My Reminiscence

On 10th September, Friday I woke up early in the morning and after my daily routine and breakfast I got ready to go to the Newark airport in the afternoon. I was thrilled at the thought of going to meet my grandson Sarath and his wife Athira within a few hours. We had booked tickets to Oakland airport in California. The flight was scheduled to take off from Newark at 5.30 PM. We reached Newark at 3.40 PM and waited for the wheelchair to arrive which we had requested while booking the tickets. It can take time sometimes due to nonavailability of vacant wheelchairs or due to scarcity of navigators. I have seen a navigator controlling two chairs at a time so as to get the passengers in time to their gates. To save time and effort, to get the formalities done easily, some passengers book wheelchairs even though they may not need. Passengers in wheelchairs usually get prioritized over passengers waiting in queues to get their luggage checked in, or to get their boarding passes o...

In the United States of America, it is common to visit famous educational institutions. Such a visit is equally important and prestigious, to both, the visitor and this country. US parents generally take their high school going children on these visits carefully choosing universities depending on their child's talents and academic interests.  In the olden days, the Indians called educational institutions as "Saraswathi kshethra" which means the holy abode of Goddess Saraswathy, the deity who blesses and flourishes us with knowledge. I remember celebrating "Navarathri pooja" in school every year, where the students brought their school textbooks, notebooks, pens or pencils, instrument boxes etc.  and placed them in front of the deity and worshipped after lighting a holy lamp. This was not compulsory, but students were willingly doing this irrespective of their religious beliefs or thinking or social standing. People who are eager to earn more knowledge should hav...

It was the last Saturday of September and Dr. Suma, a busy practicing psychiatrist, whom I was meeting for the first time, gave us a visit at 10 AM. She hails from Karnataka, India. She was so friendly that within a short time, I felt like she was one amongst us. Her son and Ajay were baseball buddies. After chatting for a while and having lunch with us, she bid goodbye.  As the weather forecast warned for a cold evening, we were a bit hesitant to go out. Eventually, we decided to visit and worship in the BAPS Swamy Narayan temple, which has gained fame and name as "Akshardham" all around the world by now. It took more than an hour to reach the temple located in Robbinsville, New Jersey. When we were nearing the temple, we were astounded to see that all roads leading to the holy shrine were crowded with snail pacing different makes of cars. We finally managed to reach the vast, free, parking lot of the temple. Many a security staff were there directing...