A smart, decent and intelligent guy is an endangered species indeed !!! :P

Haydon Sphere, Jupitor, Saturn and Me :o)

AMNH

One of the recent weekends, we happened to visit the American Museum of Natural History, here in NY, just besides the vast Central Park.

The museum, with a little weird name (which does not really suggest what this museum is all about), is one of the most famous museums in the world. They have an unparalleled collection of fossils, bones, specimens, models and media pertaining to topics from biology, geology, archeology and astronomy.

After deciding (bravely) to get up early in the morning and being ready by 9 am, we were just waking up to the tunes(?) of the-always-ugly alarm when it showed figure of 9, and as we reached the giant doors of the gigantic building by 11, we were already hungry, and thinking about lunch! The ticket window operator started explaining us about the current exhibits & shows and how we are going to cover them all before 5, we realized we are going to play a losing battle against time. After a while, he himself got so confused, and started scribbling so many time-permutations on our ticket, that we thought as if planning phase is going to eat up all the day. Obviously, his hand-writing was so ghastly, only comparable to Vaidya Khadiwale, in Raman Baug (Replace with any doctor, who does not want his prescriptions to be read by any other, but his regular Medico), that we just ignored whatever he had written, and started running towards elevator sign with nerves and urgency of someone missing his first flight in life.

The first exhibit about Charles Darwin was a walk-through commemorating the legendary scientist, who put forth, easily the most controversial theory in recent history, The Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection. It was of course very interesting to go through his life and times, through various pictures, videos, maps, specimens he collected. As I was thinking that this exhibit is a wonderful treat to high school science-enthusiast students, and they must be getting a hell lot of information out of this, an innocent kid blew my impressions a thousand miles away. Standing in front of some bird specimens, that showed how the same species varies a little bit across continents, adapting to ecological variations, he shouts, “Heyyyy guyyyys, Look what I found here…these are way coooooler than the previous ones !”, and I realized…Perception is Everything. It was also fun to see how Darwin was mocked by the then-famous and respected. One creative cartoon, showed how a monkey, sitting on a donkey, changed in stages, to become a bearded scientist, sitting on a horse, carrying a book “Theory of Evolution”, mocking the complex theory beautifully in just a few sketches. No need to tell who the bearded scientist was. Not surprising, that Darwin waited for almost 20 years, (yes 20 years), after completing the theory, to publish it. He himself must have been unsure about the results that his now-famous Beagle Voyage* came up with. The theory provoked a very strong criticism from religious leaders along with the scientific fraternity, as it put forth a then-revolutionary idea, that humans are in the same class as monkeys, and we share common ancestors, contradicting the holy notion that we all are children of almighty.

An IMAX theater inside the museum, was running a show about Galapagos Islands, where it is thought, that Darwin first struck the idea of evolution. This island features some of the most unique animals, like Iguanas, found nowhere but here. It was a National Geographic types movie, and though I already knew most of the content it had, it was fun to watch on big screen.

Our next destination was Rose Center for Earth & Space, which is a part of museum, for the space shows. The dome theater, called Haydon Sphere, is an awesome structure by any standards. Upper hemisphere of the bulky sphere, has a screen, projected by the projector from bottom, chairs surrounding the projector. The sound system is breath-taking, with vibrations all around you, making the term “immersive environment” a practicality. Tom Hanks was the star narrator of one of the movies, throwing in thrill, glamour and education all at once, at the in-awe viewers (or, dare I coin - experiencers).

After hanging around a bit in the museum shop, (of course – JUST hanging around, as the greenback tags at these famous places make your eyes turn green.) there was time for yet another exhibit, a lighter one this time. After all, what can be lighter, and eye-soothing, than a butterfly! There were scores of them, wandering effortlessly, in the artificially maintained temperature and humidity. After a loooong period of time, I felt like I was sweating hell, and my leather jerkin felt like a heavy, steel armor. Catching them on lens was a wonderful experience, as all efforts were needed to get close, and click. I remembered the days when, as kids, we used to roam around with butterfly-traps, made from bushes found nearby, and felt guilty remembering how we used to keep them in plastic bags, only to die after some days. The experience helped though, with some successful close-ups.

We were so exhausted after this exhibit, (with only half personal sized pizza in stomach since morning, thanks to tight budget, as we always have here), that we barely ran through the vast halls filled with tons of specimens, videos and text, hardly reading anything, and came home, only to remember that, I will surely be a member of the museum, if I happen to stay here for a longer term.

* A historic 5 year expedition of South America, intended for survey, wherein also-on-board Darwin studied thousands of animals and samples to come up with initial notes, which became the theory of evolution.

In the fairy to Liberty

Ellis Island museum - Flag N Faces

Liberty...the green beauty

Last weekend, we happened to visit the most significant monument in New York, the face of America, the goddess who is greeting sailors all around the world to put down their anchors, and stay here happily ever after, with freedom, with liberty. It assures them that race, origin, skin color, and even language are immaterial here, as long as you are ready to sweat heard to earn your bread.

It all started in 1876, the centenary year of American declaration of independence, when some frenchmen, including political members and a sculptor, Auguste Bartholdi, struck an idea of gifting Americans with a symbol of eternal friendship, commemorating thier struggle and success for freedom. Bartholdi had proposed gifting a similar statue in honour of Suez canal construction to Egyptians in 1865, but it was not meant to be.

Notably, most of the funds collected for erection of this colossus task, were collected from ordinary people of France and America, not from the governments, representing democracy in actual sense. After 4 arduous years of fund collection, with many shows, plays, civic organizations and ordinaries of both sides helping this noble cause, the statue began taking life in Paris, and stood accomplished in 1885. She is not a gigantic structure. 150 feet is by no means a structural marvel. But it is intentional. To quote Bartholdi, "it was to appear simply in harmony with the whole, and have the normal aspect of a statue in a public square", rather than a monster like figure, that would demonstrate engineering skills and economical power, but creates nothing but apprehension for a new visitor. It was transferred in pieces to New York harbor, to be re-assembled on a small island bisecting the bay of Hudson, with the then official immigration centre of Ellis island at a stone's throw. After having a normal copper color during her initial years, she covered herself with a rusty green color, though as uniform as painted. Her skeleton structure was designed by one of the most famous engineers ever, Alexandre Gustave Eiffel (Yes...of the Eiffel Tower fame).

To understand the significance of Liberty, it is preeminent to understand history of American immegration and Ellis island. This island was the doorway to millions of hopeful immigrants during late 19th and early 20th century. On an average day, around 3000 immigrants waited patiently in huge queues to pass through the medical and legal examinations, to get an entry in this prospering country, and an astonishing 98% of those were successful in doing so. During these 50 years or so, around 20 million people migrated through these doors, records of which are still meticulously maintained in record books here. There were Europeans, Mexicans, Russians, Turkish; people from nearly every continent creating a strange cultural potpourri, descendents of whom, are now proud citizens of the richest, strongest country in the world. By law of nature, only the fittest, the most adaptable, survive in evolutionary process. The people, who dared to leave their homeland forever, in those days when ships regularly sank, and sailors were admired like heroes, were indeed very strong, adaptable, adventurous human beings. May be the success of America lies there more than anything else...

To all these homeless, moneyless people, first sight of Liberty gave a reassurance and an inspiration to rise from the ashes. Her face modeled after Bartholdi's mother, she surely gave a mother-like encouragement to these children, who had left their motherland forever. With a torch held high in her hands and a shackle breaking step forward, she enlightened the world giving message of hope, democracy and freedom, being not only an essential witness, but also an active catalyst to the largest human migration ever, in recorded history.

Sledge dog statue - Central Park

 
 

The journey and more...

Writing from the bank of beautiful Hudson River, with tall Manhattan skyscrapers looming large on the other side.

Journey with Air India was very good with excellent indian food and nice service, and indeed with a lot of interesting events. It all started at the plane entrance, with all Gujratis and other fellow Desis people mobbing and flocking the "plane conductor" even when he was pleading to have a sit just like we see on any indian 'SHT shtand' :o). Even if I checked in FIRST in the plane and so had received an isle seat, I relented to a request from a gujrati family to exchange the seat, ending up on a crampy window seat, the decision I didnt regret later on. I was blessed with 5 Gujratis around me, giving it a feel of Ahinsa Express I usually board to visit my sister at Bharuch. The flight attendants (the word "hawai sundari" is lot better I feel :p) in Air India look really smart with their tight-fit Saris and neatly made up hair. Though there was a TV set "specially for entertainment of all Air India customers", it really sucked, except for the movie 'No Entry'. My neighbor was a middle aged gujrati nurse, with the green card power, making her confident and egoistic, though it was a fun to observe her attitude. I came to know
about an interesting fact about Gujrati community in US, because of her. They have a division based on districts here...like Mehsana district usually owns grocery stores, valsad district owns video libraries and so on. Whatever may humanitarians and secularists do, the castism, the desire of man to distinguish himself, will not end. My other neighbour was a B1 passenger who has his own pharma company in Hyderabad, but I came to know about this only at the end of the journey :o(. Rest of the time, he had his Bose headphones attached to his iPod.

Ascent and Descent of the plane were easily the most exciting rewards of sitting at the window seat. Especially, the evening when our 747 (named Konark) descended at NJ, it was a fantastic scene. The plane and the sun were going down simultaneously, ending the race that began nearly 24 hours before, at bombay on the same day, with Sun winning by a very narrow margin. A number of jets were engraving the beautiful evening sky with their characteristic white tail, with lights coming up in manhattan sky scrapers to complete an amazingly challenging canvas for any competent painter. Though not painting skills, I wish I had at least a camera, to capture the glimpse of the picture, which my words are so feeble to capture.

Though clearing the immigration and customs was smooth, the journey ended with just a little bit of chaos. As the plane was late, the cab driver supposed to pick me up had ditched the appointment and left. Good that I had some numbers, so I could call up one of my client's senior managers, Ashish, though finding change for calling up was another sizable task. Ashish was quick to act, as he always is, and came driving right at the airport, to put me neatly in a cab and send the cab driver with proper instructions. Very few people working in software industry will have this luxury in their lives to be received by their client company's manager, who is at least 5 grades higher than them. I realized that day why he has gone up so quickly in his career…by taking responsibilities that were not meant to be his!

Today, it was another fun filled day, when I visited the famous, Desi, Journle square and the Jazzy, Showy Times square. But story about it in the next edition, as the jet lag is making my poor little eyes drowsy and watery. Gooood night…