A low-high week

Ho-hum week

This has been a pretty normal week with nothing major to report. The quiet before the storm, perhaps – we have several friends and family visiting starting this weekend, since this is spring break in New York as well as in the Bay Area.

On Monday, I had meetings to attend in mid-town and the weather was surprisingly wet. I decided not to brave it and took cabs everywhere, and was surprised to find I generally found one pretty quickly. This has been a busy week, work-wise and almost every day I had meetings to travel to. On most occasions, I took public transit – even an Express bus once – which was quite a pleasant and comfortable experience. Google maps let me down once – I had set up a lunch meeting at a Cosi’s near Penn Station, and when I got to the address Google gave me, I found there was no restaurant there. I later realized that it was an “unverified listing” and the actual Cosi was a block away – but since I was there first, and could call the person I was meeting and redirect him, no harm was done. Turned out this was a harbinger of more serious misdirection to come.

I got back from meetings on Thursday to find the apartment full of kids – Sonia’s Daughter and Son, and Pallavi / Uday’s Daughter and Son. They had met in the Plaza, where they were all taking advantage of the excellent weather, and had decided to have an impromptu play-date. I found them all on our bed watching Madagascar 2.

Since Dhruv’s school was closed for Easter on Thursday and Friday, we decided to go to Nitu and Ganesh’s place in Newport on Thursday night. We caught an M23 across town, and then a PATH train to Newport, arriving there around 5:30 pm. Nitu and her kids were in the park (the doorman helpfully informed us) and so we headed over there and spent an hour or so watching the kids play. It was quite a change to see 70% of the kids playing there were Indian – almost made it feel like it was the Bay Area!

Lost on Friday

We spent Thursday night in Newport, and on Friday morning, I made everyone a fluffy omelet using my mother’s special trick (beat the whites separately and mix the yolk in at the end), to the general praise of everyone except my finicky son.

Ganesh was off on Friday and they planned a trip to the New Jersey State Aquarium in Camden, NJ, which Nitu said was half an hour away. I had planned to stay home and work, but since most of Wall Street was closed, I decided to take the day off. We bundled into the van around 11:30, and Ganesh began programming the GPS for our drive there.

He suddenly looked up and turned to Nitu: “Are you sure you said Camden?”

“Why? What’s the problem?”

“It’s 90 miles and 1 ½ hours away,” he replied.

Uh-oh. We didn’t fancy and three hour round trip to an aquarium that was supposed to be so-so in the first place. I pulled it up on Google maps to see where it was, and then realized it was just across the river from Philadelphia. Definitely a no-go.

Since we were all strapped into the car, we didn’t feel like giving up and going back indoors. I pulled up the address for the aquarium in the Bronx, and since that was only 20 minutes away, we decided to head there. We encountered little traffic going through the Holland Tunnel, and within a few minutes after that, found ourselves crossing the Manhattan Bridge. I took a nice picture of the Brooklyn Bridge as we went over. The going was slower through the streets of Brooklyn, but within 40-odd minutes of leaving home and a couple of wrong turns, we arrived at 8, Brooklyn Avenue, the address that Google Maps and the Honda GPS system gave us. But it was nowhere to be seen – the address was nothing but a large parking garage, and passers-by had no idea there was an aquarium in the vicinity.

Back to square one! Two iPhones and two Blackberries were put on a frantic search. I made a few calls to the numbers that Google maps suggested – and they turned out to be Aquarium supplies, or Pet Stores! We finally found that real aquarium was in Coney Island, 40 minutes away. Since the reviews Nitu read on her iPhone were mixed, we were in two minds on going there; when Dhruv complained that he was feeling nauseous, it gave us enough reason to call it quits.

We did get a chance to drive through some lovely parts of Brooklyn – Tree-lined Eastern Parkway with its broad streets, around Prospect Park (which was designed by the same person who designed Central Park, Fredrick Olmstead – legend has it that he liked this better), and then for an excellent Thai lunch at Lemongrass Grill on 7th Avenue. Since Kavi’s Brother-in-law and his wife live in Brooklyn, as we left the restaurant, I punched his address into Google Maps to see whether we were anywhere close to where they lived – and much to my surprise, I found that they were half a block away!! I called him on his cell phone to find that he was out buying groceries, and was walking back home just past where we were parked!! The coincidence was just amazing. They are the only people we know in Brooklyn, and purely by chance, here we were, lunching half a block from where they lived.

Rainy Saturday

Nitu and Ganesh’s daughter spent the night with us – her first sleepover. We were really nervous that she’d ask for her parents in the middle of the night – and the thought of taking her to New Jersey at that hour wasn’t inviting at all. Thankfully, the night passed without incident, and it looks like she quite enjoyed herself. Unfortunately, it rained most of Saturday, which meant that we had to keep the kids indoors, and entertain them with Kids Scrabble and other board games.

Since JV had left on one of his frequent trips to India, Sonia asked us whether we were interested in going to Tiffin Wallah for Chaat – to “make up for the bad experience at Sukhadia” she said. Not that we needed the excuse, we jumped at the opportunity. I made the kids a crossword puzzle to keep them entertained, but it was so easy that they finished it before we had ordered appetizers.

Dhruv, Sandhya and I regularly play Name-Place-Animal-Thing when we travel anywhere, and I engaged Sonia’s kids in that game on our drive home. I bit off a lot more than I could chew – Sonia’s daughter gave me Greek names with Q and a palindrome Icelandic city with a Q. Kids’ general knowledge these days!!

Overall, the rain made for a pretty dull Saturday. Thankfully, Sunday was the exact opposite.

Back to Bronx Zoo on Sunday

Sunday was clear and we thought it would be warm – after all, this was April. Dhruv put on his Crocs and I was just wearing a light jacket. Sandhya wore sandals without socks. We emerged from our building to find it was cold and really windy. In the interests of time, we decided not to go back, but just thrust our hands into our jackets and walked quickly. We had planned to try to take the BMX 19 express bus all the way to the Zoo, but when we reached the stop, we found that there was a half an hour before the next bus. We went by Subway instead. We went through the routine of catching a 6, changing to an express 4 at Grand Central, and then changing at 149th Street / Grand Concourse to a 2 again. However, this time, the station and the train were absolutely empty. It was Easter Sunday, but I didn’t expect such a dramatic drop in ridership.

We got off at West Farms Square / E Tremont Street with a few other white families who seemed to also be heading to the Zoo. A few minutes later, we were inside, and found that the place was quite different from the last time we were there. There were a lot more people, and peacocks wandered around everywhere. One of them posed for us in full glory as we entered. I carried my SLR with all my lenses this time, and took some nice pictures. I hope you can see this slideshow:

We first headed for the Snow Leopards, hoping that they would entertain, just as they had the previous time. Unfortunately, just one of them was in the enclosure, and he lying on a rock in the far end. He yawned lazily as he saw us, and went back to sleep. No chasing the turkeys or running up the tree this time. The polar bear was even worse. Dhruv commented on my disappointment “Oh, that’s because he’s hibernating, Appa! That’s what Polar Bears do!”

A quick side-trip to the Tiger brought more disappointment. The enclosure was really crowded, and Dhruv didn’t want to wriggle his way to the front of the glass. There wasn’t much to see either, just a single Tiger lazing around in front. Nothing like last time, when we had the whole place to ourselves, and three tigers were pacing furiously up and down.

We took a different route this time, and spent several minutes watching a Grizzly Bear in an enclosure just behind the Polar Bear. We watched as he climbed skillfully up some steep rocks, and then walked up and down the enclosure, shaking his head vigorously to get rid of a swarm of flies hovering around. I have a pair of powerful binoculars and through those, we enjoyed watching him close up in a way that was almost intimate.

The route we took this time brought us to the Reptile building. Dhruv has a new-found interest in words, and we’re enjoying watching him try to read every piece of writing he comes across. He was excited to read “Reptiles” and was keen to go in. I put on my Macro lens, and got some excellent close-up shots of a few lizards, a baby alligator, and a Turtle. We were watching the cobras when Dhruv said “I’m sure Lakshmy Patti won’t enjoy this part of the Zoo!” Lakshmy Patti is his grandmother, and she’s fond of displaying mock fear at Snakes because it always tickles him pink.

We suddenly heard a loud gasp from behind and a shrill voice shouted “What’s he doing? Is he eating the other one?” We ran over to find two Monitor lizards begin a mating ritual. I was surprised to find some prudish parents try to hustle their teenage children away from something that’s perfectly natural! I leaned over into Dhruv’s ear and made sure he knew what he was watching. We watched, fascinated, as the Male tried repeatedly to pin down the female, while she continued to move away. They separated for a while, and then later, he tried again. It was fascinating and at the same time horrifying to watch him flick his long tongue time and again on her face and eyes, and try to hold her down by pressing his front paws on her face, during this process. I took some video – and hope you can see it.

After the Reptiles, we headed over to the Butterfly enclosure. The macro lens came in handy again, and among others, I got some nice close-up shots of a Zebra Longwing sucking honey from a flower. The proboscis is clearly visible in the picture.

We had packed Sandwiches for lunch, and grabbed a bite at a picnic table near the Dancing Crane Café. It was only then that we noticed that there were a significantly number of Orthodox Jewish Families visiting the zoo that day – men and older boys dressed in their traditional clothes – hats or skull-caps, locks, and the string hanging from their waists. I wonder what occasion caused that, but never got an opportunity to ask any of them.

After lunch, we headed over to the Lion enclosure. From a distance, we could see a really impressive Lion resting on a rock in the center of the enclosure, facing us. As we watched, Dhruv tried to get him to roar by roaring himself. And to our utter surprise, a few seconds later, I thought we heard a little roar!! Dhruv was really kicked. Some kids around me started to throw sticks into the enclosure, and earned a stern admonishment from me – I was surprised their parents didn’t say or do anything to make them stop. After a while, the Lion got up and walked to one corner of the enclosure, where he was out of sight for a while – all we could see was his magnificent tail swishing around. We had all but given up and were ready to move on, when we came out and began walking back to where he had been resting earlier. And then it happened. While walking back, he let out a mighty roar – I’ve never actually heard one before, but the first one was loud, and then it degenerates into a series of softer and softer grunts. But it was undoubtedly fascinating to hear and raised an already spectacular day to new heights.

We had another intimate encounter with the Giraffes, who were indoors because of the cold. This meant that we were in room not more than 10 feet away from 5 Giraffes, including two lovely babies. A treat, indeed – once we got used to the smell.

Another high point of the visit was the visit to the Gorilla enclosure. We were too late last time, and just got to see them for a few minutes – and were determined not to let that happen this time. We were rewarded with several minutes of closely watching these magnificent, almost-human, animals from a few feet away. I got some nice close-up photographs of a pensive Gorilla – and it brought back some of my earlier doubts at viewing an animal in captivity. The sadness in those eyes, the yearning for a return to the jungles of Congo from where they came – I thought I could see it there.

After a quick run through the Madagascar enclosure, we split up and I went to see the birds of prey. I was really lucky – the Golden Eagle had just been fed, and I got to watch him daintily pick his way through a meal of what looked like a Mouse, but seemed larger. After having eaten what must be the tastiest parts, he proceeded to carefully clean his beak on a branch, and then posed for some nice pictures. Unfortunately, he was close to the wires of his cage when he was eating, and the wires ruined the pictures I took of him during his meal. A few cages down, I caught some excellent pictures of a Bald Eagle – a truly majestic bird and the National Bird of the US. He posed nicely for me, and I got some nice pictures with a light-strike in the eye – critical for a “good” picture.

We left the zoo at around 4 PM, tired but deliriously happy. Dhruv had wanted to go to Central Park in the morning, but we had convinced him to come to the Zoo – and he seemed to be happy at the end.

Radha and Mahesh – friends and neighbors from Fremont – and their kids, came home on Sunday night – they will stay with us for a few days. The Air Bed came out again, and this is going to be a hectic week – we have Lata and her two kids also staying over on Wednesday night. I’m off to California for a two-day business trip tomorrow, so Sandhya’s going to have to manage all on her own.