Long Walks On Leafy Streets

9/18/2014 Near Skyline drive, Shenandoah Mountains, VA
The past week has been hectic time occupied with family matters. First my parents arrived last Thursday. They rotate between my two sisters and me and stay a few months at a time with each of us. I spent all of Thursday afternoon cleaning up the house especially the basement where they stay. I haven’t worked so hard, physically, in a little while! I worked up a good sweat moving and removing, consolidating and rearranging, throwing away unwanted things and finally cleaning up the house. I have been wanting for a long time to organize all the stuff and reduce clutter in the house. It felt great after all that work to see how much better the place looked. I am a minimalist when it comes to living arrangements. Simpler is better and more beautiful, in my view. Like Tolstoy said, a man only needs six feet of land, enough to bury him.
Of course Tolstoy didn’t actually live the most simple life, and my life is far from being as simple as I would like. But I am going to give it a try.
Then on Sunday one of my aunts arrived from India with her husband. I love both my aunt and uncle very much and enjoyed driving to the airport early Saturday morning. I was a bit delayed because some streets in downtown DC were closed due to a race. But since they had to wait in line at customs for a long time, I ended up arriving ahead of them. I got myself a hot chocolate and enjoyed watching all kinds of people arriving from different parts of the world. After they arrived it gave me a lot of pleasure driving them home. This was their first time visiting the U.S and it brought back the thrill that I myself felt on my arrival here, 25 years ago. My uncle started shooting pictures right away. I will post some of them on my Flickr page.
On Sunday morning we woke up very early and drove to New York City. I had booked tickets on the ferry to Liberty Island at 1pm. I was worried about where I was going to drop them off and where I was going to park. But luckily I found a great place to drop them off, near the ferry terminal, and a place to park only three blocks away. Even more surprising, the parking was free and of unlimited duration because it was Sunday! We got there around 11.30 and had just enough time to get the tickets, eat our lunch and get in line.
Once we got on the ferry and everyone was seated I could exhale. I went to the stern of the upper deck and stood there watching the waters of the Hudson passing by, with the Manhattan skyline in the background. It was a beautiful day and leaning against the handrails I enjoyed the moment of peace. We then walked around Liberty Island, admired the towering Lady Liberty and toured Ellis Island museum. I wondered what the poor immigrants were going through as they passed through this building a hundred years ago.
After that we got back to New York City and visited the World trade Center memorial. It was quite somber. We then drove around the city a bit. Nicole and I visit New York now and then, just for fun. I really like New York with its hustle and bustle and restless energy and zest for life and success, although I wouldn’t want to live there. In fact I would rather live in a house in the middle of some remote wilderness! That is for another life, maybe. Who knows? Maybe it is just a feeling. We then had a nice dinner at the restaurant Pongal. Definitely one of the best South Indian restaurants I have been to. After that we got back into the car and began the long drive back home.
Driving in the U.S can be a monotonous grind of signs and buildings and rest areas and exits and on ramps repeating endlessly mile after mile. But it can also be a time for contemplation. I was reminded of my long drives to Canada many years ago. It brought back the wanderlust in me. But I told myself that one could be free like a bird wherever one was. All you had to do was to let go of worries about past and future and just enjoy the moment.
As I was driving I felt my mom watching me from the backseat. Everyone else had fallen asleep. It is amazing how much she cares about me. It is as if her own physical needs don’t matter. For a moment the awful thought entered into my mind – what happens when those eyes can’t watch me any more? It brought up the eternal question about the nature of life itself. What is it that constitutes a person, a life, behind those glassy things called eyes and that jumble of calcium and organic molecules called bones and flesh? Well, such thoughts could wait for another long solitary journey. By now I was too tired and had to focus on the road, because even my mom had nodded off.

Directory Previous