15-20 minutes at places earmarked to refresh and recoup. The latter part of the drive that evening was under heavy rains with poor visibility at a number of places. We reached Youngstown, a small fishing village on the banks of the Niagara river/Lake Ontario at about 8.00PM. Incidentally, the sun sets here also only around 8PM. There was still daylight when we reached Youngstown and we enjoyed driving through this small town.

Youngstown reminds one of a well-kept military cantonment. We stayed in a delightful little inn called the 'Fyfe and Drum' (which was modeled from an old Victorian house). Quaine Webber, an American lady, manages it. There were no other guests at the house, and we had the place to ourselves. It was very well kept with fantastic, old-world interior decor. The Fyfe and Drum is a two-level house with all amenities one could ask for. There was surfeit of hot water. The weather was cold, and we had a bite in the local Irish pub (Brennan). We came across a very nice quote in the Brenan's Irish pub: "May the saddest days of your future be happier than the happiest days of your past", which beautifully captured our feelings at that point of time. This place also provided great opportunities for morning walks. The place is ‘young’ at heart and ‘ageless’ in pride. Every second house has a boat with an outboard motor fitted on a trailer to be taken to the waterfront for pursuing water sports in summer. A very popular sports activity in this coastal area. The Niagara River, which takes off from Lake Erie, flows towards Lake Ontario and Canada (which is right opposite Youngstown across this river).

We left early morning next day (15^th May’05) to visit the Niagara Falls - a short drive from our inn. The first glimpse of the falls was bewitching and intoxicating.

We used the Niagara State Park trolley to take us to the Niagara State Park. Our first stop was at the ‘Maid of the Mist’ dock (American side). We were given ponchos (rain capes) on the Maid-of-the-Mist tour - a ferry ride through the bottom of the falls. It is an experience of a lifetime and was totally awe-inspiring. It is to be experienced to be believed. Henry Longfellow, the American poet, had this to say about the falls in 1879:

"I stood within a vision's spot
I saw, I heard, the liquid thunder
Went pouring to its foaming hell
And it fell
Even, even fell
In to the invisible abyss that opened under"

In the last 12000 years the Niagara Falls has shifted, 11 Kms due to scouring/geological action, to its present location. Till 1910 the scouring action was 3 feet/year and later 1-foot/10 years controlled by certain ecological/environment action taken down stream like setting up of power plants etc. All visitors try to capture the fury and beauty of the falls in their cameras and camcorders. Both the falls - the Horseshoe (97 Meters fall) and the American falls (55 Meters fall)- are wonders of the modern world. As the saying goes, we would definitely like to make a second visit here. A number of bridges across the Niagara River connect the US to Canada in this area. The Rainbow Bridge, which is closest to the falls, is a walking stretch (around 400 meters) connecting the US to Canada.

The visit leaves anyone visiting with an ever lasting/memorable experience of a lifetime.

Among the crowd who visited the falls with us that day (and there was definitely a big crowd!), at least 40% were Indians! We had a piping hot lunch at a Punjabi dhaba. We spent quite some time in the general falls area after lunch, including time at the islands of 'the three sisters'. We were as close as 1-3 meters of the falls from a viewpoint on the US side (Terrapin point). We could see and hear the falls in its full fury. Overall it was a fantastic visit. We had a good glimpse of Canada, across the falls too. Here is a great aerial shot of the falls - http://www.spaceimaging.com/gallery/ioweek/archive/05-04-17/niagara_falls_state_park_1024.jpg

We returned to Youngstown after a long drive along the Lake Ontario. We halted at Fort Niagara - where the Niagara River enters Lake Ontario. The lake is so vast that there was no land visible on the horizon. The St Lawrence River rises in Lake Ontario and after a long journey pours out at the Atlantic Ocean.

USA Trip - Episode 3 (New York City)

2005-05-13T14:04:00.000-07:00

We left for New York by car today (11 May 2005). The day started a little misty and cloudy, but cleared as we drove away from Blacksburg. The traffic was very heavy and huge tankers/load carriers were on the road at speeds varying from 50-70mph. It ’s an interesting activity going on the excellent interstate highways, with 4-lane traffic. Everyone observes good traffic discipline. We crossed the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. In this valley, lies the battlefield of the American civil war. At one of our stops in a rest area we talked to an interesting and pleasant Amish couple (who appeared to be over 75 years age). They were quite excited to meet Indians.

During the drive we crossed a number of small towns and villages, which are only small in area, but are fully equipped with all infrastructure facilities. We stopped for lunch/coffee at a small town (Hagerstown) in a cafe called 'The square cup'. As the saying goes here, people coming out of this in cafe saying, "Thanks a Latte!" (In fact there is a board with this expression outside the café).

As we continued on our drive to New York City, we unfortunately got stuck in a traffic jam, about 100 miles out of the city. It took us almost 3 hours to drive about 12 miles. All of us were fairly uncomfortable with heavy bladders but we had to hold on for quite some time :). Hundred of motorists/vehicles ahead and behind our car were perhaps in a similar predicament. (Compare this scenario in an Indian highway). We were finally able to relieve ourselves at a wayside village restaurant as the traffic got cleared. It was an ohm…. and an ash! Effect being experienced.

We reached Secaucus (New Jersey) around 9PM, after a marathon drive by Uma (about 9.5 hours approx 520 miles) For most part of the drive, the road was hilly, and through valleys with green meadows all around. We checked at a hotel called Homestead Suites and had some ready-to-eat stuff for dinner. We were all quite tired.

After a quick breakfast the next morning (12^th May 2005), we headed for Secaucus station in a taxi. Our son-in-law, Srikanth, joined us here. We then took a train to the Liberty Park, a good experience on Jersey trains. Tickets are dispensed automatically through machines. The good part is that there are a lot of information pamphlets/brochures available all over the place (which we kept collecting for whatever it was worth!).

We took a ferry to Ellis Islands and the Statue of Liberty. There were zillion tourists at both these places! It was a great experience on the ferry, over the Hudson River with excellent views of New Jersey and New York City. The weather was quite chilly. From the ferry, Manhattan Island looks quiet and peaceful. However the moment we landed at the jetty, there was a huge surge of humanity (like you see at VT station in Mumbai during peak hours!). Aerial cover security checks are the order of the day in the US, post 9/11.

We walked around narrow streets, surrounded by huge skyscrapers on both sides - absolutely parallel to each other - a fantastic feat of architecture! We crossed Wall Street, the NYSE (all areas of high security); saw remains of the World Trade Centre (which was barricaded completely). “Ground zero” as it is called was a sad sight. Buildings, shops, malls are awesome and the city has a very cosmopolitan nature - you see people of all Nationalities, religions, in various levels of clothing (:-)), moving around comfortably. The beauty of the place is that despite massive road reconstruction work, there was no disruption of traffic. Public transport is very good we took a direct bus from Manhattan to our hotel. Traffic/ticketing is very well regulated on these excellent bus services.

People are friendly and helpful. Americans, particularly, use expressions like, “you are welcome” (when you thank) "have a good day", "how're you doing this morning?", "appreciate your help", etc (which might sound common, but when you hear them used by everyone, all the time, its quite different).

We had lunch in a Lebanese/Syrian restaurant. It is quite close to Indian food and we enjoyed it. Talking about food, Americans love eating. From the smallest baby to the oldest man, they eat a lot. They expect their guests also to eat well.

Later that evening we saw a Broadway show - The Phantom of the Opera - at Majestic theatre. This show has been running every day to a full house for the past 17 years and it certainly lived up to its reputation. The entire Broadway area has a number of such theatres, (staging plays/musicals) every evening. Visit to New York City is incomplete without such shows being watched in Broadway. When we got out at 10.30PM, it was biting cold.

Overall, it was an excellent day, well spent in New York City. A great experience indeed walking through Wall street/Broadway.

After breakfast next morning, we did our laundry at the hotel Laundromat - a fully automatic affair and enjoyed the process for nearly 60 minutes. All our soiled clothes were ‘clean’ in a matter of minutes.

We took the bus to Manhattan and visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It has some old and ornate artifacts, which we found very interesting the museum (for that matter all such museums as we later found out) has a sprawling food court, which caters for the palates of people of all nationalities.

Post that, we spent quite a bit of time at Central Park, which is the lung space of New York (around 800 acres). This was, as were told, created to facilitate socializing among people of all nationalities. It’s a lovely place. One sees people jogging, sunbathing, playing baseball and pram-riding their children, with no inhibition on the type of clothes they wear. Everyone is busy in his/her activity. We also lazed round on the lawns. A great place indeed. As we came out of the park we saw hawkers by the plenty, selling all kinds of wares (like you see in almost all metros in India).

Later in the evening we drove up to the UN building (but only from outside, as they had closed for the day) and spent some time enjoying the beauty, the environment. We are disappointed in not being allowed to go inside. Perhaps next time! We reached the Empire State building basement at around 6.30PM. We queued up and our turn came to get inside elevator. The elevator reached the 80th floor in a matter of seconds. The observatory (circular) was on the 86th floor, and it was extremely cold (with a high wind chill factor). The wind cuts you like a blade, but despite this, there were a number of tourists (all ages, nationalities, etc). The view is breathtaking and an experience of a lifetime. We thoroughly enjoyed this. The tower itself is an architectural and an engineering marvel.

There are a total of 12 avenues and over 300 streets on Manhattan Island. The roads are at right angles to one another and it is all quite orderly. The city itself is very alive and at night you can see fast-changing neon lights, which emulate the pace of the city. It seemed like the city celebrates Diwali everyday!

During a casual talk with an American-African taxi driver, he commented on the eating habits of American. He said they are generally overweight due to their fascination for fast food/junk food. They have, he said, no time for ‘slow’ food. This statement ‘corroborated the survey in the Economist’ magazine on the obesity syndrome in US.

USA Trip - Episode 2

2005-05-10T13:13:00.000-07:00

We have been going for regular morning walks. It is cold early in the mornings, but a pleasure to walk in a clean and green environment. I am almost reminded of Wordsworth, as he wrote:

' I wandered lonely as a cloud, over vales and hills, when all at once, I saw a crowd - a host of golden daffodils'...

Except that here in Blacksburg, instead of daffodils, we saw poppies and pansies and a host of other flowers. The roads, I reiterate, are very clean, surrounded by vales and hills and are very well maintained. They appear as if they have been washed early in the morning.

There are hardly any human beings or for that matter any other creature on the roads at this early hour. We did not see many Americans walking, which allows me a nice segue to another aspect of life here - the rampant obesity syndrome. Americans patronize fast food joints. As per a recent issue of the Economist, 60% of American is obese and a large number are tending towards being in the 'very' obese category.

The few people we saw/met during the walk are friendly, ever smiling and communicate if you talk to them. Otherwise it is a culture that encourages one to mind his/her own business.

Shopping malls are huge. Garbage/waste management is an activity to be appreciated. There is a garbage collection bin in every apartment block/commercial area and not a speck of garbage is seen anywhere other than in this area. There is plenty of water (cold and hot) every value, good vegetables, milk, etc. It is quite comfortable for vegetarians to live here (unlike in some parts of South East Asia). Of course the cost is mind boggling at times. For example a big-sized brinjal cost 6 dollars!! . There are a hundred of cars of various makes/models on the roads, and thousand of cars in 'used' car lots.

Most of the transactions in USA are done via credit cards. There are Post Offices, and they are mostly self-service type. Other means of communication like cell phones, landlines, email, etc are more widely used. Banks are efficiently managed with least amount of administrative staff. Most of the activities are automated. The workers, for example, in a car service station, are extremely committed, focused, and loyal to their profession. They do a quality job. There is no cheating at all. They value time.

Car washing is done by owners themselves, at the gas station. They do this by 'dropping a quarter' in a slot. The entire process is fully streamlined and a pleasure to go through the process.

We noticed that there are a number of girls/ladies of all sizes roaming around in clothes of extremely small sizes. Micro-mini shorts are quite common. . The difference however is it is an accepted form of life style, and there is no ogling/staring!!

Tomorrow morning (11^th May’05) we are planning to leave early in the morning for New York/New Jersey /Niagara.

USA Trip - Episode 1

2005-05-08T12:59:00.000-07:00

We (myself and my wife) left by Shatabdi Express from Bangalore at 4:25 PM (IST) on 5^th May’05 and reached Chennai Railway station at 9:30 PM. We traveled to Chennai airport by a taxi. After completing the check-in, immigration, and custom formalities, we left by a Lufthansa airlines flight at 1:30 AM to Frankfurt enroute to Washington on 6 May’05. The aircraft was of jumbo size and there were a large number of Indians with typical Indian habits! The flight crew was efficient and they looked after us well. We had registered as ‘Asian Vegetarians’.

After a nine-hour flight, we reached Frankfurt at 7:45 AM (German time). Frankfurt is a huge, grand and a beautiful airport. We took a hot shower (incidentally it cost us 12 Euros – approximately Rs.700), and after a five-hour halt, left by a United Airlines flight for Washington DC at 12:45 PM (German time). It was also nearly a 9 hours flight, of which 85% was over the Atlantic Ocean. The flight was comfortable. We met many Europeans and, as usual, many Indians. I took breaks every 2 hours on both these long haul flights and walked in the aircraft to keep the body/legs in motion. We had a grandstand view of Atlantic Ocean off & on. It was a great feeling at that height.

We landed at Washington DC at 3:45 PM (US Time) on 6^th May’05, and went through very stringent immigration and customs checks. We expected a two-hour ordeal but it got over in less than half an hour. We took a chance and boarded an earlier flight to Roanoke (Virginia) (5:25 PM flight instead of the 10:45 PM flight that we were booked in). The airline staff was extremely polite, cordial & helpful. We reached Roanoke by 6:30 PM and were received by our elder daughter Uma. It was a great experience flying across half the world for over 19 hours (flying time). To our pleasant surprise we were delighted to see our luggage also being unloaded from the same flight .As per rules it was to be loaded in the later flight that we were booked.

From the airport we were driven in a Honda Civic car at an average speed of 65 miles/hour on a fantastic interstate highway. We observed that there was excellent traffic discipline by drivers of all types of vehicles on the road. Route marking along the highway was excellent & very helpful. What a contrast to Indian roads and drivers! We reached Blacksburg town (45 miles from the airport) in less than 45 minutes. The countryside although the drive was undulating with tree lines, valleys with crests and troughs & thick green foliage all through It was extremely a treat to see well-maintained shoulders of the road. The population density, we observed, was low, maybe that is the reason for such cleanliness. We need to learn a lot from this activity of maintaining and keeping the environment & roads clean. Perhaps it will take a long time for us to reach this level! Incidentally when we reached Blacksburg it was still daylight (8:30 PM).

After a hot shower, we had dinner and hit the sack. We were quite tired and jetlag was catching up. (We had crossed 5 time zones) We woke up the next morning around 7:30 AM, had breakfast, went back sleep and got up at 4:30 PM (A jetlag activity). Our younger daughter, Vidya, joined us from Singapore on the 7th.

Next morning, we went for a 4 mile- walk, passing by Virginia Tech. The University area is a beautiful place; very clean sprawling manicured lawns and well lay out with massive buildings. It exuded good and positive environment for studies. The buildings are an architectural marvel. Campus housing is a part of this area.

Our daughter’s house is a two-bedroom apartment and overlooks the Blue Ridge ranges, which are part the Appalachian Mountains. The entire area is very scenic, full of trees, very serene and calm. The apartments in the US are self-contained in all respects- gas, dishwasher, microwave oven, centrally heated/ air-conditioned environment, copious water supply etc.

The clothes are washed, rinsed and dried at a community laundry, which is 100 yards away. This is fully automatic and gets activated by dropping the required coins in a slotting machine.

We have now almost got over the jet lag, and are planning to leave for New York by car on Wednesday morning (11^th May’05). We are quite excited