In December 2009, my employers, required me to travel to one of our US office . The office I was deputed to is located in a city called East Brunswick in New Jersey on the East Coast, about 40 miles from New York.
I landed at noon on 23rd December 20009 at Newark airport to bright sunshine, and a temperature of 4 degrees Celsius below zero. Having lived all my life in the tropical zone, I found the combination of bright sunshine and chilling temperatures counter intuitive (and till the end of my trip found it difficult to reconcile).
New Jersey is called the Garden state. However, in the drive from the airport, I could not notice particularly green stretches. Probably, it was a name that was justified in Spring.
My visit was right in the middle of holidays- Christmas eve too being a holiday in most parts of USA . Hence, work on day 1 was slack.
My cousin Venkatesh and Aarathi live in High Park , about 9 miles from my office. On Christmas Eve, Venkatesh took me over to their home. Tulsi, their cute daughter, was initially hard to impress but in the end became a friend. As Aarathi, Venkat and Tulsi left on vacation to San Jose , I proceeded to Edison to board a local train to New York. The town Edision is named after ( you guessed it right) the inventor Thomas Alva Edison who had his home and laboratory here for some time. Today, the town has a considerable South Asian population and 'Indian' stores and temples.
New York
A contrast from the idyllic suburbs, New York is a busy metropolis, the pace of activity at the train station reminding one of Mumbai. My cousin Ragesh and his wife Siri met me in New York . We went around the most happening part of New York on Christmas Eve, Manhattan .
We visited Rockefeller center. The place was thronged with tourists and revelers to look at the decorated Christmas tree and skaters celebrating in the rink.
Then, we moved on to the famous 5th Avenue . This street is the fashion district of NYC housing expensive brands. It is also called "most expensive street in the world" for the brands that it houses. The stores in this area have a Christmas tradition of dressing up their large windows for viewing. The fabulous windows were exquisitely made for this occasion, each window competing with another for attention. Some stores dressing the windows in a theme while some were at random. So, after some window shopping ( pun intended), we proceeded, Ragesh and Siri’s home at Stamford , in the state of Connecticut , an hour north of New York. ( the area around New York City - NYC- is known as tri-state area as it spans the state of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut)
Next day, we visited the Empire State Building. Being Christmas, the roads and tourist spots were less crowded. We toured the Wall street, took pictures with George Washington and the Charging Bull near NYSE. Ground zero of WTC somehow figures on the NY tourist’s map, hence, we visited that as well. A walk through the dazzling Times Square was very impressive. To my excitement, I saw signboards of some corporations who till that moment had only been line items in my customer-master excel sheet. The same place, one week later, would host 1 Mn who would celebrate the arrival of New Year by the drop of a single ball at the stroke of midnight.
Having spent the weekend with Ragesh and Siri, I went back to New Jersey to resume work. I stayed with my colleague Keshav and got an interesting flavour of self-service domestic life in America.
For the New Year weekend, I visited my aunt Bharathi’s and cousins at Chicago. Sughosh, my cousin, based in too had managed to time his appearence after a 10 day visit to Germany. We welcomed the year 2010 watching the ball drop at Times square on television and local fireworks and munching cookies baked by Mythili.
On New Year’s day, Mythili, Sumanth, Sameer and Sughosh took me ice sledding. Sledding is popular winter activity. Unlike skating or skiing, sledding requires neither skill nor practice making it ideal for first timers like me.
The ‘sleds’ could range from flat plastic discs to baking trays... just about anything one could sit on and move. Once, one had a sled all one required was a hillock with snow on it. One just had to sit on sleds at the top of the hillock and give ourselves a push. The ride downhill is just as good as the hillock. The one we went to was bumpy in patches. Nevertheless, it was good fun.
The fun part was that once the sleds starts moving the rider has little directional or speed control. All the rider could do was to shout a warning to other sledders in his path !
That evening Alka, Gurudutt, Sanjana and Amrita visited us on their way back home from New Orleans .
The next day was spent sightseeing Chicago City at an outside temperature of -15degrees Celsius. ( by this time, I was well versed in converting Fahrenheit to Celsius and Dollars to Rupees). Chicago, founded in 1833 on the banks of Lake Michigan ( one of the 5 great lakes), had a third of the city burnt down in the Great Fire of 1871. Since then, rebuilding has been well planned activity. The City is home to one of the earliest and some of the tallest skyscrapers.
Jayanth uncle toured us through the Illinois Institute of Technology (Jayanth uncle’s alma mater) and guided us to what was once the tallest building of the world- Willis (Sears) Towers ( now the claim is restricted to only half the world ! - tallest on the Western Hemisphere ).
We took pictures on the banks of Lake Michigan and river view of River Chicago. We visited the Art Institute of Chicago, the place where Swami Vivekananda delivered his “Sisters and Brothers of America ” speech at the Parliament of Religions. I learnt that the Institute has special consideration if you are an Indian and seek to view the place where Swami Vivekananda stood. May be for the members of the Ramakrishna order, it is a piligrimage.
We visited the Michael Jordan statue at United Center , home to the Chicago Bulls, definite a pilgrimage spot for Jordan fans. Then we took a peek at the open studios of NBC new channel. This is the glass-fronted news broadcasting studio, facing the pavement, allowing passers-by a live view of the programming. Unfortunately, there was no live programming when we passed by.
After shopping on 3rd Jan for some after Christmas discounts, I proceeded to travel back to New Jersey from the O' Hare airport at Chicago, said to be the second busiest in the world. A security scare at Newark airport caused a delay of my flight by 2 hours. US airport security personnel were very thorough and this incident had made them all the more so. Little did I know that three days later, when I was traveling back to India , gopichandana smears on my luggage would be inspected for traces of explosives !!!
Soon, it was time to head home. In the end it turned out that there were as many holidays during my visit as there were working days( !!) making the assignment not just fullfilling but very enjoyable as well ;)
While my official work progressed satisfactorily, I was mildly disappointed to have worked in a total desi office in America . I had expected to interact with some ‘american’ Americans. So much for a global workplace !
Post -script
Myths I had about America
1. Every one in USofA speak English
On Board a train, I met a middle-aged lady who (in hindsight) probably required me to move my luggage. But, I did not understand a word of what she was saying and I repeatedly apologised saying that I was having trouble with her accent since I hailed from India. Haltingly she conveyed, " I... no English.... Spanish".
On Board flight Air India, I met this elderly gentleman who could not speak a word outside of Gujarati. As I assisted him with Immigration, I learnt that he owned a couple of motels and was a 'greencard' holder since 1997 !!
2. No Poverty in America
I did find signboards by pavement dwellers begging for food/ money. However, it was not an in-your-face solicitation. I understand that is not unheard of as well.
