Takeaways from the US visit

Landing in the Big Apple in an Airbus 380 for the first time was a mental high.Even the 14 hour flight was bearable in this aircraft about which had one read so much ,what with beds,showers and bars! I never got to see any of that that since I was flying economy ( but it was a classy cattle class with comfortable spacious seats in the A 380).

I landed at about 2.30pm in the afternoon,and walked out with some oversized baggages which i was carrying for an exhibition and found myself accousted by some lebanese and other dubious taxi drivers,much like our own airports,but I was warned against this by the aiport staff.So I contacted the ground transport help desk,where an African American lady helped me out with the number of a taxi company. I hired a SUV cab which accommodated my oversized baggages nad after about 15 minutes of the two hour ride to New Jersey ,came to know that the taxi driver was from Chandigarh and we chatted away happily in hindi, with him telling me about his brother back home who would only go on a car to his college and was blowing about Rs.30,000 in fuel bills every month while he was slogging away earning dollar by dollar .Of course at the end of the trip, he asked me for a 20% tip if I was travelling on company account and no tip if I was travelling on my own. Thus begun my stay in the US.

I really felt that I was in the US first when I saw the Statue of Liberty, and how it stood there welcoming all those who were persecuted, and choked because of the lack of Freedom in their countries.

The second place was when I stood at Ground zero,a mental picture of the cloud of dust which enveloped the Greenwich street, when the twin towers came down, came up and went.The moment which changed the country and its thinking for ever.

Now a gleaming tower is proudly coming up in it's place,telling the world one could never put down that country ever and that it would always get the people or person who wounded it.

The third place was of course the Times square where one could see nationalities from all over the world congregating as the country celebrated the 4th of July.The Square where the brands of world shone in brilliant neon signs,with the Empire state building in the back ground,and the teeming multitudes of people told me that this was the place where the whole world met.The whole square came to a grinding halt as the night sky was litup by the fireworks down on the Hudson river.After a good twenty minutes as the fireworks winded down the whole square erupted in cheering voices and the clapping of hands. Viva la America!!


The main take-aways from the short trip of about 10 days to the US was the discipline on the roads,the politeness of the staff in every outlet one visited, and dignity of labour, right from the young to the old every one worked ,even if it was physical labour.

But the one incident which struck my heart happened on a Southwest Airline Flight which I was taking from New York to San Francisco.As the flight was about to land the airhostess thanked all the serviceman who were travelling with them and those who were serving the country all over the world and the whole aircraft erupted with clapping of the hands. My eyes were wet as I too clapped my hands .

A nagging discomfort that I had not seen anything of this sort back home,kept nagging me, but then we are lovers of cricket , arn't we? Only cricketers are saviours and Gods.

Did I tell you that I too am an ex- serviceman of the Indian Army?