Chachu's Column #31: Bye Bye USA

The day of reckoning finally arrived - most
unexpectedly - and in a jiffy. Sometime back too it
was suppose to happen. But it did not happen then. And
when I least expected it to, it greeted me with open
arms. Just like life you may say.

Being a software engineer for over six years, it was
imperative that I had a US visit on my passport. And
being in UK for official work made my task all that
easier. Since my work at office was fast moving
towards completion, getting a couple of days of leave
was not an issue. To top it was the generous gesture
of US embassy by granting me a 10-year B1/B2 visa
sometime back. Thus, when my sister residing in US
asked me to board the next available flight, it was an
offer that I could not refuse. Tickets were brought
over the Internet, invites received and travel
insurance taken. All within 12 hours. And within
another 12 hours, I was on a British Airways flight to
Philadelphia.

Whether you love it or hate it, US is a country that
is always in the limelight. In the cold war era, a
bi-polarized world offered us the opportunity to look
elsewhere. But with the disintegration of Russia,
there was only one superpower and that was US of A.
Television and Internet revealed some interesting
facts about US. It was about three times the size of
India but had only one-third of the people. Its GDP
was phenomenal 10 trillion dollars and here too,
India's GDP was about one-third of it. Interestingly,
the good progress made by India in last decade or so
meant that India's GDP stood fourth in ranking after
US, China and Japan. Countries that followed India in
GDP were Germany, France, UK, Italy Brazil and Russia.
US military spending stood at 370billion dollar,
twenty times that of India. Its cellular density was
about 150 million (or 50% of the population) as
against 25 million (or 2.5%) for India.

Leaving the statistical numbers aside, my maiden US
visit saw me getting off at Philadelphia airport. And
after a brief rest at my sister's house, we all were
in Atlantic City. My brother too was there after his
onsite work in US had ended and so it was a family get
together of sorts, that too in US.

Now, Las Vegas had captured my imagination for quite
some time now, with umpteen programs highlighting the
good, the bad and the ugly side of Vegas. And I had
also heard that Atlantic City was the Vegas was the
east. Thus, without much ado, we picked our cars and
were in the city at Trump TAJ Mahal Casino Resort.
Unprecedented in craftsmanship and opulence, the Trump
TAJ Mahal was an awe-inspiring architectural
masterpiece filled with the finest carpets,
chandeliers and works of art in the tradition of the
world's most grand and enchanting palaces. The cost of
one of the rooms (Alexander the Great Suite) was just
ten thousand dollars a day!

Our miniscule gambling budget of $20/- did not bother
the finances of the resort much. There, we looked for
the cheapest slot machines and found 5cent machines
with great difficulty. But most of them were lousy and
we moved to 25 cent ones. These machines drank our
money without even belching. Then we thought of trying
our hands at roulette, but the minimum bet of $15
meant that we were misfits there. More slot machines
were found and the budget exhausted. Luckily enough,
Draupadi was not called in the scheme of things.
Outside the casino, there was a pier that was kind of
mini-amusement center. Most of the rides were for the
kids, which my sister's four year son lapped up
greedily. The only ride challenging enough was the
rocket where two persons (sitting on a seat) were
propelled 200feet high (roughly 20 floors high) at
very high speed. From there, it dropped freely and it
seemed you had lived your life. Everything was
controlled through tall towers and elastic rope. Since
I was alone from my group, no one else agreed to join
me. Then one of the staff members seated next me and
coaxed me into leaving my hands from the grip. For
him, leaving the hands was like nirvana or flying in
space. For me, it was ... The live shots on the ground
through on board cameras was an object of laughter for
my family.

Later, we also took a helicopter for a short 3 minute
ride over the beauty of AC (as Atlantic city is
popularly called). It was enjoyable. After that, there
were circus shows in which a rider seated on a
motorbike went from one building to another over a
thin steel wire. It soon became evident that the bike
was special so as to not to fall from the wire. It
also carried a trapeze artist; the rider and the
artist showed many a stunts. That was that. The first
day at the US of A ended and we were back at home late
in the night.

The next day we left for New York. Before heading for
New York, we went to New Jersey where my sister used
to live till some time back. New Jersey is notorious
for its Indian majority and Indian like features. True
to word, we found it rather dirty like India and
people did not obey much rules, etc. We had golgappa
and chat in New Jersey. Being in UK for two months, my
taste buds were starving for some Indian delicacies.
And I ate everything on offer. (This was a different
issue that the very next day, my sister brought three
big packs of pani puri of which I alone ate one and a
half of them; my sis was amazed with my appetite).

From NJ, we went to New York. The key attractions
there were Statue of Liberty, Intrepid Museum, Madam
Tussauds Museum, Empire State Building and Times
Square to name a few. We spent the entire day roaming
around. First we went to Intrepid Museum where we saw
the aircraft carrier Intrepid. Having a history that
dates to second world war, it was a majestic ship.
However, a freak power cut prevented us from getting
inside. They refuse to issue tickets as their
computers were not operational. What an excuse. We
took some pictures from outside. A Concorde and a
submarine was also on display there.

Thereafter, we saw the very famous Madam Tussauds Wax
museum. This museum housed statues of famous people
including Amitabh Bachhan, Gandhi and many other
famous personalities. Even before we entered my sister
queried a gentleman who later turned out to be a wax
statue. Little did we know that once inside and even
after, others too would have chance to laugh at us.

Inside the museum, some of the statues were ordinary
while some others were truly difficult to distinguish.
At one place, a girl was taking photo of 5 men. My
brother and I tried to figure who was the real guy
among 5 men. Then it turned that all 5 of them were of
wax. We then turned our attention to the girl taking
photo. The girl too was of wax. After that, everyone
seemed to be a statue. A lady we saw seemed wax statue
and I told my brother that she too was a statue and we
could ignore her. Immediately, the lady turned around.
Even one day after the visit, we could not be clear
who was made of wax and who was real. We had plenty of
photos at the wax museum. Outside the museum, the
pavements were crowded with hawkers selling their
stuff. The crowd, dirt and filth was not different
from some of the urban squalor visible in India.

From there, we went to the downtown where a number of
sky scrapers graced the skyline of New York. We went
to Empire State building but long queues prevented us
from seeing the observatory at the top. The sheer drop
of building was amazing. One could bent his neck
without even reaching the top of many buildings. The
buildings symbolized the heights of human engineering.
And the dug up Ground Zero the cataclysm of human
mind's degeneration. We had a chance to see Ground
Zero, the remnants of World Trade Center (WTC). There
are plans to make worlds tallest building there,
cocking a snook at those who dared to blow it into
pieces.

From the southern tip of New York the distant Statue
of Liberty was visible. We did not bother to take a
ferry or go near it. It was a long day and getting
late. That was it for day two.

Day 3 saw us in a shopping mall. While most stuff were
quite costly, we headed for a clearance area. A dress
there was marked 80$ and then subsequently cut twice
showing a tag of 18$. It's eventual cost was just 8
dollars and I did not think twice before buying it.
That was it for shopping.

While going to the Mall, a school bus was dropping
kids on the opposite lane. Still, a STOP light flashed
and traffic was at a complete halt till the kids
disembarked at their own leisure. It was nice to see
kids given special attention while road safety was
concerned. Even on most highways, one or two lanes
were kept unused. They were useful for emergency
parking or for reaching emergency help very quickly.
Highways at India do not have parking lanes, leave
alone spare lanes for emergency help. May be we will
have it some day.

In the afternoon, we went to Longwood Gardens.
Longwood Gardens was created by industrialist Pierre
S. du Pont (and is sometimes referred to as the DuPont
Gardens) and offers 1,050 acres (425 hectares) of
gardens, woodlands, and meadows; spectacular
fountains; extensive educational programs including
horticultural career training and internships. In one
of the guided tours there, we were told that even
though the entry fee was $15, the average cost of a
visit was $45 and that the difference was a subsidy
that was funded by the trustees. The garden was indeed
beautiful and was similar to the Vrindavan gardens
near Mysore. We spent about three hours there, seeing
fountain shows, greenhouse plants (having hi-tech
scientific controls with triple redundancy) and many
other things. The place was a display garden where
everything was controlled, including when the flowers
bloomed and when they grew and to what height. The
schedule co-incided with major programs and special
events. See [6].

From the gardens we went to Marsh creek, a haven for
picnic goers and those interested in boating. While
coming back home, we stopped at an Indian store for
some Indian goodies. The only thing that I selected
had already crossed its expiry date. The shopkeeper
feigned innocence at the dates.

While in US, I was surprised to see the extent of
obesity. Very soon I came to know that US of A was
officially the most overweight country in the world
with almost half the country overweight. Diabetes
increased by 33 percent among American adults during
the 1990s, reflecting a surge in obesity during the
same period. The reasons ranged from poor diet on one
hand, to the attempts on making life easier and less
taxing for people on the other. The convenience had
now taken dangerous forms as people had stopped doing
physical exercise. The obesity could be further
attributed to the junk food companies whose cheap and
mass consumption products had spread all over the
country. No wonder an obese man had filed a lawsuit
and sued McDonalds for making him what he was. I was
not obese and I did not care.

The fourth and final day was spent lazily strolling
around and making CDs for the hundreds of photos
taken. As time ticked, I was soon on my return flight
to UK. My trip was quite clost to 9-11 and there were
major security checks at the airport. It took quite a
long time to get the security clearance. Finally, when
I sat in the plane, I waved my hands and mumbled, "Bye
Bye USA". Over for now - but only to come back again.
Love it or hate it, you could not ignore US of A.

Chachu 17/9/2004

Web Resources
-------------
[1]http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html
(CIA's excellent information source on countries
across the world)
[2] http://www.trumptaj.com/ (Hotel cum casino at Atlantic City)
[3]http://www.wisegeek.com/what-countries-have-the-highest-gdp.htm
[4] http://www.nyctourist.com (New York Tourist nformation)
[5] http://www.intrepidmuseum.org/
[6] http://www.longwoodgardens.org/
[7] http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/manhattan/wtc/
(Happenings at WTC including plans for new development)

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