Atlanta: August 22-25, 2007

Many would get confused between Atlanta and Atlantic City! For once I was and wondered if I would get to visit any casinos in ‘Atlanta’! While that did not happen, we did get to see quite a few interesting sites in this city!

First visit was to the Georgia Aquarium.

While my previous visits to aquariums have been either to (a) the one in Mumbai or (b) the sea world in Singapore. But this one, considered the largest in the world, was unique in its own way! While a lot of websites (wanting to sell a City Pass) quoted the entrance fee as $ 35.99, it was in reality, $ 24.00. Although a bit steep, I personally thought it was worth it, considering the variety of aquatic species that one could view out here.

The place is well organized with five main viewing areas: (1) Ocean Voyager that takes you on a sidewalk through a glass tunnel with all sorts of fishes swimming overhead, including whale sharks. We also got to view these divers who were cleaning the debris off the glass. Sad could not take any pictures due to the glass covering. (2) Tropical Diver had varied colourful fishes including Nemo and Dori!! (3) Georgia Explorer which has a touch pool – yes, we could actually touch the fishes with strict instruction to use only index and middle fingers! This was fun but the pool was a bit low and was funny how parents had to dangle their kids so they could reach the fishes. (4) Coldwater Quest which was my favourite site, seeing these Beluga Whales swimming in perfect synchrony. They seemed to prefer some sort of new age music because that was the only area in the aquarium that played a soothing instrumental. (5) River Scout was more interactive, in the sense that it had a lot of creative aquarium windows around as you walk through. There is also a 3-D movie that I skipped but overall, it was an enjoyable visit.

Next visit was to the World of Coca-Cola, Aquarium’s next-door neighbour! Unlike what I expected it to be, this is not the actual Cola factory, instead a permanent exhibit of the history of the Coca Cola Company. The visit begins in the Lobby area where large bottle of Coca Cola are made of different materials from across the world. Thereafter, we enter into a brightly lit ‘red’ room that features advertising artefacts dating back in history. Our famous Thanda Matlab was there too! We then went into a theatre to view a 3-D movie, rather an animated documentary called Happiness Factory. This is supposedly Coca-Cola’s key advertising campaign – Coke Side of Life. Post that, we are pretty much left to walk around the museum, with various attractions: (1) Take pictures with the Mascot – Cola Bear. (2) Bottle Works to view how the bottling line functions. They produce the Cola here that is given to each visitor at the end of the tour, with current date on it. (3) Milestones area that has all the advertising artefacts of the company. (4) Connections, which was a funny area with visitors listing ‘stories’ of their experience with Coca-Cola! It was quite intriguing to read them and at some point, I gave up! Did not realize how a drink as this can really influence your life however, it is indeed a reality (sad?) to see the impact it has on the culture of the country and around as well. (5) Theatre, an informal one, showcasing short films on memorable advertisements and animations of Coca-Cola across the ages. (6) Taste it where we can actually taste literally 50 odd products offered by the Coca-Cola Company worldwide. This also included the recent favourite – Coca Cola zero and from India, Sprite Ice!! This was the best part of the tour because visitors flocked to choose drinks from the fountains. Averse to aerated drinks, I tasted the awful one, Beverly and my favourite – Sprite. It was interesting to note how different the same product may taste in different countries. (7) Cola Store that features attractive products we could purchase. Funny, how coca-cola was advertised in unbelievable products like lingerie, curtains, earrings, et al!!!

Considered the Mecca of journalism, CNN Center, headquartered in this city, was one of our priority visits. We took the 50-minute tour on behind-the-scenes of the functioning of this 24-hour news network. Like the Cola tour, there is quite a bit of marketing and self-promotion in this tour, including the so-called ride on the nation’s largest indoor free-standing escalator, however we thoroughly enjoyed it. We got to see how the news reports know their lines while looking straight into the camera, how the weather maps appear behind the meteorologist, and the graphics of how the weather reports are projected on the ‘green screen’. We also got a bird’s view of the control room. Like in all attractions, this one ended into the gift shop – Turner Store – to buy memorabilia, etc.

While there are other sites to visit too, we could cover these during our trip. Most of our local travel was through the MARTA – Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority. This was super-convenient and we had no trouble accessing the local sites through this. While considered a pretty decent city, typically an American one, I personally did not think too highly of this place. Overall, I am glad I got to visit this city for what it has to offer, I am not sure I would like to live here. If I do get to visit Atlanta again, it would indeed be for a good reason.

Ode to ISL

'I know a man, a common man,
just like someone you meet and greet
Except he cannot hear or see.
He eats and sleeps and dreams some dreams,
the same as us, both you and me.
He cannot see TV, nor hear it
unlike you and me.
But there is something he CAN do,
far better than you or me.
He can enjoy any tale,
by fingers deftly touching Braille
and sieze the day with broad smile
quite unlike you and me.
He needs some friends and loved ones too
the same as both you and me
Although this man cannot hear or see,
he is almost quite like you and me.

To India and Back

The moment you step inside the building, you are in the Republic of India! That is where I went today to get a new passport booklet - the Indian Embassy in Washington D.C.

I took a cab from the metro due to a heavy downpour and the drive was quite a pleasant one. Massachusetts Avenue (the location of the embassy) has the most embassies located in D.C. It was a pretty site identifying the nationalities based on their flags (I could not guess many of them, especially those broken from the USSR). We also drove past the statue of Mahatma Gandhi which was unique and I felt quite proud considering no other statue occupied such a spot around the area. When I reached 2536 (plot location of the embassy), you see two elephants (made of stone, I think) welcoming you.

Also on the building exterior wall are symbols of Ashoka Chakra and the Lotus. The building as such is not that grand compared to its neighbours (the building pic), yet you get a welcoming feeling. The visa/passport section was at the basement and when I entered, there were already way too many people in there. Since most of the instructions for the passport are available online, there was nothing to worry. At the embassy, it would have taken some time to figure out the process, though.

It seemed that the system was not quite clear today. On the flashing screen up the wall showed token number 4 was being served. However, there were no tokens given and we had to stand in this curvy queue to get to the counter. The wait was decent, considering a 15” TV showed the latest songs from forthcoming Bollywood movies – That’s B4U for you! It was neat to see that the embassy has installed a photo vending machine out there – something quite handy for the US consulate to adopt considering how picky they are about their requirements for photos. Strangely, there were no Indian artefacts or posters adorning the walls, except on one that had a beautiful (although quite old) painting of Mother Teresa. It felt like I was home – not only the music from TV but also typically the latest filmy tones that rang through people’s cell phones. Further, spotted were Indian ladies in their ‘patiala’ salwars at the counter. Must say, they did a good job out there. They were assertive and quite effective since the line would move pretty fast. Talking about the line, one thing that was striking is that even here, people would queue close to one another. So when you are next in line for the counter, you are never really standing ‘behind’ the person at the counter. You are supposed to stand ‘next’ ‘to him/her so the moment it is your turn, you have only one step to move forward. Again, when it was indeed my turn, people behind made me feel I was taking too much time at the counter. Guess these are the ‘Indian’ rules of standing in line. My work was done in precisely 2 minutes and pleasantly surprised by this speed.

Whatever is said about Indian embassies not being appreciated and so on, my visit here was completely easy-going and am glad I got a chance to visit my 'little' India!

Reflections of a Comic Freak

Most of us like to read books of one sort or another; but very few are really able to resist the lure of a good comic! Comics require no understanding of the story. They can be taken up and left off whenever one pleases. After a long day, not many of us can digest ‘Types of Ethical Theory’ or ‘Zen and the art of the motorcycle maintenance’. Hence for cool dudes who want to have a good time and just keep on laughing helplessly, I recommend my all-time favourite: CALVIN and HOBBES!

Written by a genius named BILL WATTERSON, it is about a six year old boy CALVIN and his stuffed tiger (you guessed it right!) HOBBES, who comes to life only where there is no one else around. Calvin’s parents are average middle class Americans though his dad has a special streak of weird humour in him which gives the reader an idea of how Calvin will be if he ever grows up. Calvin himself an over smart precocious brat has an amazing vocabulary and an outsized imagination in which he takes on roles like fearless inter-planetary explorer or a masked super-hero. Hobbes, for his part, is a tiger who constantly ogles at the tigresses in the National Geographic, spouts stupid one- liners and claims that tigers are the epitome of creation.

Bill Watterson, through his amazing comic strip, manages to portray childhood as it really is. Unusual titles to the Calvin comics like “ Scientific Progress goes Boink”, “Attack of Deranged mutant killer”, etc. only add to the aim of sheer idiocy that surrounds the Calvin persona. One can go on and on about the myriad of unusual phenomenon which lie inside the Calvin comic books. Perhaps the one that illustrates it the best is the one where Hobbes doing Calvin’s Maths homework,puts down Alabama as the answer to the subtraction question or the one where Hobbes is all worried about tigers being endangered species and this being the reason for he is not meeting the babes.

The true way to enjoy Calvin and Hobbes is to experience the sheer magic of good humour your self. So go out, read it and have a good time!

(Pic taken from Google Images)

MSN Way of Life

It is 8.30 am – time for Ashit to leave for work and for me to0, well, do the first of the morning rituals. The Messenger, a harbinger of joy, resides in my computer and commands my ultimate faith. Never did I imagine that a piece of software, and one that was downloaded 'free', would become so indispensable. My life has been taken over by this Messenger. I dread the day when someone comes up with the theory that the Messenger is harmful to mankind. A typical day starts off with an Internet login. The prime motive is to get the Messenger running. In an instant, I get to know the status, as in online or offline, of the many dear ones spread across the world. And we all connect with each other in this one realm of existence – chatting. I randomly met my aunt online and she questioned me why I was online in the morning when I ought to be doing some productive household work! Needless to say where my priorities lie!

I also use this time to access my mails which take form of hideous advertisements, some random forwards from friends, information on services and products that are of no significance to me and so on. Almost everybody I know has a Messenger, sometimes more than just one. I use the Messenger and also the automatic yahoo messenger on my mail. Not yet used to the Google talk but guess that too would become a ritual.

Moving away from close ones can have its own cons and now that I have moved country, I have acquired a newfound quiescence. I have this Dell laptop, a wide screen which is the best part, considering I also use it as the Indian means of entertainment – from IBN news, Set Max, to all the Hindi Movies I get to watch through the various websites.

Having left college ages ago and then moving to another place, I have become habituated to losing friends and making new ones. But this time around, I was able to put it all back together, with just as much ease as unpacking my clothes. A computer and an Internet connection are all it took me to get my network in place. I was soon saying my ritualistic 'hi' and 'bye' to the same people who had constituted my existence. Email would, in a way, accomplish this feat. But it is no comparison to real-time chat.

Review: Five People You Meet in Heaven

Mitch Albom's The Five People You Meet in Heaven weaves together three stories, all told about the same man: 83-year-old Eddie, the head maintenance person at Ruby Point Amusement Park.

As the novel opens, readers are told that Eddie is only minutes away from death as he goes about his typical business at the park. At the time of his death, Eddie was an “old man with a barrel chest and a torso as squat as a soup can,” writes Albom. Wearing a work shirt with a patch on the chest that reads “Eddie” over “Maintenance,” limps around with a cane thanks to an old war injury. He spent most of his life maintaining the rides at Ruby Pier, greasing tracks and tightening bolts and listening for strange sounds. The children who visited the pier were drawn to Eddie. Yet Eddie believed that he lived a “nothing” life doing work that “required no more brains than washing a dish”.

On his 83rd birthday, however, a tragic accident kills him as he tries to save a little girl from a falling cart. Albom then traces Eddie's world through his tragic final moments, his funeral, and the ensuing days as friends clean out his apartment and adjust to life without him. In alternating sections, Albom flashes back to Eddie's birthdays, telling his life story as a kind of progress report over candles and cake each year.

Thereafter, Albom Traces Eddie when he wakes up in heaven, where a succession of five people are waiting to show him the true meaning and value of his life. These sequential encounters are five pivotal figures from his life. He is informed, “there are five people you meet in heaven. Each . . . was in your life for a reason. You may not have known the reason at the time, and that is what heaven is for. For understanding your life on earth.” One by one, these mostly unexpected characters remind him that we all live in a vast web of interconnection with other lives; that all our stories overlap; and that loyalty and love matter to a degree we can never fathom. Each of these souls has a story to tell, a secret to reveal, and a lesson to share. He learns here that heaven is not a destination. It's a place where his life is explained by five people, some of whom he knew, others who were strangers. One by one, from childhood to being a soldier to old age, Eddie's five people revisit their connections to him on earth, illuminating the mysteries of his “meaningless” life, and revealing the haunting secret behind the eternal question: “Why was I there?” Through these people, Eddie understands the meaning of his own life.

Simply told, sentimental and profoundly true, this is a fable that will be cherished by a vast readership. Bringing into the spotlight the anonymous Eddies of the world, the men and women who get lost in our cultural obsession with fame and fortune, this slim tale reminds us of what really matters here on earth, of what our lives are given to us for.

Albom takes a big risk with the novel; such a story can easily turn sugary, and this one does in moments. But, for the most part, Albom's telling remains poignant and is occasionally profound. Even with its falws, The Five People You Meet in Heaven is a small, pure and simple book.