The countdown has begun. The inevitable is imminent. Come Monday, and we will be in our abode in Bangalore. Not that we love our sons’ homes less, but that we love more to be back to barracks. But not before we take stock of our visit.
The visit-dates presented us a lot of opportunities to literally ransack shops with Sales season in full swing - Halloween,Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Monday after Black Friday, Christmas, and the week-after-Christmas sales. The intervening periods kept us busy returning or exchanging the items we bought. Fortunately no questions asked whatsoever - even if the product is opened or used up in part. On the other hand, the question that irks you is, Are you really happy with what you bought? Not always probably - the one the lady picked up was way better. You are as confused before as you are after.
Would you rate shopping as the best part of your stay. Perhaps not. Nor, having had a go in gourmet style at almost all the restaurants in both Phoenix and San Jose trying out South Indian, North Indian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Mexican, Italian, and other cuisines, nor the host of dinners and lunches we had the pleasure to be part of, or, for that matter, the brunch-like prasads at temples and San Jose Gurudwara that we otherwise enjoyed.
The games sessions during the family Reunion - Uno, Star Wars, Othello, Rack-O, Connect-4… - were quite enjoyable. As also Dangal and a host of other movies that we saw. Dangal was outstanding, others passed muster. The BBC serial, Downton Abbey, in 6 Seasons, each with about 10 episodes, enabled us refresh British humour and overlordship. We literally raced against time to finish the last episode just an hour before we left on our second and final leg of our trip.
The trip to California’s Sankat Mochan Hanuman temple on top of a circuitous mountain was interesting. A Sadhuji Maharaj of Indian origin was on maun vrat there for thirty odd years before he breathed his last sometime back. When alive, visitors asked him questions and he gave answers, both in writing. On their last visit to his abode, my younger son and daughter in law asked him what prompted him to go on maun vrat for such a long period. “Nothing much to say,” he wrote back. Now the mountain-top has board and lodging facilities for meditation, yoga and other classes. We learn the occupancy rate is very high most of the time. The temple as such is in its infancy. We found the steaming cup of coffee at a subsidised rate invigorating before commencing our downward journey.
The closest to being rated the best, however, can be the visit to a cave - the Kartchner Caverns State Park, in Tucson, in Arizona. “The caverns are carved out of limestone and filled with spectacular speleothems which have been growing for 50,000 years or longer, and are still growing.” During the briefing before entering the cave, the Guide explained its features and asked us questions, to make it interactive. One that stands out was when she asked the tourists the difference between stalagmite and stalactite. “Stalagmite is a limestone that points upwards from ground, and stalactite is one which points downwards from the ceiling,” said one of my eight-year old grandsons, and all the group gave him a big hand. “A professor in the making, I said to myself. For me these two words were Greek till then. The hour-long trip inside the cave was one of the best I have been through. It is rated as one of the best caves in USA, though another one stretching about four miles, also in the US, is the longest cave in the world.
Surely, I can’t say I liked less the walk through to my younger son’s University in Tucson, the imposing Engineering building, the Cafeteria, the Campus interview hall, the vast expanse of the University area, the Library, and the individual silent study rooms with locking facility. Out of curiosity, I just pulled out one old book from the shelf to see the type of their collection. And lo, its cover page was “Steve Jobs back to Mac”. What a surprise, the firm he now works for! He took us thereafter to the building where he stayed. Before leaving the premises, we bought from the University’s shop a cap with the University’s insignia for me, and a cozy blanket for Aunty as memento or memorabilia.
We cherished equally the stimulating sessions with our three grandsons. Initially it was me telling them stories. These did not go beyond sharing my experiences as a village boy - my Matriculation exam result-fever (appears elsewhere in my blog), a village boy footing a distance of 50 miles in search of a Guru to perfect the art of miserliness, the bath for Nirmalya darshan at 2.30 early morning in the Guruvayoor tank and the fiasco, etc. Some they enjoyed, others they pretended to, condescending a smile just not to disappoint their Thatha. That in itself is a bonus, I considered. Who knows on our next visit they will have time to spare for us, busy with their own friends, priorities and preoccupations.
V V Sundaram
Maple 3195
06 Jan 2017
