Awed by America – 1
Well, there is a significant difference in going anywhere
for the first time and any other time.
When it is the first time, you may be in a sense of awe or
shock. Wide eyed, soaking in newer experiences. Every monument, every cultural
paradigm is a bit different. Your brain automatically tries to bring in the
links between what you have seen on TV, the internet and the reality and starts
fetching memories, heightening the sense of appreciation.
Any other time, well, your eyes play back from memory,
transforming the curious glance into a cursory one, diminishing the chances of
serendipity.
The challenge for me was, could I cast aside my memory and
look at the large country afresh, when I visited the US? The Marcel Proust
quote “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but
in having new eyes” was my inspiration as I set out on my US voyage.
The first hint of Trump’s America was felt even before we
landed there. Having chosen a middle eastern airline, we were forced to remove
our laptop and iPad from our hand baggage and hand over the same at a security
counter. At the counter, the instruments were checked for their working
condition, then carefully bubble wrapped.
Passengers had to stand in long queues twice, the first time
hand over the instruments and the second time to collect them at the US
airport.
Can’t comment on what it did to aid security but,
definitely, it has helped in adding some more jobs to the security. The Trump
job creation dream at work.
This trip of mine was as a student, staying in a magnificent
college campus, situated off Boston.
For someone who has studied all his life in India, the campus
was a revelation.
Vast stretches of land, enviable greenery, beautiful
architecture, unimaginable silence and world class faculty and facilities.
What more can a student ask for?
Boston also showed what fickle weather is all about. In a
short span of a week, we saw the weather change from a chilly 9 degrees to a
hot 33 degrees.
Every morning I would get up really early to soak in the beauty of the campus. The Fear of missing out – FOMO ensured I did not miss a day of exploring the campus and its neighbourhood.
The evenings were spent exploring Boston harbor, Wrentham Market or the Harvard Square, each place throwing up interesting titbits – Boston Harbour is where the historical Boston Tea Party happened, Wrentham Market offered incredible offers through its premium outlets and the Harvard Square and Harvard Coop is where the university students hung out.
All the trips were by Uber and each trip threw up insights into the migrants that make up America. An Egyptian, a Filipino, a Costa Rican, a Chinese drove me aroud – such a wide array of nationalities moves America!
Each immigrant story showed the things that make (made?) America great. Its inclusiveness, its meritocracy and of course the fact that hard work results in success.
And, all of them had a common view about their President. A not so flattering one.
More stories to be told … the temples of education – America’s great universities, its institutions, how it protests and how it hangs out…
