City of Boston- "same to same" but different

This is a travelog of our Day 1 of Boston touring in mid August. We visited Harvard, MIT and Quincy market and drove back to Canton. 

The drive to and from Canton in itself was quite an adventure. It is one thing to drive in peak traffic in bay area and a completely different thing to drive in Boston. The drivers are very unforgiving if they give you barely enough space to change lanes and you take a few extra milliseconds to move over. You get honked. My sis seems to have become immune to this and has also joined the herd there over time. 

A picture of me at Harvard square after 20 years. Cannot find the old picture from the half dozen shoe boxes filled with printed photos from the pre-digital age. 

Then came a paid tour of the University. Our tourguide was a junior at Harvard. When I asked her what she was majoring in, she told me that her major is "something something in something something and also somethingelse somethingelse in somethingelse somethingelse" and the words she used were all longer than something and somethingelse. I was like "whatever happened to things that could be described in one or at the most two words?"

She did do a good job of taking us through the campus and explaining campus culture, which famous person lived in which dorm etc. etc. She even went over admission procedures, some statistics in student population by demographic, superstitions of Harvard students (which says a lot) and other weird customs like running naked after last day of exams, pissing on statues, etc. etc. Those did not impress the four kids we had in our group and they were asking us "do we really have to go to college? do all colleges do it? can I go to a different college than this?" .. you get the idea!

We also got to watch some rich prospective Chinese supermodel students and a photoshoot.. Then it was time to eat our packed lunch on the lawns of Harvard. It was a beautiful and pleasant day. So we had a nice time in the lawn. They had filled it with chairs so that prospective students and the visiting parents could hang out there. 

Then off we went to MIT. The first piece of advice to new travelers is "keep your car parked at Harvard and take a cab to MIT or use public transport". Why? There is no freaking parking anywhere near MIT. we wasted an hour trying to find parking and the few lots there were all full (we were willing to pay 2x or 3x for it given we did not have much time left, but nothing was there). Finally we managed to find something and walked over to the MIT entrance. It was impressive. There is a separate post with HDR pictures.. so not posting those here.

We were about to go wander through that building when a lady from the visitor center told us that their tours were for kids who are in last two years of high school or college Juniors and seniors and their parents. Our kids were too young (we translated that as "we as parents were too young" and were happy) to appreciate that tour. Instead she said "we have a newly renovated MIT science museum which hopes to inspire young kids like this to take up science and engineering. why don't you go there?"

It was totally worth it. We walked another 15-20 minutes to get there. It was quite hot by then. The kids were tired but once they saw all the exhibits, they started playing, making measurements, watching videos, exploring things. It was a treat to watch the kids do all that. 

They watched a video of this Tuna robot that swims with real tuna. They were impressed. Once they saw all the hard engineering that went into it, they had pained expressions in their faces. I told them "using those iPhones and iPads has spoilt you guys. There is a lot of real work that goes behind what you are so used to getting". They said "yeah. yeah.. please don't start again with .. in those days when I was a kid.. dialogue". I rolled my eyes and moved on.

There were a lot of fun exhibits there that really appeal to kids. Holograms, experiments on strobe photography.. I still remember the NatGeo issue that was all about Doc Edgerton. They had a whole area for his photos. It was great!

Here is the little one doing some experiment or other. 

and for some strange reason "Lady Gaga".. with Jr. promptly posing in front of the photo.

Once we were done with the science museum, the kids were hungry. We wanted to go to Quincy market and get them something to eat.

If parking is hard to find near MIT, it is much more difficult at Quincy market. So we wasted another 30 mintues driving round and round that area. Finally we dropped off San with the kids and circled around while they all got some gelato. They got back into the cars and we drove back as though they got into some getaway cars. The gelato was very good but not exceptional. We have to visit this place another time when we have an extra day or two in Boston. 

Driving in Boston, with a GPS is still tricky than driving in most places in the US. That was our lesson from day 1 !!

Festival season is here

Last week we celebrated a few things. Friday was Varalakshmi pooja for San, and the weekend was the thread changing ceremony for me. 

The idea behind the Varalakshmi pooja is that the women pray to the goddess for their husbands long life with the tacit assumption that a long life for the hubby is a good thing for the entire family. What really happens actually in those 24 hours, on the day of the pooja would put any Jack Bauer season to shame, given the amount of twists and turns that happen during the event.

This year the camera never came out to take pictures of the kids after the function. We should have them dress up tomorrow and take a picture to add to this collection. Also this year, for the first time in a long time, I was hale and healthy during August. August has never been good to me for unknown reasons. My parents used to dread the month because as a child I had maybe 1 or 2 normal days in August. This year my health has seen a welcome change!

The day after Varalakshmi pooja, the plan was for me to go do Yoga early, come back to take a shower and do the thread changing ceremony. That did not work out as planned, as we had slept late the previous night after all the festivities and I snored away till 6 AM.  A little over three hours later, finished the thread changing and completed repeating the Gayathri manthra a 1008 times. This year, I did it in the backyard, because it was very pleasant outside. Was almost in a trance and was very calm and serene. Went to yoga class right after that and it made quite a difference. If you sit and meditate for 2 hours and then go do yoga, the breathing comes easy! Unfortunately that cannot be repeated on a daily basis given the usual work and home schedule. 

The work week rolled past quickly and yesterday was Gokulashtami. A birthday celebration for Krishna. Wife and kids did the usual welcome by drawing baby feet that come into the house and take Krishna right to the treats.

For Christian friends who read this blog, this is the desi equivalent to keeping cookies and milk for Santa and posting a sign near the chimney that says "this way to cookies". Our kids didn't have any doubts of Santa coming down to eat cookies and leaving them gifts when they were young. Think of Gokulashtami as Krishmas. In Krishmas, the gift is the FOOD! 

When I walked into the house, my first thought was "Looks like Krishna is developing an arch support problem and needs to do more awkward pose.".  My criticism of the feet was received poorly by the three girls.

We made some sweets and savories for the little god (and our two little gods) to enjoy. This year, I took some shortcuts and made rava seedai instead of the regular ones and some Thattai. Went mild on the salt and chilli so the kids can eat. Apparently they like it "a little more spicier than this".

The little one said "the look, texture and crispiness is all fine, but it needs more spice". In short she gave me a B+ at best. 

We have ten more days to go before celebrating the elephant god's brithday with a different genre of sweets. Just thinking of that is making my mouth water. Travel does kill a lot of the festival season fun and it is going to be no different this year.

For now, it is time to finish off the current stock of sweets and savories before the next bunch comes in. The kids have come to the conclusion that all these celebrations of god birthdays back to back in August/September is just an excuse for families to get together and make different specialty foods at least once a year. Told them "yep, that is pretty much it".

Next year, I am going to make sure they know how to make some of this stuff themselves.

Boston beckons..

Before school started, we had a four day window to visit my sister and family in Boston. We are spread all over the place. My parents with my brother in Chennai, India.. my sisters family on the east coast and us in the west coast. It is similar story on my wife's side. Her sisters family is in Melbourne and her brother is in Seattle.  So reunions and face to face meetings with family are rare. Entire family get togethers on any one side of the family are rarer. 

The best part of the trip for me was to see my sister and her hubby in their natural habitat, happy and smiling and watching the kids play together with their cousins. For the most part I was always roaming around, camera in hand.. 

It was a quick trip but we got some sightseeing done. Will do a separate blog post for some of the visits. 

Day 1: we visited Harvard. Tried to walk around ourselves. Got tired of waiting behind this Chinese group (the girls were all dressed like supermodels and there were cameramen with lighting , reflectors etc. taking pictures of them at every statue). Someone in the crowd told us they were "prospective students". 

San asked the cameramen nicely if they will move on so we could take a picture. He said 2 minutes and it went on for 15. So we decided to take the "official tour" with a student tour guide. Having wandered through Harvard multiple times many many moons ago and having danced in two of their ballrooms.. thought we could just wander around.. the paid tour was not bad. The student who gave the tour managed to keep it entertaining. 

Plus, we got our turn at taking pictures.. 

Initially the kids were all eager to touch this statue. Later they learned that this was the most "pissed on" statue in the universe and were running to find water and hand sanitizer!

Then we went to MIT and their science museum. 

Day2 was completely spent on a "duck tour" around downtown Boston and a trip on the Charles river followed by the Museum of Science. This was one great museum for the kids. Some highlights were the guy inside a cage getting struck repeatedly by lightning from a Van de Graff generator and a bed of nails..

Naturally, the Yogi had to volunteer for the bed of nails. 

Day 3 was spent celebrating my nephews birthday.. we also managed to go to Cape Cod and visit the Plimoth plantation museum. This reminded us of Ballarat in Australia. There were scenes that transported us to the 1600's like the one below.. 

Did I already say the best part was seeing my sister after a long time? I see her in my daughters face every day to the point where sometimes I call Jr. by my sisters name because she looks like a replica of my sis when she was the same age. When she is sitting on the ground and looks up with her iris on the top without raising her head up.. it is like watching my sister!

Jr. is a bridge between the genes of the two women on either side of her. Given they are all November borns.. it gets interesting from a tempramental stand point when they are talking to each other.

Moving on to other things.. 

We thoroughly enjoyed the trip to the many lighthouses in Cape Cod area.. and the best pic that stood out on the quick scroll through the downloaded pictures was this one.. 

We were smiling throughout this trip. No fights. No daddy getting lost on freeways in a new place. Found restrooms when we wanted them to appear while on the road. A peaceful trip after a long time. 

When I get a chance, will edit more pictures and post a travelog on Harvard, MIT, Cape Cod, the Museum of science and the Plimoth plantation.