Tour Diary

Tourists:
1) A nagging spoilt 24 year old full of complaints about USA and lack of friends. ( that is me)
2) Parul Mehta ( will come to who she is later)

Duration: 5th May – 7th May.

Places Visited: Baltimore, Washington DC.

Prelude: Nobody knows better than me what it is when you come to US without a driver’s license and then get into a situation when you fail to make friends. To add to that the people with whom you stay turn out to be sex- maniacs and above all if you are doing copy paste at work. When all these happen to you know at the same time, you know your life is big time screwed up. And it is then you have no other choice but to wait for a divine intervention.
Reminds me of a crossover Hindi-English cocktail movie released three years back called “Mumbai Matinee”. The plot was something like that the male lead had lost everything in life thrown out of home and was sitting in a bench, when a female journalist had come to interview him. Upon knowing his miseries, she offers him home and shelter in her house. At that point the guy wonders and speaks these famous lines “Either her need for the interview is more worse than my need for a home else she is the kindest soul on planet earth”

Cutting back to my real life, the only difference with me was that I could definitely say that she was the kindest soul I have ever met. And Unlike the movie it was not a hero-heroine story but just about two good friends. That is for you is Parul Mehta.

Now how do I introduce her, well firstly she was my customer during my previous assignment. But then we became good friends. Now shall I call her Parul Didi (elder sister) because she is a little older than me? But I tell her stuff that I would not tell my elder sister. So I call her Parul but respect her as I would to some one elder to me and treat her as if she was my friend of same age. I understand that is confusing enough, but that’s what happens when you stand at the crossroads of two culture. But as a matured adult I understand that amidst all this differences between any two cultures, few things still remain the same. The definition of a good human being always is the same any where in the world. Also emotions like love, affection and respect always is the same with all good human being. So it is open to interpretation on how I am related to Parul and other stuff. My only answer to all such queries and questions would be that she is a good human being and we are good friends. I will always have affection and respect for her and will have happy memories of the wonderful time that I spent with her on the trip.
So here we go.





Day 1: 5th May Friday,

Started from office around 5 in the evening for Parul’s house. Honestly, after a bad day in office, the only thing on my mind was the wonderful sleep that I am going to get on the extra bed in the extra room that she had. (I intend to stress on the word Extra, to avoid any confusion). This would be the second occasion in US apart from my visit to my brother’s house in Boston that I would be sleeping in a bed and not a mattress : D
I think we reached her house after 40 minutes drive and after settling down it was time to look into her computer. I still cannot recollect ever doing any damage to any cd writer in the world or mis-handle any. But somehow the CD writer at her place decided to take some revenge on me and took my reputation as a computer engineer and the air surrounding it that I had built on Parul to dust. After around 2 hours of fighting and then begging with the Drive to start burning CD’s I (we) gave up.
We had Mr n Mrs Iyer played to us to reduce the frustration and also it was another step in my uni- directional zeal to prove to her that Indian Film Industry does come up with quality stuff. Unfortunately my perception that trade unions and protests exists only in India, China and Russia, was proved wrong. Even it existed in USA and amazingly there was a trade union for CD’s, DVD’s and so on. So the CD Writer I think called up an interim meeting of all the devices and they came to a unanimous conclusion that they would not play anything remotely associated with me. So just when we were deeply engrossed in the movie, the DVD player refused to play the rest of the part. We tried at the one upstairs, but they were more faithful to their trade unions than to the owner who had purchased them.
But somehow my mission was accomplished as she liked the movie. So without contemplating too much about the pros and cons of communism and trade union we went upstairs (after having dinner) and then came the best part of the day. Someone making my bed after 5 months. Reminded me of mom who would make my bed while I was in India, when I came late from office. I am spoilt I know but that’s the way it is and I miss those simple pleasures in USA. Anyway, as the stage was set for me to jump into my bed and go to a deep sleep and I obliged humbly. There was just one last caveat from Parul that we had to get ready by 8:30 the next day. I think this was less an FYIP and more a concern she expressed as she knew I wake not before 11 during weekends.

********************* End of day One **************************


Day 2: 6th May Saturday.

There is this strange thing that happens to all of us that when you sleep at someone else’s place you tend to follow all the good habits. So I got up at 7 the next day and was all set by 8 for the journey. We started at around 8:45, got fuel and then stopped at Dunkin Don nuts to get some breakfast. (It is worth to mention was that the outlet was maintained by one of the very few Gujrati-Americans who were not distantly related to Parul.)

After that began a long drive, for about 3 hours, all through which I sat shamelessly enjoying the ride and also striking up conversation while she painstakingly kept driving.
We reached Baltimore around 1 in the afternoon. Parked the car in a street called “Gay Street”. Parul was quick to point out that Gay means happy. I think she had read my overworking mind and decided to put off any unwanted discussion on the word.
We started of by being on top of the highest pentagonal building of the world. The entire city of Baltimore was visible from there. After the regulation snaps and my regulation visit to the restroom we came down. Then we had lunch at a nearby restaurant where we spend less time eating and more time waiting and also Parul browsing through the calorie values of the menu.

After Lunch we had to rush to the National Aquarium of Baltimore. It was quite a fun. I had never seen so many fish before. We also saw sharks and frogs. Also we captured, in our digi cams, two frogs making out (or doing some nasty stuff) : ).

We cut short our aquarium visit, because we had to go to the dolphin show. This was the first time I was witnessing a dolphin show (something for which I will thank Parul forever). The dolphin show was great, except the fact that I wished if only we had sat on the front rows, so that we could get wet.
There was a time during the dolphin show I wished if it was
not a dolphin and a shark and I could throw into its mouth the lady seating just in front of
me in the stairs. As she repeatedly behaved like a pig headed creature refusing to get up
from the stairs even when requested by the security.

The dolphin show will be a memorable thing for me for the rest of my life. After that we
moved on to the Australian wildlife exhibit and the tropical rainforest. The tropical rain
forest was made artificially hot to create the impact. This remembered me the summer in
in India and also raised alarm bells in my head about how do I tackle the heat when I get
get back.

There was this spot on top of the rain-forest where people were posing for snaps.
We also decided to have ours and were waiting for our turn. There were two Indian families who were taking a bit more time than usual to take there snap. When I heard someone say in Hindi “ Arrey Yaar Jaldi Karo” , when I paid attention it was Miss Parul Mehta who was uttering those words. I would never forget the way she said the line ever.
People reading (if at all any) may find it very strange that what makes me laugh when someone named Parul Mehta speaks a phrase in Hindi. To cut a long story short, Parul was born and brought up in US like any other American kid. She has never learnt Hindi and knows a little bit of Gujrati. So when such a thing comes from her, its really an event and I really liked the accent in which she uttered those words.

We finally got out of the place around 5:45 and then came the best part of the day, paddle boats in the harbor. What excited me most about that half an hour was that for the first time it was I who was driving and not she. It was great fun and great exercise too.

After that we had ice-cream and then decided to take a walk around the harbor and take some snaps. It was dinner time by then and we had a task at hand, finding an Indian restaurant to eat (constraint imposed by me). We took a cab to a nearby Indian place called Mehek, had good Indian food and then it was another 60 miles drive to the hotel we were staying in and around DC.
It was a comfortable room with all the amenities and two beds. We quickly changed and both of us fell asleep. Except for one or two words that we exchanged on Chetan Bhagat, Parul’s ex – boyfriend and getting furniture for my new establishment in Pennsylvania. Of course just before going to bed, it was her caveat that we had to wake up at 7 in the morning.
**************************** End of day 2 ********************************
Day 3, 7th May:

The alarm turned out to be disloyal and didn’t sound at 7 but my cell Phone did wake me up and we got ready had breakfast and went on out DC safari.

The first place we visited was the FTR memorial. I think this was the best place I visited in a long time. The quotes inscribed on the walls were really moving. Somehow I felt that my Indian History text book told me that Roosevelt took America to world war, but this place also told me that how he brought America out of depression.
Next was a series of memorial like Jefferson ,Washington, World War II ,Vietnam and Korean war memorial etc. We also went to the Lincon Memorial . Did some shopping,
took some photographs of the Whitehouse. (which I had only seen in the Movie called Independence day) The American History Museum ( am not sure if I got the name correct) was a mixed bag. There were interesting sections and section that were quite depressing (like the one that showed how slaves were treated)

After a small ride in the sub-way ( nothing new for me being from Calcutta except the air –conditioning of the train was better) we headed our way back to New Jersey. We reached home around 7:30 and then had Omelets (which I MADE ) and then I made another futile effort to get the CD writer fixed but all in vain.

Tired and dejected I enjoyed my last sleep on the wonderful bed that was there in her guest room.

In all it was my best weekend till now in US. And I would like to thank Parul for making it.