Considering I was not going to travel around the world every year, I decided to maintain an online travelogue to record my travel experiences through four continents, nine countries and twelve cities I visited in 2001 for posterity. Besides, I promised my " family and friends " that I would keep them "in the loop" even as I conceived this 30-day adventure. Of course, several people wanted to know why I planned this trip. I gave them four reasons:
1. To "see," "experience," and "learn" as much as I could through travel and use it as an illustration for "show not tell,"
2. To find out more about career development programs in the countries I was visiting, to help me with my Masters' thesis
3. To explore opportunities for pursuing a Ph.D. program in education,
specializing in possibly instructional design, physics, and community education,
4. Dubai, fast becoming the hub of access for millions of people in Africa, Middle East and
Asia, seemed like a great place for everything. Networking with like minded people, to develop a
comprehensive program for lifelong learning, seemed like a good idea.
Which cities did I like the most? Boston and Sydney. How do I feel after this journey? Absolutely reinvigorated! Well, I continue dreaming, and on account of this travel, added two more goals to my life. I'm quite sure I'll achieve them (Of course, with help from a few lotto's ; )
Goal 1: Set up a "low cost" technology enabled education system targeting the Sales folks around the world. I'm a big spender as you might have guessed, and interacting with these people constantly reminded me about a need to serve this target population.
Goal 2: Set up a " travel fund," the interest from which will facilitate travel, all expenses paid for at least 3 days, for every cab driver around the world, to visit and experience different cultures.
Although it was an expensive venture, in the end, much to my surprise, it turned out that each day was BETTER than the previous day THROUGHOUT the 30 days. Reading this, I hope you too might share some of that excitement.
At any time, you can click on the individual underlined cities to see thumbnail pictures. If you click on the cities themselves, you'll find the stories related to some of these pictures: Dubai, Frankfurt, Manchester, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Singapore, Madras, Kandy, and Bangkok. Happy viewing and reading : )
This is the first leg of my journey. After several hiccups prior to leaving Dubai, I had a very pleasant flight with Lufthansa to Frankfurt. We departed from Dubai at 0200 hrs and arrived 20 minutes early - 0630 hrs (local time), after only a 6:30 hrs flight, thanks to the good tail wind. Luckily I had a window seat 30 K next to the emergency exit. Even as I was trying to make myself comfortable, my neighbor very cautiously approached me with a request. Could I request you to change to 30 A that is also an identical window seat he asked, because "my friend sitting here is sitting alone and is shy to ask." I consented to this request only because 30A was also a window seat and it was on the same row. In the end this turned out that this was a very good deal for several reasons as you might see.
1. The gentleman sitting next to me in 30B was Rus Johansen of Denmark. He was a very pleasant person and bound for his home city Copenhagen. I learnt so much about the physics of aviation and facts about flying, in the short spells that we were not sleeping.
2. We spoke about Air Traffic Control, "technology" of planes - material of the plane that can withstand speeds from 80 knots (1 knot = 1.852 km ~ 1.15 mi) to 400 knots (~ 460 mi) and temperature extremes from -60 oC to sometimes over 80 oC during takeoff, boundary layers that develop whenever a fluid flows past a solid surface (and it is these boundary layers that engineers focus on because they could make things happen), vortices that develop with single broad wings and induced drag (see shape of winglet as it is called in the pictures), interference drag, shape of wings, multiple wings to ensure laminar flow instead of turbulence, need to keep of slip streams of other aircrafts (particularly during take-off), fuel dumps, wing spans, 8 m oscillations of the wing spans of 747's on some occasions (By Jove, haven't we wondered about this as these aircrafts, "huge" human-made birds, taxi for take-off!), risk of empty belly fuel tanks like the fatal take off of TWA 747 of Long Island, flying upside down and its relation to pitch of the plane, air corridors, frost on the wings, and a lot more.
3. I told him about how I was getting more and more dependent on technology and the Web. Strangely, I just finished reading an article from the International Herald Tribune that was provided in-flight ("SCIENTISTS Run Down the Web Noise," you too can read below). He said he tended to agree with some aspects. He spoke of the unnecessary junk mail that wastes every ones time, thanks often to reckless copying of e-mail to one and all. He narrated an incident that one of his friends recently shared, when someone in this gentleman's company opted to send an e-mail to 800 employees just to identify the person who had left the lights "on" in the parking lot. Rus mused, instead of wasting the time of 799 people, wouldn't it have been more efficient to simply ship the other person by cab home? He also spoke about how he was concerned about the dated and incorrect information on the Web, and the need to be watchful, particularly in his aviation industry. Education was not very different, I said (personally guilty too, sometimes) because the contents in web pages are not often updated (even with regards to basic contact information of people), leave alone other content.
4. We discussed the issue of individuals not striving for perfection and their consequent satisfaction with mediocrity. He gave the example of some of his students studying radar technology, who spent minimal effort to secure a passing grade of 70% in the practical examination, although an hour or two each day would have enabled these students to score over 90%. I chimed in that in education too, the general attitude of secondary-school students and their poor study skill techniques led many to settle for average scores, thanks to their minimal effort.
5. We did broach about my whistle-stop tour around the world and how it could be exhausting. Hopefully not, I said, because I was going to continuously engage myself with something adventurous, including documenting my travel.
INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20,2001
"SCIENTISTS Run Down the Web Noise"
James Glanz 'New York Times Service' TILLWATER, Minnesota
If the endlessly accelerating pace of scientific research is riding the telecommunications revolution, then why did physicists, historians and philosophers meet recently at an isolated lodge where cell phones generally do not work and any of the rooms have no phones at all, let alone speedy Internet connections? The answer is that a few scientists including some who attended the Seven Pines Symposium are now saying what would have sounded retrograde just a few years ago: The World Wide Web and cheap satellite communications have brought trouble as well as opportunity to the scientific enterprise.
For starters, instead of fostering independent approaches to cracking each difficult problem, the Web, by offering scientists a place to post new results immediately, can create a global bandwagon in which once-isolated scientists rush to become part of the latest trend. As a result, all but a few promising avenues of research are quickly abandoned. The pressure to conform can be especially intense for young scientists, who may find prospective employers trying to stock their ranks with specialists in fashionable areas.
Some scientists say the idiosyncratic; knee brow-furrowing kind of research that has often produced answers to basic questions is the most threatened. 'The problems fundamental physics is facing right now very much require stepping back, sitting down and taking off the socks and sitting by the fire said Carlo Rovelli, a physicist from the University of Marseille in France who was at the symposium. The pervasiveness of the Internet, he said, does increase the technical sophistication of that search as new methods are rapidly passed around. "But it raises the level of background noise," Mr. Rovelli said.
Another Seven Pines participant, Jeffrey Harvey, a physicist at the University of Chicago, said that "score-keeping" Web sites, which automatically tack the number of times the paper is cited by others, create another kind of social pressure against marching to a different drummer.' 'I think something has been lost," he said.
Exactly what has been lost may have been identified by Sir Roger Penrose, A physicist at Oxford University, when he spoke at the 'Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 'Fashionable ideas sometimes have a much greater hold on modem science than they did before communication" he said. Changes should be made "in a way that increases the chances of having more variety."
Although not specifically intended to counter the Internet, the Seven Pines Symposium, which began five years was designed to fill a niche that neither electronic communications nor the garden-variety scientific meetings were filling, said Roger Stuewer, a historian of as science at the University of Minnesota. The symposium was created and financed by Lee Gohlike, a Minnesota entrepreneur with a taste for philosophy and physics. Seven Pines generally focuses on the big questions of science rather than technical minutiae. In some ways the approach harks back to the way science has been carried out throughout most of its history.
Robert Hulek philosopher-scientists to Galileo, Copernicus, Newton and 19th century scientists like Michael Faraday, who discovered laws governing electricity and magnetism, great advances have often emerged from relative isolation or communications with just a few trusted colleagues, said Noel Swerdlow, a science historian in the astronomy and astrophysics department at the University of Chicago. "We're so used to thinking of community that we've lost sight of the complete isolation in which these guys were working," he said.
Rafael Sorkin, a physicist at Syracuse University, said lack of communication between the Soviet Union and the West paid major scientific dividends when an approach to particle physics called field theory was largely abandoned by U.S. scientists in favor of a different approach they found more promising. Not long after, Mr. Sorkin said, field theory turned out to be the correct approach, and its revival was spurred partly by the Soviet work. Mr. Sorkin is not sure how to preserve some of those benefits in the age of the Internet, although he suggests that perhaps scientists could somehow agree to work in "relatively disconnected groups" which, considering the professional stakes involved, could be as difficult proposition as asking investors not to read the stock ticker.
For all their worries about the Web, in fact, participants have no intention of giving it up. During one talk a new archive for philosophers of science was unveiled: philsci-archive.pitt.edu. The goal of the archive, set up at the University of Pittsburgh, is to 'promote communication in the field by the rapid dissemination of new work."
Neutrinos Weigh ln After All
Solving a 30-year-old scientific mystery, physicists have found the most convincing evidence yet that neutrinos - subatomic particles that were thought to have no mass whatsoever: have a tiny wisp of heft after all. The finding means scientists will have to adjust their theories of the universe. Ever since their existence was hypothesized by Wolfgang Pauli 60 years ago, neutrinos have been thought of as mass less. But on Monday, representatives of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory in Canada announced that neutrinos made by nuclear reactions in the sun's core change from one type to another during their 93-million-mile journey to Earth. Only particles with mass can change form
I chanced to see the Ad of Meryll Lynch Specialists in Investment Banking & Capital Markets - Private Wealth Management - Investment Management and their website www.ml.com. I'll get back to this later when I'm back at Dubai. They had some interesting statistics published about educational institutions.
On getting to Frankfurt, I found my boarding time for the onward flight from Frankfurt to Manchester was 1005 hrs. That gave me sufficient time to freshen up at the Business Lounge, sit back and type my experience during the first leg. I collected my Locker Business A Schliessfach 8 (German for safe-deposit box, A 8), only to find it a wee bit short to hold my hand luggage. I lugged it around the Lounger until I could find a quiet place where I could continue working on these descriptions. In one of the pictures, you can see me working at one of the carole's. That's where I met Ken Tweedie from South Africa, who was bound for Zurich. He was a very kind gentleman too and kindly consented to keep an eye on my baggage while I went to the restroom for freshening up. I came back, walked around a little bit, got myself a capuccino and nibbles at the Lounge before continuing with the writing.
I tried in vain to access the web. When I turned on my mobile it accessed E-Plus instead of Etisalat. Unfortunately I had not downloaded the necessary software from the web in Dubai. Hopefully next time I'll be a little more alert. I saw many others waiting for their flights as well. I took a few shots for this edition of my story.
I've to wind up for now because I've to get ready for boarding. More to follow later. I got out of the Lounge and arrived at my Gate at 1005. We waited a brief while and in the meantime, I could take a few more shots. The front fuselage of a plane on top of a building intrigued me. I didn't have time to find the answer. My neighbor on the plane said it was just an advertising gimmick to draw peoples attention to Lufthansa's Maintenance Division, which did a lot of work for clients world wide. Seemed like a reasonable explanation to me.
I've taken some shots, as the flight was about to take off, taking off, flying over Frankfurt (a major international hub airport, perhaps the world's busiest airport, if the number of international destinations served is the criteria), and cruising at 39000 feet. Remember Rus, the Dutch gentleman. I recall now that he mentioned aircrafts fly at high altitudes to economize on fuel usage. Fuel efficiency considerations are important indeed, besides expanding the overcrowded air corridors that Rus alluded to.
After reaching Manchester (the closest spur airport to reach Sheffield), I had to look for an Exchange Company at the Airport to buy some British pounds for my onward travel. I was told that my train to Sheffield was at 1156 hrs, scheduled to arrive in Sheffield at 1308 hrs. That seemed like a long ride. On reaching Sheffield, I was supposed to use the super tram system from outside the station to head directly to the University. More on all that later. I'm going to try and catch a short snooze if possible. Adios.
Got off at Manchester Airport and walked along with my baggage towards the railway station. On the way I was stopped by a Customs official. This was the first time I had to hear what I heard several times during this travel. "Did you pack this bag yourself, do you know what it contains, are you carrying anything for anybody," and more. After the customs check, I walked as fast as I could towards the railway station. It was quite a distance. I barely made it to the train and it was actually moving. A very kind gentlemen (God bless him), helped me get all my baggage into the train (You might have noticed that I was carrying a lot). I arrived in Sheffield around 1 ish in the afternoon and called Lorraine. I took a cab to the University Department of Educational Studies and got more information of where I was going to stay. After off-loading my baggage in the Tapton Hall of Residence, I decided I should explore Shefield a little and also find where the Library was. Got lost initially and ended up at the Sheffield-Hallam University! After making several calls, I finally found out where the Sheffield University Library was. By 5 p.m., I found out where it was and ready for the following day's long haul. After getting used to the 24 h lifestyle in Dubai for 8 years, I was surprised at first to find out that most shops closed around 5 p.m in Sheffield. The two statements quoted verbatim below should be an eye-opener for many (it was for me) and describes the outlook of the simple folks at Sheffield. For some unknown reason I couldn't connect online with my laptop using my cell phone. So I had to rely on using an Internet Café close to Tapton. Luckily there was one open until 6 p.m. When I asked about the early closing hours, the lady at the Internet Café said:
"If you forget to have dinner at lunch, you could just forget dinner!"
I think I now understand why she said this! After returning to the Tapton Hall, I inquired about the "walkable" Sports Hall from a staff at the Lobby. Since the directions were a little vague, I asked my neighbor at Tapton Hall, an American visitor from New Mexico, for more directions. She surely had "some" experience (and you can guess what easily) because she remarked:
"Oh! They'll say you can walk to London from here!!"
At any rate, after an eventful evening, and finishing my work at the Library the following day, I walked outside Tapton Hall. I met Richard Lee from Manchester there. He's a student of the University pursuing a Ph.D. in Philosophy. I also met Steve Merredeth of Wales. He's a Ph.D. student in Political Science. Dave Crowe works at the Tapton Hall of Residence. Both Richard and Steve are mentors at the Tapton Hall being senior students at the University. You will find me wearing an "Arab" dress, the dishdasha, with these two students and Staff in front of the Tapton Hall of Residence.
Later that evening, while walking on the long, narrow and winding streets, I found some of the number plates quite amusing. For example there was P248 YUK, H539 JIG and so on. The following morning, I had a sumptuous breakfast at the Tapton Hall - Hot toast with mushrooms and cheese and veggie burger. Dressed them well with honey, sunflower spread, honey and a dash of salt and pepper. Washed this down with some good orange juice and hot Twinings grape tea.
Took a bus to the Arts Tower that I was now familiar. Managed to complete the reference for careers education by 1230 hrs. Photocopied 214 pages at the University for a cost that was less than dinner at Balti House last night. The standard dinner I had during these two days was Pulao with veggie balti and dessert of Matka Kulfi the first day and Fruit Youghurt the second day. They give you a bill with thank you in a nice manner returning the change with an After Eight mint chocolate (later found that they do the same at Olive Garden, an Italian Restaurant, in the US). The veggie balti was like dynamite, very very hot, the first day and Toni, the waiter, explained to me that it happened because the delivery guy had accidentally delivered Indian chilies rather than the ones from Spain that are typically less hot?!
Met Peter who said he'd mail me Suzy Harris's book on Career's education: Policy and Practice. Jack his dog was there as well and a well behaved one in fact. We talked briefly about the Summer Solstice, also called Midsummer, the LONGEST DAY OF THE YEAR, and also my travel itinerary. Almost everyone was aware of it and someone on the flight I think spoke about it as well. Steve at Tapton, mentioned it as well. It was certainly a bonus for me because I was going to stay only for a few days at Sheffield. For the fist time, I could see daylight until after 10.30 p.m. It's a pity that the shops had to close early.
The scenery is beautiful but the air was polluted with the automobile exhausts: cars, buses, trams et al. Steve mentioned the Sheffield had one of the cleaner airs. London was awful he said. The roads are so narrow and winding unlike the broad roads at Dubai.
I asked Steve and Richard, if they thought conditions for Lecturers in University were worse than school teachers as I had read somewhere. Steve didn't think so. Of course the working conditions more than the pay, he said was possibly what took the bright ones into the other professions such as lawyers, accountants and doctors. He believed that the other social service professions, such as teachers and nurses didn't have a good deal. Richard remarked the long hours his mum had to stay just to complete the paper work set by the government in schools was horrendous. In fact to check boxes for 2 hours in the night for a nursery school teacher, he thought was completely unnecessary.
Richard also remarked that the color of the surrounding trees and so on in the morning were different from the color in the evening. In fact there was light he said until half past ten the previous night!
I couldn't easily adjust to shops closing early. When I queried why, the lady at the Internet Café said the Local Council regulations demanded that they close latest by 7! That's appalling if you ask me. I wouldn't want to do business there even if I had the money. It's worse than what's back home at Madras or Bangalore. Eight years at Dubai certainly has made me get used to the 24 hour lifestyle. At 3 a.m. one can wander in the streets of Dubai, without worrying about getting mugged or finding traffic or a restaurant open. In fact some shops are even crowded on the weekend at that time!
People here were generally very helpful. I was surprised that I had to change trains in Manchester Piccadally. I wouldn't have got far without the help of a gentleman who saw me into the other train where I had to run to get the train going to Sheffield. I lost my spectacles with the case unfortunately in the bargain. I was completely taken by surprise.
I'm feeling sleepy now. Have to pack for the morning. So catch you later. Adios.
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After retracing my path from Sheffield to Manchester Piccadally and finally Mancherster Airport, I was all set for the flight from London to Boston. The flight was not the best with United, not because they forgot to get my vegetarian lunch for the first time, but also my seat was not so very comfortable. It could also have been on account of my severe handicap without my 'electronic toys' that I'd gotten so accustomed to. Obviously two days, using them at Sheffield without being able to charge any of them in the Tapton Hall meant I was in big trouble. Luckily there were a few shots remaining in the normal camera and after reaching Boston I could possibly have them developed.
Boston's one of the best cities in the world, but for Logan International Airport, which is undergoing reconstruction now (thank god). I certainly freaked out at Boston as you'd realize from this account of the travelogue and the numerous photographs! Thanks to my dear friend John Jeter who patiently explained everything to me, you can see why they say Boston is America's Walking City. We had to wait so long for the baggage and after coming out of the Airport I decided to take a cab to find Quincy House at Harvard. Thanks to my baggage, I couldn't take the "T" (Subway Service) that was an option. We did go around Adams House and Linden Street at least three times before FINALLY spotting Quincy House one block away into a one way street off Adams House. Thomas, an sophomore at Harvard was kind enough to come out to help at the street. After dropping off my baggage at the 6th floor in my dorm, I came down, got the directions from Thomas and Kristen to get to an 'electrical' store to find some adapters for my gadgets. Thomas said: "Go perpendicular to get into Mass Ave. and then into J.F.K. to find some shops"! Right, I kind of got the directions and indeed found my way onward and back. Having got myself some adapters, it was business as usual. Before I left they said Lourdes was planning a dinner at 7 p.m. to John Harvard's with the group that had come a night earlier for the Summer Institute.
Thomas and Kristen suggested that I could go to downtown Boston where I can find a variety of groceries, since I was going to spend a week at Boston. They were very helpful. I used to bug them often during the first few days! If it was not electronics to direct me to Staples, or groceries to Stop N'Shop, it would be where do I develop my film? They'd very kindly repeat Mass Ave., JFK …. and I'd end up at CVS in JFK Street! Well, with Stop N'Shop I didn't realize that it was going to be a repeat of Sheffield. I got myself a round ticket in the "T" to get there. I was feeling kind of hungry and decided to try some fresh juice. The guy at the station was kinda 'cute'. He figured out that I was from India just by looking at me and immediately started singing some kind of 'Bangra tune' and that was hilarious. With the juice on hand, I took the Inbound Red Line "T" coming from Alewife to go to Park Street via Central, Kendall, and Charles/MGH. I did find my way around through the Public Garden to the shop although with some difficulty. The comforting fact was that I could take some shots of some famous buildings such as the State House that were getting ready for the impending July 4, Independence Day Celebrations. You can see that I've managed to capture the golden dome of the State House (by accident because I just thought it was just beautiful even though it was about 6 in the evening and only later did John explain it's significance to us). The House marks the government seat of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and guess what, the corner stone was laid by Samuel Adams (1722 - 1803) , who was then Governor of Massachusetts (see John and I in one of the photos elsewhere with S. Adams) and this was designed and built by none other than the legendary Charles Bulfinch. It was at least a 20-minute brisk walk and I actually reached the heart of Cambridge and can only remember the Fire Station! After picking some groceries at Stop N'Shop? (can't compete with Dubai I'm sure for the number of variations of * N'Shop's). I rushed back because of the dinner appointment. I did find my way back this time taking the Outbound Red Line and getting off at Harvard.
By the time I entered Quincy House it was already 7 and everyone was ready downstairs. I ran upstairs to dump my groceries at the dorm before rushing down. On coming out I found almost everyone sitting together on the chairs at the right and there was one person, enjoying a smoke alone on the bulwark next to the steps. I walked up to this 'loner' and introduced myself and it turned out that this stranger became one of my best finds and friends during this visit to Boston. Dr John Jeter of Michigan actually couldn't stand the heat in the dorms (not that any of us did, although I did come from the Middle East!), and later told us he'd found a nice air conditioned Friendly Inn at Harvard Square. We got along just great and he showed us around downtown Boston over the next few days. Even as we were walking towards John Harvard's, I was telling John that I'd been downtown and asked him if it was a good idea to take some kind of weekly pass. John said may be if not a weekly at least we'd surely sneak out during the Social Hour and walk around downtown Boston. Our circle slowly started increasing each day as you can see from the photographs!
Even as we were having our dinner, Theodore Spencer ('Ted') the Dean of Undergraduate Admissions at UMich Ann Arbor joined us. We had great times together over the entire week with 'Ted' and from the following day Fred A. Hargadon ('Fred') the Dean of Admissions at Princeton. The other Staff and Distinguished Guest Speakers were brilliant as well but these two 'Ted' and 'Fred' shared the limelight. This was surely going to be one whole intense week of academic and social activity.
Our formal academic sessions for the Harvard Summer Institute on College Admissions usually began with breakfast at 7 a.m. and ended at 5.30 p.m. and then with our surreptitious plan we'd get away and go on until dinner and then continue at least until 1 a.m. or some days even past 2 a.m. at the courtyard of the Quincy House EVERYDAY. Some of the interesting sessions I managed to attend were Fred's "A Look Back, Around and Ahead"; How can anyone disagree with this statement of Fred, 'it's not where you go but what you do when you get to wherever you go'. Fred's "Asking the Right Questions"; Zay's "Setting Up Guidance Function"; Carol's "High School Profile"; Gaston's "The SAT: One Part of A Comprehensive Program"; A interesting walking tour of the Harvard Campus led by Mia Lozada, a sophomore at Harvard; Helen's "Early College Planning"; Zay's "Using Data in the Guidance Office"; Susan's "Counselor's Sphere of Influence"; James's "The Game of Life: College Sports and Educational Values"; Susan's "Recommendations, Part II: Writing Those Tough Letters"; Edward's "International Admissions"; Jane, Ted and William's "How Admissions Decisions are Made"; Dean's "Research, Research"; Marilee's "Special Presentation for SICA 2001 Participants at MIT"; Helen's "Transitioning From Middle School to High School: Part of A Summer Well Spent". Thanks to Dean, I figured out that "Factor Analysis" is something I could seriously consider for my analysis of data in the dissertation. Dean was so very kind and I surely do miss his smile and encouragement. I had to miss several brilliant sessions but this is about all I could get myself to do. There were some other remarkable speakers and I would specifically like to name Duane who was so very kind to remember my request I made on the very first day knowing fully well that I may not be able to attend his sessions, and sent me his power point presentation for "Financial Aid 101" and "Financial Aid 102". Not only did Duane ACTUALLY FOLLOW up but also kept cheering me all the way during my travel "Around the World". Thanks you very much Duane. Throughout the week another good friend I had was Raphael. He'd introduce me to several wonderful people, and at one time also includuced me to his son studying Linguistics at MIT. Well, I wish I had more time at Boston!
Let's now get off from this academic stuff to all the 'fun' stuff we did. John was absolutely great during the entire 5 days that he could spend at Boston. We had very interesting conversations on scores of topics. John and I would of course have our own opinions but our conversations would usually start by him asking me, "Have you read..." For example The Bell Curve (1994) by Charles Murray and Richard Harrnstein of Harvard, he'd say. When I say, no John, and he'd continue Bala ... This book written in 1994 has certainly reopened the debate of 'nature vs nurture' dichotomy. The book's contention is that there are measurable genetic differences in IQ levels between races. Many argue that this kind of assertion only makes racism socially acceptable with such an over simplistic analysis. Then after again expressing his opinion on the subject of the educational system in America he'd turn around and ask me have you read The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America by Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt? Many teachers consider this as a whistle blowers account and I'd again so no John and he's go on yadi yadi yada. The book finds fault with almost all the programs, be it character education, core curriculum, or direct instruction, being used in American schools today. This has certainly set me thinking because as a senior policy analyst in the Reagan administration, why did she forcefully oppose a school technology initiative? Apparently she felt that this would usurp the local school's authority to control their curriculum. I may not buy this argument but this is a point Iserbyt has made. This does raise serious questions. Is learning to be undertaken for learning's sake or is it necessary to condition the students to take their preordained places in the new economy? This is a serious question I will consider in my Master's dissertation. Then we'd digress to my travel itinerary and I'd say I'm taking it one at a time John. He'd turn around and ask have you seen the 1969 English comedy "If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium" where a group of U.S. Tourists are trying to visit nine European countries in 18 days. As usual I'd say no and we'd go on like this for hours. At some other time he'd make rhetorical statement, such as, why is it that Indians and Pakistanis get along fine everywhere expect in India and Pakistan? Why do Catholics and Protestants get along find everywhere except in Ireland? and so on. He'd say he could never understand this contradiction.
Unfortunately he had to leave on Wednesday but Tatiana , who joined us as soon as she realized that we were planning to sneak out, and later her "high jacked gang" of friends after the Pops, Eve, Elise and Jean made this visit to Boston an absolutely memorable one. I certainly want to get back to Boston if they'd accept me for a dual doctoral program at Harvard and MIT? On Sunday, we took the Outbound Red Line to Park Street and started walking to explore Down Town Boston. First we took some pictures in front of the Boston Common's and walked past the Public Garden. Public Garden's famous for the Boston story "Make Way for Ducklings" and the home of Mrs. Mallard, and her eight ducklings (Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack Ouack, Pack and Quack). The night before we left Eve very patiently read this entire illustrated book to all of us. Some of you may recall that Mrs. and Mr. Mallard hatched their eggs on an island in the Charles River, and went in search of a better place to raise their ducklings. After visiting several areas of the city, Mrs. Mallard walked her children across Charles St., with the assistance of a police officer who stopped traffic for them before they finally arrived at their new home. We admired the State House (second time in two days for me!). John would explain the remarkable architecture of the Victorian Period Buildings; the unique and elaborate clear glass windows characteristic of Boston and so on.
Then we walked past Beacon street, into Maison Robert in school street, noted for its famous French cuisine, and fine wine in Boston's old City Hall. John (see photograph) explained the Boston Irish Famine Memorial. This Memorial is a tribute to the generation of Irish who fled their native Island in the aftermath of the Irish Famine (1845-49). Apparently in just five years, almost 100,000 Irish refugees came through Boston Harbor and transformed the city. It depicts the Irish people's tragedy and triumph, and serves to remind us about what the Irish and other immigrants sought, when they braved the oceans to go to America. Even as we continued walking, John would talk of the Boston Tea Party and how they threw tea chests overboard and why this was deemed the single most important catalyst to the American Revolution. Then we came back to Harvard using the Red Line. On the train I was very amused to look at the Advertisement for an University that said 'Get Real and below an URL address www.fib.edu, and I thought the copy writer must surely be having fun there with 'Real and Fib'. At Harvard Square we'd continue with our discussions over coffee and pastry until well past midnight. I could notice a few BMW's, loads of street performers with music and theater, and of course the whole place was bustling with activity (even in summer!). Then Tatiana who was all along firing her battery of questions said 'Guys I'm sleepy now and don't want to miss any of your conversation. So can we continue tomorrow please' and we'd reluctantly stop to go to our respective places, Friendly Inn and Quincy House.
The following day that's Monday Chiquita decided to join us to further explore Down Town Boston. Now we decided to take a cab to look Boston from the Skywalk Observatory at the Prudential Center. After getting off the cab, we went to the 50th floor of the Prudential Tower to see all of Boston. You can clearly see glimpses of great photographs, although the lights were as usual fading. The sunset over the Charles (see photograph) was wonderful, too quick though, like all other sunrise and sunset's I've seen in Madras and Dubai. You can see the World Trade Center (not as beautiful as what we have in Dubai), the Trinity Church, which is considered a masterpiece of U.S. Church architecture, flights landing into Logan International, the Boston Pops at Symphony Hall (hey, we're going there tomorrow), Fenway Park (for the game between the Boston Red Sox vs Tampa Bay Devil Rays, that several colleagues opted to go to, instead of the Pops) and the Hynes Convention Center. After clicking away we came down and John suggested that we walk past Copley Plaza Hotel to Copley Place. We did pick up a copy of Panorama. It was really very useful. Copley place is a beautiful complex connecting Copley Square Hotel, Westin Hotel and Marriot Copley Hotel. This was another interesting architectural display and included, spacious interiors encased in marble, loads of upscale shops, variety of restaurants and beautiful waterfalls. Then we continued walking past Union Oyster House having beautiful stained glass panels. They claim to be America's oldest restaurant (since 1826). We walked past Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market. This is apparently a sought after area for retail stores and a heavily contested place for public speech.
After looking around we went past the New City Hall and the Government Center to find a restaurant where we could sit and eat some food. It was certainly difficult to find a place for the four of us at this late hour, reminds us of Dubai! Finally we settled at an Italian restaurant, I think and started our discussions again about various issues. Marriage figured in one of these and John shared this beautiful 17th century poem with us, citing that as the secret of his ongoing 40 year relationship. He said the poem went like this, I AM I AND YOU ARE YOU, I AM I BECAUSE YOU ARE YOU, YOU ARE YOU BECAUSE I AM I, I AM NOT I AND YOU ARE NOT YOU. Wonderful indeed and wish people could respect one another starting from our own families and extending to our peers; husband and wife, parents and children, students with students, colleagues with colleagues and so on. It certainly was a long day and we decided to head back using the Green and then Red Line at Park Street. The next day the three of us Tatiana, John and I were supposed to go to the Boston Pops together around 7 ish for the 8 p.m. event because we managed to find ourselves tickets for that (very lucky indeed!). Surely we were looking forward to the Boston Pops at the Symphony Hall. We did return late to Quincy House after dinner at the Italian joint but continued our conversations with some of our other colleagues too who were walking into Quincy House after a late night out. The conversations continued well until quarter to two and we had to call it a night at that time.
The following day, I told John I had to see Harvard on our own and we're not going to be led by anybody. So John and I skipped a session in the afternoon and went around Harvard University. First we went to the Harvard Yard. It's awesome and beautiful. We saw the Widener Library (after the tragic sinking with the Titanic, Widener's mother made sure that the University maintained their commitment to an agreement that she had drafted after the tragedy), which is a Main Library housing collections on Literature, History, Linguistics, Economics, Sociology, Philosophy, Psychology, etc. Then we got a few shots at the Memorial Church, Canaday Hall? (first year dorm), Science Center (from my understanding, the artist's trying to be 'cute' or may be failed his or her chemistry course earlier), and finally to the statue of John Harvard. It is called the statue of three lies because the person there is not the real Harvard but a good looking young student that the sculptor picked up because all photos of John Harvard had been lost in the fire at the library. Then there is the book on the side depicting part upside down and part open. Finally there is a myth that if someone touches the foot of John Harvard s/he'd get to study there (you can see the color of the tip alone is bright yellow on account of being touched by million onlookers). I'm surely not missing any opportunity or chance you see!
John was so kind as usual and I wanted some souvenir from Harvard that would also be useful for my visit Downunder. He selected the blue jumper for me saying it was nice on me (you can see on the photographs in Sydney), and picked up some souvenirs for himself as well, after getting a senior's discount! From there we decided to rush to John's place, because it was getting late to the Pops. From ther we went to the Quincy House and headed off in a cab to the Pops. It was half past seven when we reached Quincy and I had to rush up and down to leave for the Pops. Obviously we had lost Tatiana but in the end it turned out to be just fine because she managed to find three other friends, after John left on Wednesday. This was the gang that Tatiana to quote, managed to 'highjack the American's in America'. They said they found if very suspicious after her mobile started ringing, as soon as she tells these guys she'd take them back to Quincy's! Anyway we did a lot of things together the next two days and apparently they had a good time later that evening quietly sneaking into the staff room to have a wonderful time with the Grand Piano. We did get to the Pops after all and had enough time for John to continue educating me. Boston Pops was certainly one of the highlights of this visit to Boston.
John would start off with the history of the Boston Symphony and how he was so lucky earlier to attend one of the events during Christmas. He'd tell me how education has been a vital component of the Boston Symphony Orchestra's mission at all times. Clearly these guys had dedicated themselves to spreading joy (believe me they do!. In this session too, their performance drove me into tears with the very first piece, Carnival Overture by Dvorak). They educate children about music with Youth concerts, subsidized tickets, and so on. I was fortunate to attend only one of their events but will readily endorse the statement that the Boston Pop's are "one of the world's greatest orchestras" and are remarkable for their "artistic and educational achievements". John showed me around the Pops and spoke to me about Arthur Fiedler, their Conductor, who really brought the Orchestra to the masses. Friedler demonstrated to the world that a Symphony was no longer only the privilege for elite in society. After taking some pictures, we went to pick up a CD "Fiedler & Friends". Great stuff. Friedler's daughter Johanna reminisces that her papa discovered Jazz at the end of World War I and instantly fell in love with the music. Can I disagree with this having been fortunate to attend two LIVE Jazz concerts thanks to Tatiana (in Boston) and Rajat (in San Francisco) and numerous other in-flight entertainment channels? More on this later. Then we hurried to find our seats and found that Evans Haile was conducting the orchestra that evening and the second and third selections were "The Birth of Venus, from the Botticelli Triptych" by Respighi and "Overture to Orpheus in the Underworld" by Offenbach.
During the Intermission John would repeat, you know Keith Lockhart is so young and talented. He has built remarkably on the standards set by Arthur Fiedler, ever since he took over as the twentieth Conductor in early 1995 and yadi yadi yada. Suddenly even as we were standing outside during the intermission, we saw a peculiar vehicle that John said was called the Amphibian, some useful relics of World War II military vehicles! These vehicles are used to conduct the Boston Duck Tours through which one can experience the city because the vehicle can ride both on land and water. One can see numerous sights that had made Boston the 'birthplace of freedom'. Apparently just when one thinks that one's seen it all from the Amphibian, there's always more because the Duck splashes into the Charles River for a stunning water view. Well I couldn't make it this time but may be next time.
Evans was great throughout the show. My my, he's really talented at the Piano as well. We discovered that after the Intermission. He enthralled us with his renditions and conduction of the orchestra. After we went back to our seats, Evans was in the piano along with the Orchestra and Judy Kaye, was singing. She's been honored with numerous awards too, deservedly. She was great and we listened to Gershwin's "An American in Paris". Evans was so very kind and invited several people to the dance floor with a selection of some of the world's most passionate music. We had an encore and I wish I could have danced there as well but again there's always a next time. On the whole we had a terrific day and returned to Harvard Square using the "T".
John had to leave the next day (wish he didn't have to) but Tatiana with her new found friends was there to make sure the remaining two days were eventful. In the morning I decided to skip a session to visit the Harvard Graduate School of Admissions at 122 Longfellow to meet Roland. He was busy but I was told I could get him just before 5 because he usually stays back after 5 and they close the doors promptly at 5 p.m. Unfortunately I did miss Fred's "Storytelling" session that morning and returned to sit through the reminder of the usual intense academic sessions. At any rate, I did eventually meet with Roland in the evening. He was so kind and we went through my communication with him and my interest to pursue a doctoral program at Harvard, and he gave me his time and expert advice. Then I rushed to the social hour with Harvard Admissions Staff after which we went on a Dinner Cruise (with box dinner) on the Charles River. I sat down with my glass of Ginger Ale (thanks to John again) and Jennifer was kind enough to bring my dinner because I couldn't get up easily with the chair arrangements.
The following morning in the free time scheduled to visit Universities, I decided that I'd go to MIT and guess what, I was so very fortunate to have met Marilee there! She had prepared a brilliant presentation. It was arranged exclusively for the Summer Institute participants and weren't I glad I met her. Yes indeed, and more so listening to her presentation. It was titled As The World Turns: Reflections on the Changing Generation of College Students. The brief spin on was "Are we ready for the Millennials?". The primary issue was on the difference in 17 year olds, depending on the era in which they are born, although they seem to be the same in many ways. Using MIT students entering '60-'00 to illustrate these changes and differences, she had us thinking about this important issue based on generational studies. I still have to e-mail her for a copy of that. Lorelle said she'd organize this for me and I should write her soon. I came back to attend the remainder of the sessions for the day and I particularly learned so much attending Dean's "Research Research". It's a pity that Dean has been unable to publish some of his works for want to time but it was very useful. I heard the term 'Factor Analysis' for the first time from him and realized quickly that this would be very useful for the analysis of my data. Anyway that'll to wait until I reach India, where I hope to get some reference work done. Helen was great too and I was fascinated both at Harvard and later in Australia how people were willing to share their ideas and experiments freely because they didn't believe in people 'reinventing the wheel'.
Meanwhile, Tatiana obviously had done some homework. Thanks to that we went to the Regattabar in The Charles Hotel to enjoy a LIVE session of "The Luciana Souza Quintet". The Quintet with Chris (sax), Bruce (piano), John (bass), Adam (drums) and the vocalist Souza was brilliant. Cheek was amazing with the sax and Souza was certainly using her Brazilian roots and passion to create remarkable jazz improvisations for 'The Poems of Elizabeth Bishop'. This record apparently has been placed fifth in the New York Times "Top Ten Jazz CD's of the Year 2000". It was great. Reminding me again that, life's full of compromises, I missed Fred's "Things I Wish I knew" to go the The Regattabar. Anyway, we followed that with dinner at John Harvard's and then ended up in front of the Grand Piano again! This was when I decided to try to sing after almost a decade. I tried to remember something and Tatiana was able to accompany my singing with her remarkable talent on the piano. This was when our friends suggested that we come up with yet another "East meets West" and that's certainly something we'd be following up (ha ha!). That night Eve was so sweet and very kindly read out to us the entire story of "Make Way for Ducklings" that she was going to gift Tatiana because she certainly had led the rest of the group along like Mrs. Mallard led her ducklings!
The following morning after brief participant reflections we went our individual ways after lunch. I do remember Dean's story in the concluding session about the sparrow. The one who puts you 'in' is not necessarily your enemy, and the one who takes you 'out' is not necessarily your friend. The moral of the story being, if you do get your head out of water, don't start singing. In any case, as you can see from this account we had a terrific time thanks to the remarkable people at Boston, people who go there and it is indeed this very factor that makes Harvard and MIT truly outstanding places to study. I suppose one can say this about several other Universities as well. Most of the learning takes place 'outside the classroom' as you could see! This is not to gainsay what Fred was passionately trying to make us understand throughout the Institute. He wanted us to make it very clear, that whatever we said was not going to be generalized but applied only to the situation that we were talking about and he referred to this by the terms 'bounded rationality'. Simon and his associates can't be at variance, can they?
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The flight from Boston to Los Angeles was delayed and Boston's Logan is not one of those best airports anyway. If you can forget the airport, then Boston's one of the best places to be in (excluding it's winter of course as Barbara mentions later). The flight was originally scheduled to fly out at 1735 but eventually took of only by 1820. In any case, we landed in LA around half past ten. For the second time in a row, the first was London to Boston and now Boston to Los Angeles, United Airways successfully screwed up in getting my vegetarian meal. Apparently these requests have to go through five or more stages. I've decided that in the future, I'm going to make a big fuss about my meal at the Airport. After getting off at Los Angeles I was told that all that they can do at this stage is give me a meal voucher. I didn't avail of it because it was not the best thing to make use of close to midnight. Once outside, I made some inquires for the shuttle service and found that it was the 'Super Shuttle Service' that'd get me to the Holiday Inn in Brentwood. A considerate driver after dropping off other passengers on the way, showed me around LA a little by the night. The gregarious driver, drove via Bundy and Sunset Boulevard to the Holiday Inn. Bundy owes its notoriety to O. J.
By the time I checked in it was almost midnight. I had a king size bed to rest my thoroughly exhausted body. After a good night's sleep for about six hours, I decided that I had to get to the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and, goody, the complementary shuttle at the Hotel can drop me off. I had made a request for a disposable razor over the telephone. It arrived late, but they made up for this by bringing it twice. It is not always convenient to use the electric shaver particularly if you want a close shave and I think it's always a good idea to stop by in a five star hotel during such long travels. If not anything else, at least one can stock oneself with the essentials such as shaving cream, razor's, shampoo and conditioner. After a nice shower and getting my bags packed off downstairs, I set out to visit UCLA. Earlier that morning I short-listed some places that I'd like to visit: The Getty Center, Petersen s Automotive Museum, Hollywood Ent. Museum, Autry Museum, S Kirball Cultural Center and the Museum of Tolerance. When I inquired at the Information, they said there's no way I could go to more than any two of these in a day. So I thought that I'll make it to the Getty Center first. That's what the driver suggested in any case, the previous night! The Alumni association at UCLA was closed because it was Saturday. I was also hoping to possibly get to Pasadena the next day to visit Caltech (to see Feynman's memoirs, of course) but gave up after finding that Saturday and Sunday's were not the best place to get any business done in the US of A. In any case, because of my last minute packing at Dubai I forgot to pack my trainers and bought myself one at UCLA.
After that I called for the shuttle and got back to the Hotel. They now kindly dropped me off at the Getty center. This is a wonderful place. To think they're able to maintain such an awesome place, without any entry fee amazes me. Located at the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains, the Getty Center occupies an area of about 750 acres. After walking up a couple flights, the tram moves the visitors up the hill at a top speed of 10 mi/h. The designer of the Museum Richard Meier has this to say about the tram; the five minute ride to the summit was designed to give visitors the feeling of 'being elevated out of their day-to-day experience'. They've used over 16,000 tons of travertine to construct the framework of the Museum, and apparently it required over a 100 ocean freighter voyages to Italy.
At the Getty Museum you've gotta find time for visiting all four (NEWS - North, East, West and South) pavilion's. I started off at the Western pavilion. Here you shouldn't miss the goddesses Juno, Minerva and Venus. Apparently according to Roman mythology, the king Paris was asked to judge which was most beautiful! One can find some of the most colorful and beaufiful ancient paintings and manuscripts in the North pavilion. There're some great displays of furniture in the South pavilion. When I visited them, the East pavilion was closed. It was supposed to to be inaugurated after some renovation about ten days later. Anyway after looking around for a couple of hours, I went back to the hotel around half past four. This was a close one. But for the Manager on duty Roberto Pinto's help, asking his brother to access the Internet mail I had received earlier in Boston and faxing the contents to me at the Hotel, I just would not have had the contact at San Francisco. That's one thing I've done from place to place. I've taken each leg of the journey, one step at a time, without worrying about the other legs. It may not always be the best way but this did work this time and thank God for it! I should thank Ramani when I visit Madras specially for this contact in San Francisco.
I did make my call to San Francisco and spoke to Raghu and the rest of the story follows from where San Francisco takes off.
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San Francisco has been called one of the best 'story cities in the United States'. Apparently there are as many stories as there are San Franciscans: about 801,000 occupy the city's approximately 47 square miles, with somewhere around 6.9 million living in the nine-county Bay Area. They share their stories with nearly 16.8 million visitors each year. (From The San Francisco Book Summer/Fall 2001 - San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau, 2001). Well here's one more story to add to this list!
I landed in San Francisco at 8.30 p.m. on June 30 and called Raja who said he'd come to pick me up at the Airport in his 'golden Mazda'. Even as I was waiting outside at the Airport he arrived in a Red Ford Mustang of his roommate Rajat. We drove home and sat back for a while. He showed me around the house and it's unfortunate that I couldn't meet their third room mate Anurag whose room I used during my stay at San Francisco. Raja explained to me that there were five bridges that span the bay. Golden Gate Bridge, San Mateo Bridge (8 mile long!), Dumbarton Bridge (possibly the shortest of them all), the San Francisoc Oakland Bay Bridge and the Richmond San Rafael Bridge. After a while we went over to Lyon's for dinner around 11 ish and retired to bed. We made our own PoA's and after Raja told me that it was a long way to Berkeley I decided to call off my proposed visit to UC Berkeley.
The following morning although it was a Sunday, Raja did get across to his office to catch up with some work. He returned around 3 p.m., and we drove down past San Mateo to visit his brother Raghu at Fremont. Rajat was supposed to come with us but cried off in the end because he wanted to catch up with some sleep. We went south of San Francisco into San Jose, 'the capital of Silicon Valley'. Named after the silicon chip that was invented here, the Silicon Valley is home to leaders in the high-tech industry such as Sun, Oracle, and so on. We loused around until 5.30 chatting with his sister-in-law and her cousin. Later after a cappuccino at Starbucks, we settled into our seats at Cinedome with some popcorn and Sprite to watch the Disney's animated film 'Atlantis: The Lost Empire'. After the film we returned home to catch Raghu and had dinner with him. Raja's SIL asked me how I was comfortable with my full sleeves and I remarked that I was cold the previous night and therefore dressed up in full sleeves as I got out that morning. I successfully managed to screw up my dressing in San Francisco all four days! It was only later that Mark Twain's famous observation dawned on me. 'The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco'. We returned home to catch Rajat before he went off to sleep through the Dumbarton bridge. While passing through the Dumbarton we had our windows down. Betcha you wouldn't have smelt anything like this before. Apparently it has salt mines and oyster farms that emanate this unique odor! These are the multi color farms one sees while landing in Frisco.
I woke up around 8ish in the morning and got ready to leave with Rajat. He dropped me off the CalTrain station close to home. I still haven't got the names of places here and only remember vaguely that it starts with an M. In any case last night I found that I could go to Stanford using the CalTrain and had to get off at either California Avenue, Palo Alto or Menlo Park. It was quite stupid of me to walk out of the house with no telephone numbers, no telephone card and no address to return to. I think the excitement of getting to Stanford got to me.
I went into the station and got myself a Round Trip to Stanford for $5/-. All I know is we must have had over a dozen stations and that added to the confusion. In any case as we were on the train, I had some strangers catch me on my camera. One of them you can see on my home page. I didn't know that Palo Alto was before Cal Avenue. So when we were going to reach Palo Alto, I asked the lady sitting across if I could get to Stanford by walk from here of Cal Avenue? She was so kind and suggested that I get off here and look for Marguerite that would take me directly to Stanford.
There I was out of the station and asked some lady standing there if she knew how to get to the Marguerite. Even as she was saying no I chanced to find a shuttle titled Marguerite, Stanford's free shuttle. That was great and I was all set.
I didn't know what to say to the driver so I asked him for the admissions office, because that was the only place I knew. The Dean of Admissions, Robin Mamlet, unfortunately had his week completely booked and his busy schedule did not permit me the opportunity to meet with him. Nevertheless, he very kindly replied my e-mail yesterday, thanking me for my 'lovely e-mail'. I can't but admire and respect these hard working people who care to reply their numerous e-mail messages every day. Once inside the university I spotted a board from the bus, which said, Visitor's parking. I decided to get off here and walk across. It turned out that it was just behind Memorial Hall where one could find plenty of information. I went in and found some booklets such as 'The San Francisco Book Summer/Fall 2001', 'Hiller Aviation Museum' and so on. I didn't have the patience to wait for my turn and decided to walk out with these booklets.
Once out, I found a huge structure but it didn't look very friendly to me. Nevertheless, I walked toward it. I found a few guys sitting on the side of the building and asked them if they were students here. One of them said yes and so I asked him if there is some place I should see at the University. He suggested that I go into this Hoover Tower ('the tall building'). He said they even conduct some tour for a few dollars and one could see the whole of the University and a good view of the bay area. That's exactly what I was looking for. I asked him if there was anything else. He said he hadn't visited it, but there was some kind of sculpture museum that was good as well. With these great leads I walked into the building.
I asked Matt, a student guide if I could have a tour of the place and he said they'd take us up to I think the 18th floor for $2/- and gave me a ticket which says "Stanford University Hoover Tower Observation Platform - Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, & Peace". Sounds good to me.
Even as was waiting my turn to go up, I walked around took a few pictures including the beautiful Chinese porcelain you can see on one of the photos I've here. Matt came around to call us and there were only two of us in the beginning. After we went up there were at least 15 people who came by. They were training a new guide Natalie, as well at that time. Matt was describing that this building houses some of the greatest pieces of history and this building was the tallest in campus. It was he said 285 feet tall. We looked around a bit and after some time Matt showed us various buildings including the Libraries, Law School, Medical Center, student dorms and the oval lawn center. He explained how they were retro-fitting the buildings after supporting them with steel. However, they wanted to maintain the traditional style of these buildings, he said. These buildings were damaged in the great 1989 earthquake and I've got one of these 'retro fit buildings' in the works, among these pictures.
I got down and went around the Hoover Museum at the reception. I found some interesting information. Herbert Hoover was also the President of the United States between 1929-1933. I watched a video clipping of a historical conversation with Hoover for a few minutes and found some interesting artefacts around. One of them was the Tolstoy and Plow, Soloviena, Sculptor. The sculpture was cast in IRON by V. Tarotorin in the Ural Mountains and presented to Hoover for his reorganization of the Kyshtym iron mine (1910). Above that was a Russian drinking vessel, the Kovsh, with the the double eagle of Russia that was once the property of Alexander I in the early 1800's. Hoover mentioned during the conversation that with most of the other libraries destroyed during the war, this was the only remaining library that has original sources to history of the past 55 (now over a hundred) years that was well documented.
One looking around further I'd scribbled some more interesting facts on a paper. The core of the Hoover Institution's War, Revolution and Peace collection came from Hoover's collections of original European documents, records, posters and ephemera on the Great War. It was founded in 1919 and the institution is devoted to inter-disciplinary scholarship and advanced research in the social sciences and public policy on domestic and international affairs.
On June 20, 1941, in his dedication of the Hoover Tower, Herbert Hoover said "The purpose of this institution is to promote peace. It's records stand as a challenge to those who promote war. They should attract those who search for peace".
After coming out I realized that I had earlier walked out of the house without a drink and breakfast. So I decided to find myself a drink. So I went down looking for the Cafeteria and after getting there in a basement, took a while making up my mind. Those few minutes turned out to be significant because when I came back up and out the bus was just leaving. Soon thereafter another Marguerite going to SLAC (Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, that is operated by the Stanford University for the Department of Energy) arrived for changing drivers. That was good because as a physicist I'd love to visit SLAC. After checking with the new driver, I hopped into the bus and went by corridors of labs to access the Public Affairs. There the person in-charge was missing and so I walked across to the Director's office. Only the Executive Administrator to the Director Emeritus Barbara Bridges was there and I ended up striking a conversation with her.
She showed me a very interesting Web link http://www.hep.net/sites/directories.html She told me about her boss, W.K.H. Panofsky who helped set up SLAC. She spoke about the switching device for the first atomic bomb and his association with the Manhattan Project. We briefly spoke of the fireworks and festivities at Boston for Independence Day celebrations including playing of the 1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky with church bells and cannons synchronized to the playing of the orchestra led by Keith Lockhart along the Charles River Esplanade. Apparently almost half a million spectators were anticipated for this world famous, Fourth of July celebration year's event, one of America's premier Independence Day traditions that is also broadcast nationally. It's a pity that I've to fly across the Pacific then and can't listen to it this this year. In any case, she suggested that I walk across the W.K.H. Panofsky Auditorium that was close by. I walked across only to find it closed but had a quick glance of the exhibits through the glass windows. I came back and still didn't find anyone at the Public Affairs. So I decided to look around and went to Dr. Panofsky's office. I walk there and found two interesting exhibits we spoke of earlier and inside there was Dr. Panofsky. I decided to gate-crash and spoke to him briefly, took his permission to photograph the exhibits and also take a picture with him. This is one souvenir that I'm going to cherish during my visit. I had to get back to get CalTrain before 2.30 and it was already almost 2 p.m. I would have loved to chat with Dr. Panofsky about his association with Richard Feynman, my favorite physicist and teacher. I couldn't get to Caltech, Pasedena and this was a great opportunity. I'll certainly try and stay in touch with Dr. Panofsky via e-mail and get to hear more about Feynman's exploits. His 'Surely you're joking Mr. Feynman' was a terrific book that had me in stitches.
The first one is in Panofsky's room was an indispensable piece of the SLAC Two-Mile Accelerator that was surreptitiously liberated for W.K.H. Panofsky in commemoration of his 60th birthday April 24, 1976. The second is the gadget I referred to earlier. Just before dropping the atomic bomb, the planes which observed the bombings dropped four apparatuses. After the bombing, three apparatuses with parachutes landed. Dry cells used wireless transmitting apparatus.
Now there I was out of SLAC with the best possible souvenir and had to wait for the Marguerite. I got close to Hoover Tower and waited for bus A to go to Palo Alto. I finally got one and luckily there was CalTrain within minutes. All's well, but where do I have to get off now? I didn't have any telephone numbers, telephone card, can't even recall the name of the place where I got into the train except that it starts with an M. Would you believe this, I managed to get off the correct station because I remembered M, and that it was about 13-14 stations away from Palo Alto! I remembered where I was dropped off and of course was very happy to find the California Teachers Association building which is probably the only landmark I remembered. I managed to find the correct street, correct door (remembered the green door but didn't know the number), got up the elevator, found my key opened the door and was relieved to find my belongings all over the place as usual. Now that my friends have walked into the house, I now know it's called Milbrae.
More on all this later. We're planning to go out now for the Independence Day celebrations. Ciao Ciao for now.
Even as we set out to visit down town San Francisco, when Rajat and Raja asked me what is it that I wanted to do in San Francisco, I mentioned that my friend from Texas had suggested that I must get to drive down Lombard Street, take a clanking ride on a cable car, see the Golden Gate Bridge and of course enjoy the Ghirardelli chocolates. Well that fits well with their program as well they said and it was just great.
Raja drove us onward in Rajat's 2000 Red Ford Mustang down Lombard Street. Lombard in the Russian Hill district is known as "the crookedest street in the world" because of its eight starp turns on a 40 degree slope. After that we passed the Cable Cars parked on the street. London born engineer, Andrew Hillidie, invented this form of transportation that first appeared on the streets in 1873 to go up and down the hills. It's a pity that I couldn't get to ride it for the magnificent panoramic views of the city and bay by day. I had a great time experiencing some of the stunning and most scenic views thanks to Rajat's patience and letting me drive his Mustang on my way back home (first time, I was driving in the US, and it was the early hours of July 4). More on this later. We parked our car at the parking lot of Pier 39 after glancing at some of the high rise buildings including the Transamerica Pyramid and Columbus Tower , where we spent the next four hours. This apparently is the second most-visited attraction in California and located at Beach Street and the Embarcadero just two blocks east of Fisherman's Wharf. This cargo pier hosts over 10.5 million visitors yearly. Thank God and much to our surprise, it was completely deserted when we reached there abound 10ish in the evening. Raja mentioned that at times, one'd take upto 15 minutes just to travel a few hundred meters and we were glad that we didn't choose to take the BART anticipating that it may be crowded.
As we headed out toward the North end of Pier 39, we picked up some chocolates including the Ghirardelli. We saw the Alcatraz, 'The Rock' from the Pier. Alcatraz, Spanish for pelican, in 1934 became the infamous maximum-security prison for Mafia criminals and high-risk convicts. Although the island is only a mile from the shore and numerous escapes had been attempted, there were no evidence of any successful escapes across the icy bay (except Sean Conery in the film) said Raja. Interestingly the prison was the only one in the federal system that touted hot showers - a luxury designed to keep prisoners from acclimating to cold icy water. The prison closed in 1964 due to prohibitive operating costs, and the crumbling ruins are now one of the Bay Areas most popular visitor stops.
As we headed West we saw a few sea lions lolled upon the marine docks. I tried in vain to get them photographed in their true color but they only appeared dark at that time of night. I do have some photographs from the walls though depicting the chubby brown cuties.
We then waddled along to reach the Lou's Blue's Pier 47. Man, we had a whale of a time there, listening to 'The Blue Tones' LIVE. You can see me on one of the pictures during the break with Kirk Deneilson who played the sax that night, Daniel McKay the bass guitar, the star of the group Andrew McKay on the lead guitar, me and Aron Forbes the lead vocalist. Bless their parents these guys are all under sixteen, still studying in school and they play just great. According to the Teen People Magazine September 2000 they are one of the top 3 new bands in the United States.
After the concert, we walked past the Wax Museum at Fisherman's Wharf. We almost did the 49 mile scenic drive, by night though! We drove past highway 101 to the Golden Gate bridge (The color of the bridge, known as International Orange, was chosen so that it blends with the bridge's natural surroundings. It was certainly news to me that the two great cables contain enough strands of steel wire (80,000 miles) to encircle the equator three times!), and back down Hwy 101 and Hwy 1 and MacArthur Tunnel to Pacifica, Rajat's old residence. Had some breathtaking views and middle of the road meeting and discussions before driving down to Denny's for diner around 4ish in the morning. Rajat said that I must try and visit California Palace of The Legion of Honor that is home to the city's distinguished collection of European art from medieval to modern, plus a porcelain gallery, the Rodin sculpture court, and galleries for the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Art, the West Coast's largest collection of works on paper and a basically a beautiful bayside setting. He also mentioned the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art that is an acclaimed structure housing the West Coast's most comphrehensive collection of 20th century art including major works by Abstract Expressionsists. I'm tired now after driving home and it is past five and am going to sleep. More on this later. Click here to go to the top
My flight to Melbourne AN 165 was scheduled at 0645 and I didn't want to start looking for a cab early in the morning. 'The Canberra Cabs' (132227) were normally very efficient. So there I was and done with my packing by half past twelve and all set to leave around 5 ish in the morning. I woke up at 0420 hrs and got ready to go to the Airport by 0515 hrs. I came down and luckily found the Senior Resident walking past at that time and gladly gave him the key to my room. I didn't to waste any time so moved all my luggage as you can see into the main road under the ugly sodium vapor street lights. The time was 0520 hrs.
I waited and continued to wait. I was truly 'out in the cold'! It was past 0540 and after that I kept calling every ten minutes to find out why my cab had not come to get me. Finally the cab did arrive around 0615. The driver happened to transfer one of my bags and wanted to know if my suitcases were filled 'bricks'. I said no, but something close, 'books'! On the way, the cab driver told me that their system had failed and they had to rely on 'voice messaging' that took a very long time indeed to get registered. So much for our reliance on technology. In any case we managed to get in just about time and I checked my luggage directly to Singapore so that I'll only have to lug my cabin bag and laptop around in Melbourne during the day.
After completing the security formalities and getting in and out several times because I just had too many coins on me, we boarded the flight immediately and the flight departed as scheduled at 0645 hrs. We reached Melbourne by 0730 hrs and that's when the trouble began. The eastern region (where Deakin was located) was very clear but the airport was just not visible and had been heavily fogged-in. I was busy reading through the Ansett Vive but did chance to catch one of the headlines of a passenger ahead of me to the left, saying 'The lust for power has thrown the country into a vortex of violence', referring to Zambia I think? I was for the first time on an aisle seat. I didn't care because the flight was only 45 minutes (supposed to be!) in any case.
Here's the first message from the Captain; '
"I couldn't see the runway and so we'll give it another go after a round'. Fine sounds OK.
Soon the second message follows:
"The Air Traffic Control have advised me that the other western runway might be possible so we're going to position ourselves for it now". Well we tried and no luck again and the captain announced;
"Missed out again, and we're going to try for the third time. We're at this moment also considering the option of returning to Canberra". He added as an apology "All other flights that have tried to land this morning have been diverted as well. It was surely not his fault if Melbourne had been fogged-in. So he finally announced the inevitable. "We're returning to Canberra for refueling and will give it another try again if clears up at Melbourne after that. At that time we were not sure if we were going to disembark or stay inside the plane for half an hour at least while it was refueling. This is very unusual for Melbourne though because one would have expected this of Canberra, which does get fogged-in, but not common in Melbourne, I understood later. This had me worried and I started figuring out that my schedule was getting all screwed up here (and it surely did!). I couldn't visit the Clayton Campus of Monash University, the University of Melbourne and spend time at the Melbourne Zoo that I had planned.
We flew back to Canberra after trying unsuccessfully for the third time and landed in Canberra at 0915 hrs and were supposed to take a 0950 flight to Melbourne that was headed for Adelaide. So we disembarked and got ourselves a new boarding pass on flight AN 113 and went through the rigmarole of security check and waiting this time for boarding. Last time I boarded directly because I was late. In any case three tiny tots kept us engaged while we were waiting.
Finally we started boarding around 10 ish and you can see some images of the AN 165 that brought us back getting refueled. See the guy holding the pipe. No wonder he's not using the bonding line that usually prevents any static electricity causing an accidental spark and disaster thereupon.
The flight departed around 1010 hrs and we started our descent into Melbourne around 1040 hrs. The captain again, this time of AN 113;
"It's still foggy but we've enough fuel to fly around for an hour. Otherwise we'll get to Adelaide." This certainly had some of us in stitches. That was the only way we could easily get our frustrations out you see.
We wait and the captain comes up with a new announcement that was both positive and negative. The positive was a flight had actually just landed at Melbourne. That's good. But now the bad news. "There are 14/15 planes ahead of us and so I don't know when we'll land". That's awful but we could do nothing about it.
Finally we did land and I got our around 1210 hrs. I promptly got the address from my laptop and called Dr Elizabeth apologizing for my delay. I was originally supposed to have met her around 11 ish in the morning. I got out and took a cab to get to Deakin. It cost me only $64 and I decided that it was not the best mode of transport if one had the time. I left my 'electronic toys' at the ground floor, after requesting a lady down there and she kindly consented. I went up to the second floor to meet with Dr Elizabeth and we had a good discussion. The outcome I don't know yet, but it surely has set me thinking of traveling to Montreal in August 2002!
Later she managed to get Dr. Paul on the telephone and we met briefly. Paul's got a Ph.D. in Physics Education and now working towards integrating IT in physics education specializing in Mechanics at the moment. After the meeting, I headed off, dragging my luggage to get a Tram, that will take me to the city. Here I was, thinking I had been clever in palming off my change to the cab driver, but soon found that I needed the change to get my ticket to use the tram. In any case I barely managed to pay for this ticket. We literally travelled inch by inch to the city and stopped at just about every traffic signal. I did get to see some of the city though!
After getting off at Flinder's Station I got a cab to visit the Zoo. They were almost, why almost they had actually closed for paying customers but I still managed to sneak into the zoo and you can see some photographs. It's a shame that I couldn't get there earlier. I thought I had spent the last few dollars from my wallet on the cab and wondered if I had to walk to the main road to get to the nearest ATM. Luckily I managed to find about $30 in my shirt and had some American dollars. The bagpiper at Flinder's was great. I didn't manage to photograph him but did succeed in getting the St. Paul's church on the camera.
I took the tram again towards Burke Street? and started walking towards Spencer's Railway Station. Got to reach there (must've been a half hour walk at least). On the way, I was lucky to find a Kinko's. That came in handy to check and quickly reply e-mail messages. I found the Skybus, the airport-city shuttle, that will travel to the airport. The bus driver was very cordial and I even found him helping out the driver of another bus that had come from the airport just then, by transferring baggage. Unfortunately I ran out of power for my camera and couldn't get a photograph with me sitting on the wheels. Better luck next time I guess.
From Spencer's, one can even pick up a train to Sydney, that will reach in less than 9 hrs. A new faster train can do this in half the time I was told. On the way I saw the old building of 'The Age' and close to the airport the new building of 'The Age' too. They'd possibly get apartments in the old one for housing, I was told. We also passed by the jail, something the driver referred to as the 'The Nick' of 'The Stern', or 'most unpopular bed-and-breakfast in Melbourne'.
I'm going to get my boarding pass now and am starving. So long then.
Lee Kwan Yew presently a Senior Minister and still holding a lot of clout) is the visionary who's changed the landscape of Singapore in this short span. With no available local resources he's changed the countries economy so significantly. Apparently they've not borrowed money from anyone and although they've suffered from their own misadventures in China, Indonesia Malaysia, they're now looking to cultivate India as a possible source for collaboration now.
Indian's now make up only 8% of the local population and don't contribute significantly to the local economy. Some have come a long way after paying large sums of money to 'be overseas' and some have difficult working conditions as well. Although the government does specify a minumum $ 25 per day wage there are some with $ 17 or much less too if they're moonlighting. It's the Chinese who do so and they're apparently the ones who control the economy in most of the Southeast Asian countries. In any case I do admire the Chinese for their industry and their ingenuity. Almost all the cute things that I find in shops have a label 'Made in China'. That's just great if you ask me in spite of having to contend with their problems with a huge population!
Coming to the Indian scene they're blessed with so much resources both in 'nature' and 'people' but the country lacks able leadership and collective will of the people. If the average American is satisfied to get himself into MacDonald's then the average Indian is happy to sit behind the tinsel screen and get these people back to power.
Over 65% of the local GDP is based on agricultural input and yet not much technological thrust is given there? I do vaguely recall watching a program I think in CNN where the farmer's were provided the latest in technology so that they can share information and get the best yields.
I think the community would certainly benefit if someone could put his or her brain behind getting similar ideas off the ground in India as well. The banking sector is so very willing to help with their priority areas for lending and support being Agricuture, Industry and Services. Services does include educational Services and that's personally interesting. Why can't someone who's interested in such kind of activity come up with a project proposal and we can work on finding out more?!
Although the bottom line in all banking sector like other sectors is profit motive, in the urban setting the thrust could be galvanizing deposits from its customers whereas in the rural sector it is more social and lending based. Field officers do make several rounds to villages to support the requirements in the Agricultural sectors that includes farm equipment, tractors, agricultural tools, even cold storage facilities.
The research institutes do have their own role to play spreading their good work around and have various farming dissemination networks?
The banks are willing to support projects if they're going to be beneficial to the community. All they'd need for their lending is collaterals such as land & building and in some exceptional and deserving circumstances may even accept third party guarantees.
Banks in the rural areas sometime do not give priority to toys such as computers and fax machines because their target market is different. There you've people who have all the time in the world to be assisted. Some even get to the bank just to 'sit down under the fan' and are comfortable with it. Hope may not offer such comfortable facilities all the time.
In the urban setting time is the essence and that's why the Internet banking becomes such a big hit. One needs access 24/7 and can carry on with transactions? whenever there's a few minutes in one's hectic schedule.
Banks used to at one time have something called the BSRB or the banking service recruitment board, which I read somewhere had been scrapped now. The reason apparently has been an excess of manpower! Despite the union's resistance several employees have been lured with the golden handshake for the VRS (Voluntary Retirement Scheme) with offers that many couldn't refuse.
It's strange how in some countries the Union's are so very powerful and others there's no such concept! Hire and fire is the popular philosophy these days. Apparently Singapore is no exception in some areas. Strangely the demography and their contribution to the local economy is so very different in Dubai and Singapore although in so many ways they've a lot in common. For one the Director-General Mohammed Al Abbar is so very fond of Singapore where he'd spent 7-8 of his formative years and so impressed with its achievements. Fairly so. I can't but agree with him as well looking at the progress of the place starting with nothing whatsoever except the vision of Lee Kwan Yew, Lee being a prefix to mean family! This is somewhat like what some of us are enjoying in the United Arab Emirates thanks to the vision of its great leaders such as His Highness Sheikh Zayed bin Nahyan, Sheikh Rashid Al Maktoum and now Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
In my opinion Dubai is one of the greatest places to be in the present world. If I'd have had an option, then I wouldn't mind having access for a few weeks of the year to two other places I like next to Dubai, Boston and Sydney. Boston surely in summer and Sydney in March.
I went to the Ministry of Education yesterday to try and lay my hands on some policy documents and shall be following this up on the web for 'expert' guidance. Later I decided to look around Singapore and decided to use the SIA Hop-on service. I decided to negotiate my way using the map that they had provided and it took me only a half to find out! I found it almost impossible to get anyone on the phone and couldn't get through one of my appointments thanks to the voice mail hassles at Nanyang University, like all other places.
A photograph shows the construction work going on at the bus stop. I learnt the hard way after walking this long that in Singapore the same street has got different names on either side of the road. I walked to Rochor Canal Road in two minutes and asked some people on the road how to reach Sungei Road. No one seemed to know and I crossed the road to the other side and went around looking for Sungei Road walking in and away from Sungei Road.
After walking past and going into 'Little India' and all over the place for half an hour I came back to find it just in the same place where I reached in 2 minutes. From the map I would have never in my wildest dreams have imagined that the other side of the road was indeed Sungei road!
Nevertheless I went around and returned in the evening. Even as I was working on Adobe, Raja came home and he was great. He helped me in the morning over the phone to configure my laptop to the network in Singapore. I was given a choice of visiting the Electronic Shopping Mall or Sri Krishnan temple. I chose the latter and at the end of the day think it was the right thing I did and couldn't have had a better way to get over my jet lag! Although I did sit through I'd still consider myself a 'free thinker' and don't have allegiance to any specific religion. Came home had dinner and uploaded the day's images on web.
On the second day I decided to go looking for the Asian Civilization Museum. Mami with whom I was staying used to be a close friend of my grandpa and it was interesting speaking to both mama and mami to find out more about my grandpa! In searching for that after getting off the bus I wandered into, in my opinion, the best place that anyone can ever visit in Singapore and to think that it was not at all mentioned in any of the lists I had about the important places to visit. It's the Fort Canning Park. It has the cultural and natural heritage of Singapore as you can discern from some of the photographs.
Fort Canning's hill was the seat of the Malay Kingdom, Tamasek and dates as far back as the 14th century. I'm going to give you some iinterestingextracts provided by the staff of the "National Parks Board". "According to the Malay Annals, the site was chosen for settlement by Sri Tri Buana, ruler of Temasek and the one reputed to have seen the fabled lion for which he named the island 'Singapura' (Lion City). Beleaguered by attacks from the Siamese and Majapahit, the last known ruler of Temasek, Iskandar Shah, fled from the settlement."
"Around 1860 the colonial government turned the hill into a fort bearing the name of Viscount Charles John Canning, Governor-General and the first Viceroy of India. From that time until 1970s, Fort Canning was used as a military base - first by the British, by the Japanese during World War II, and lastly by the Republic's armed forces."
"Once the forbidden hill of ancient Malay royalty and later the Far East Command Centre of the British, today's Fort Canning Park beckons visitors to a tranquil, green oasis."
I've captured some images of the Cupolas. "The Cupolas were designed by a prominent architect of early Singapore, George Coleman (1795-1844). No record to their date of construction or their purpose exists; they were possibly meant to be places of repose, where people might come to enjoy the peace and tranquility of the hill."
Another great place there is "The 14th Century Walk" which for some unknown reason is not described in the spin of the Heritage Trial that was written and prepared by the National Parks Board. Another serene place and a place where some believer's come is the Keramat. "Meaning 'a sacred place' in Malay, a Keramat is the traditional burial ground of a revered leader. It is uncertain who was buried here, though some people believe this to be the resting place of Iskandar Shah, a ruler of Temesek. A 14th-century-styled Malay roof called a 'pendopo', supported by twenty wood pillars carved in a fighting cock motif of Javanese origin, shelters this structure."
I was getting late and couldn't make it to the Asian Civilizations Museum that I set out to find in the first place. I surely landed in a place that I'd have loved to visit in any case if only I had known before. Sometimes getting lost can be good too. It was worth considering the arduous climb to the top in the end.
I decided to flag a cab home because it was getting late. I was telling him how I wish I were rich enough to set up a fund wherein we could sponsor every one in this world a trip to some other place away from their native place to experience a different culture. How I wish the rich could do that to ordinary men and women on the streets. More later. I've to start packing for my flight this evening.
My Pilgrimage: March 27 - April 3, 2007
I was busy "studying" until the last minute at Madras with the books that I had managed to lay my hands on thanks to our former neighbor at IIT (see photograph with his wife, two children and mother in the third thumbnail at Madras). I started packing late and finished at 0435hrs. That just gave me less than two hours to sleep before getting ready to rush to the airport because I had ordered the cab for 0645 hrs. I managed to get out only by 0705 and was lucky to get through the formalities with little hassle. The best part was I managed to check my two check-in baggage's straight through to Dubai so I didn't have the hassle of lugging them around. Sounds great but I actually did something stupid. More on that later. I thought I had a lot of time but the time just went whizzing past. I was amused at the number of checks that had to be made for all the baggage's and passengers. It was as it one were entering a high security area! This is understandable though with all the violence taking place in the country.
Personally I think the flight was not of international class. The flight was too short for them to offer us anything worthwhile or maybe we were lower mortals? Flights during shorter segments on several other components of my journey did provide at least a decent breakfast! We landed at Bandaranaike International Airport in Sri Lanka around noon and Sri Lanka was indeed a beautiful place even from the sky. This was apparently two hours from Colombo and people were telling me there was violence the previous day as well. I was too busy to read the daily but said I was going to risk going around in any case.
I went to an ATM machine after completing the Immigration formalities as I had been doing in all other countries and went to an ATM machine for cash. Initially I asked them if they'd change Indian rupees and they said they did not know the exchange rate and therefore they can't change it! The machine won't accept my visa card. I tried several machines in and around the airport and none wouldn't accept my card. While all this was going on I did walk to the Tourist Center to ask them what was it that I could see because my flight to Bangkok was early next morning at 0140 hrs. The gentleman at the counter suggested that I could visit the Elephant Orphanage at Pinnawala and then possibly get to Colombo for some shopping and return in time for my flight. Sounded OK to me and even as I was getting out there were what one would call 'sharks' (referring to the Travel Services, with due apologies) waiting to pounce on me.
I told them I wanted to go to Pinnawala and then possibly to Colombo and return to the same airport for the flight leaving early the following day. We worked out a deal and I still had no money. So I went back to the Airport and finally managed to swipe my card with the Bank of Ceylon who alone would accept my visa card. Thank God! There were ten other banks that won't accept Visa cards. That's funny. I came back and paid the Travel Services for a private tour of Pinnawala and Colombo. The arranged for the van as you can see in the photographs and Ranasinghe (Raja) was my driver and guide. He was so sweet. He said we'd go to Pinnawala first because between 2 and 4 we could see the elephants having their bath and so on. Then we'd do Colombo by night. This was the PoA for the moment. We talked on the way about various things and I told him I'd like to get to the Buddhist temple if possible. He said that was in Kandy and we were not going there.
We drove for over two hours and the roads were narrow with thick vegetation on both sides. We finally reached Pinnawala and saw the gorgeous place. It was just great. You can see that from the photographs as well. There was a shooting for a Korean film going on at that time. I was famished by this time and said we'd eat something first and then look around. I took a few shots on my camera and found the battery was dying out and had just a minute of so to go. This reminded me of what happened at Melbourne. I was cursing myself for not charging the battery the previous night. What was worse was like a goody goody I had packed my camera as well and routed it to Dubai along with the cable for charging my camera. I had it now. Here I am standing in front of the most spectacular sight with its refreshing sounds minus a camera. What am I going to take with me? Stupid eh! Well I managed to get myself a disposable camera and almost had a scare by almost opening the stuff. I'd never used one like this before and would have liked clear instructions about how to use them. In the end as you can see we're got some decent photographs, not great but good nevertheless. After lunch we saw the most beautiful sight of four elephants with one maybe a week old baby elephant (cubs?). I should have photographed it then but when we went to shoot them inside their dinner shelter, the light was too poor to catch this cute baby. We couldn't venture too close for fear of being attacked.
We then were supposed to go to Colombo. Then Raja asked me if I'd like to go to Kandy instead of Colombo and I gladly accepted this offer. He spoke to his boss and he was kind enough to allow him to do it. Here was my golden chance to visit the sacred Buddhist temple. On the way you can see the interesting sight of an elephant blocking out path and the traffic on both sides had to wait until the mighty one had crossed the bridge.
We stopped at the All Spice and Herbal Garden. Mr. Gomez was kind enough to show me around. You can see him explaining the cocoa plant to me in one of the photographs. He explained patiently everything and showed me around the garden. I was offered a welcome drink, cocoa sweetened with vanilla. That was just great. Then he took me over to their classroom where he showed me all the Ayurveda drugs that they had developed and explained each one of them in detail with their use. Zitronella cream and oil, Sandalwood oil, Cinnamon oil, Herbal balm (I was given a nice massage on my forehead with this), King Coconut Oil with Kesakalyani (Had a nice massage for the head with this), Herbal wine, Red oil with herbal balm, (I was offered a nice cup of tea sweetened with vanilla again), Sihil Sun Lotion, Sihini slimdrops, Herbal Tooth Powder, Sandal wood beauty cream and aloes cream, Herbal skin ointment, Kamayogi bon-bon, Green oil, Herbal cough syrup, Agnimoola syrup, Herbal diabetics tablets, Herbal Cholestrol Solvent, Herbal Gripe Mixture, Herbal Massage Oil, Lady Tonic, Needra and Perfumes. We went to their shop where these were all packaged but I told him I couldn't buy anything because I was towards the end of my journey and almost broke! I still had another country to visit and reach home safe, Inshallah. So we parted after taking a picture in front of the Garden.
The time was about four and we still had the choice of going to Colombo or Kandy. Obviously I chose to go to Kandy. Kandy's a beautiful place; a place one must visit with more time. The setting of the temple against the lake was breathtaking. I missed my camera (sigh). It was about a two and a half hour drive and we reached there just in time for an hour's Cultural Show on 'Traditional Kandyan & Low Country Dances of Sri Lanka' at the Kandyan Arts Association Hall. I missed the first piece of Blowing of the Conchshell and Drum Orchestra but enjoyed the other dances. There was the Pooja Dance, Pantheru Netum, Cobra Dance, Mask Dance, Mayura Vannama, Raban Dance, Ves Dance, National Hymn, Ginisisila and the highlight of Fire walking. How scary. The disposable camera obviously couldn't capture all this as well as my other cameras could have done but there's some evidence as you can see. This was awesome in any case. The programme finished abound 7 ish and we had just enough time to rush to Buddhist temple. The prayers' between 7 and 8 Raja said.
We walked for a few blocks away to reach the sacred Buddhist temple, Sri Dalada Maligawa (Temple of Tooth). Mr. Aruna Rathnayake was kind enough to show me around the temple and explain the history. Great just great. The temple was beautiful and it's a shame that the terrorists choose to attack this with a suicide bomber two years ago. The security's surely been visibly increased now. I was indeed lucky to have visited the temple on this sacred day. The room where the tooth of Buddha is kept enshrined was just opened and we went past that (see photograph) and after an hour when I came back to visit the same place the doors were unfortunately shut. The Buddhist monks were going to have a night long prayer in preparation for the month long festivities that was impending. It was dark now so I couldn't see the Buddha clearly except his silhouette far away on top of the hill. I would love to visit this place again sometime in the future.
After one more glance from the top of the hill, we started our two and a half-hour long drive back to the airport. I should thank Raja for this great, memorable but brief visit to Sri Lanka. I thing I was getting the best of Sri Lanka in the shortest possible time. Even as we were driving back, I was astonished at the number of small Buddhist temples on the wayside. This reminded me of similar ones one can find in India with Lord Vinayaka, the Hindu God who wards off obstacles. We saw elephants walking towards Kandy on the way possibly in preparation for the festivities next month. After a brief stopover we reached the airport and then I realized I had to shell out a thousand for Airport Tax. That's not something I had expected because I thought I had paid for all the taxes in my ticket. I didn't have a choice except cough up. I did so and boarded the Thai Airways to Bangkok.
It's with mixed feelings that I write about the last leg of this totally rewarding journey that I set out to complete a month ago. It'd been truly remarkable THROUGHOUT the journey and not a day went without something exciting happening around me, or me personally learning/experiencing something absolutely outstanding. Today was no exception.
We landed at Bangkok around 6 in the morning and by the time I got myself a Visa on Arrival to enter the Kingdom of Thailand it was sevenish. As I got out the staff from a local tour guide called out and I decided to try them out. I was driven to Hotel Thong Poon where I had a quick shower and waited for my tour guide to show me around the City, Temples and The Grand Palace.
The first place we visited was the Wat Traimit Wittayaram Voraviharn - The Temple of Solid Gold (Traimit Royal Temple). Here one can see the World's Biggest Solid Golden Buddha. It is over 700 years old, weighs 5.5 tons and was built in the Sukhothai's era. It certainly set the tone for things to come. Notwithstanding my weakness for gold, I did choose to buy a small icon and later try out the luck of my tour guide and myself at Thraimitwittayaram. I vaguely remembered that I was born on Saturday and after popping in a coin, it stopped at No. 15. Instead of going into details, I can just summarize the gist of the message; overall, this one is especially good.
After this we drove to the second temple, Wat Phra Chetuphon Vimol Mangklaram Rajwora Mahaviham - The Temple of the Reclining Buddha. This temple was built during the Ayutthaya period between 1688-1703. It is truly beautiful and is the second biggest Buddha in Thailand. Not only they use plenty of gold leaf here (I picked up a small specimen, and it comes in various packages), they also use plenty of mother-of-pearl. In fact the pearl-ornamented foot has 108 beautiful pictures with a typical chakra in the middle signifying the 'circle of life'. You'll find me standing next to one of the doors in mother of pearl depicting the Ramayan carved out by Rama V. Here we also dropped off some small coins for the Buddhist monks. This is a huge temple and was if I remember set up by the fifth monarch, Rama V. He started the first University here as well. At the moment the ninth king, Rama IX is reigning but since the last three kings it is no longer a monarchy but a democracy in Thailand. He has a son and three daughters. The prince is popular here as well if we go by the number of huge cutouts on the sides of several roads. Here one can also see the famous Thailand Massage schools and numerous Buddha variations, 788 I think? Some are sitting, some standing, some with long ears, and so on each signifying an emphasis on tranquility, peace, long life and so on. If one is willing to spend ten days, they can study here to become a certified masseur. Walls paintings depict the various diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis (popular in Thailand at one time) and how they can be cured. There's such a rich combination of Buddhism that is significantly influenced by Indian and Chinese philosophy as well.
The third temple we visited was Wat Benchamabopit - The Marble Temple. There size of this Buddha's also huge. Here he's standing unlike the first two places where he was sitting and reclining. This temple is beautiful as well. Here there's an air-conditioned meditation hall having a wax idol of a popular monk Somdhet Phaputhachan (Tho Phomrungsee) with the sacred water in front of it. It's just great. We sat there for a short while before seeing the statutes of the first Monarch Rama I and the fifth monarch Rama V. We walked to the place that houses the Year according to Chinese astrology as well. I was born on the year of the snake and the guide told me it was a good idea for us to do a little sacred offering of the water to the Buddha and the snake.
Now instead of going to the city to complete the tour I managed to change the agenda to visit the Grand Palace. This place is remarkable and truly grand. Here we visited what some Buddhists consider the most Buddha of them all the Emerald Buddha, some royal residences and the Museum. Great place! At the Grand Palace one can find the Chapel Royal of the Emerald Buddha. This place is an object of national veneration and therefore one is not allowed to video or photograph the beautiful Emerald Buddha sitting high up on an alter of gold (to represent the traditional aerial chariot attributed to Hindu gods on the murals). Interestingly the monarch unless severely incapacitated (in which case the princess does the costume change) personally changes the costumes (Summer, Rainy season and Winter). Now the costume is the rainy season and was therefore missing from the museum. This Emerald Buddha is smiling and beautiful. It is different from the standing Chinese female Buddha we saw in the second temple.
Throughout these temples there are glorious murals that depict various themes such as the life-story of Buddha, episodes from the Ramayana and so on. In fact on the door to enter the Chapel, I think it was the third monarch Rama III who personally carved out part of the inlaid work in mother-of-pearl. Scattered throughout the temples are various fanciful animals that are described in mythology. The half-bird human, white elephant, lion etc are some examples. The Museum was great. I was particularly fascinated with the ring collection of the King, thanks partly due to my own weakness in acquiring rings. One of them was the Ring with nine gems that is considered to be an object of honor: diamond, ruby, emerald, topaz, garnet, sapphire, gray gem, zircon and chrysoberyl cat's eye. The pattern was different from the one used in India, where instead of gray gem and zircon, coral and pearl are used. Moreover, the gemstones were big and arranged on the edges of the ring unlike the Indian variation with the stones set on a square or circle.
Later we went to visit the Royal Lapidary. Thailand is well known for its rubies and blue sapphires for their 4 C's; clarity, color, cutting and I just now can't remember the fourth. After watching the brief film we went over to see the displays. Wow. That was great. I did like some rings but the costs were just too prohibitive. One of them was over US $15609. In any case after wandering around there, I decided to get back to the Airport. I was starving and had my lunch at the Airport. I wish I could have made it to the Floating Market and Pattaya, but there just was not enough time. Thailand is indeed an amazing place and has dozens of places to see. If time and money permit, I shall certainly spend more time there next time, Inshallah. There was still a three-hour wait at the airport when I started typing today's events.
I couldn't complete it because my battery was quickly running out. In any case after charging it in the plane, I've set out to complete this blah blah for some of you who've still managed this far. I enjoyed myself thoroughly with the in-flight entertainment. I was particularly engaged mostly with this list of Boarding Music.
1. Sacrifice, James Last & His Orchestra;
2. The Last Farewell, Midnight Guitar;
3. Raindrops Keep fallin' On My Head, Moonlight Moods Orchestra; 4. Just The Way You Are, Moonlight Piano;
5. Hey Jude, Ronnie Aldrich & The London Festival Orchestra;
6. Killing Me Softly With His Song, Mantovani Orchestra;
7. Love Letters, Geoff Love Orchestra;
8. How Deep Is Your Love, State Of The Heart;
9. Don't Cry For Me Argentina, 101 Strings;
10. Groovy Kind Of Love, Phil Collins;
11. Nothing's Gonna Change My Love For You, Moonlight Piano;
12. Everything I Do (I Do It ForYou), Unforgettable Sax;
13. Waiting For You, Soft Sax;
14. Candle In The Wind, Twilight Orchestra;
15. Sail On, Gary Tesca Orchestra;
16. The Look Of Love, Burt Bacharach; 17. From A Distance, James Last & Richard Clayderman;
18. An Affair To Remember, London Festival Orchestra;
19. Lady In Red, Midnight Guitar;
20. Bridge Over Troubled Water, Moonlight Moods Orchestra;
21. Unforgettable, Brian Smith;
22. Memory, Moonlight Piano;
23. Annie's Song, Geoff Love And His Orchestra; 24. Hello, Gary Tesca Orchestra; and finally,
25. Glory Of Love, State Of The Heart.
Dubai (6:30 minutes flying time from Bangkok, back where I started, after flying 63:37 minutes over 30-days)
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