BOSTON CALLING: A MAIDEN TRIP TO WESTERN HEMISPHERE
Amidst wide media coverage – print as well as electronic; reporting exaggeratingly the weather condition of North East States(New England)of America –that with the advent of new year 2014 the area is under cover of thick snow, throwing the normal activities out of gear, vastly impacting the flights and work schedule at Logan International Airport, so much so, more than 500 flights to and from Logan Airport, have been cancelled and the Air port customs is operating on hourly shifts basis, in order to cope up with the inhospitable temperature at -25.c temperature, we boarded a Boston- bound Lufthansa flight at C.S.I. Airport, Mumbai at 02.30 AM on 11th January 2014. After 20 hours long haul flights, taking a break for change of flights at Frankfurt (Germany) its busy hub, we landed at the Logan International Airport, Boston at 12.30 AM on the same day. The aerial view of Boston’s emerging skyline on the north-east Atlantic coast was captivatingly fantastic and breathtakingly beautiful. We could see the entire air port excepting the tarmac under a thick carpet of snow. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers cleared us within minutes of our arrival and we were received by our son- in- law Dr. Dipti Ranjan Mohanty (Ph.D), who works for an investment bank, who drove us to his Faxon commons serviced apartment in adjoining Quincy Town, a distance of 11 miles from Logan airport. At the Braintree crossing, a hoarding welcoming visitors to Quincy “The City of Presidents “ was conspicuously placed near the ancestral houses of 2nd president of United States John Adams and his Son the 6th U.S President John Quincy Adams , which has been declared as Adams National Historical Park by the U.S. Department of Interior.
Nowadays, travelling to the western Hemisphere is nothing to boast about as it was the case few years ago; after the IT boom, which has revolutionized the work culture enabling thousands of Indian IT professionals to migrate to USA and Canada. During the pick summer days, the surge of migratory parents of the expat software professionals has become a seasonal phenomenon like the migration of Siberian avian flocks to warm brackish water Chilika lake for nesting during the winter months.
As it was a long flight covering 12700 km and 4 time zones, we suffered from jet lag with sleep disorder for few days due to impaired circadian rhythms that signals when to stay awake and when to sleep. As soon as we recovered from jet lag, our enthusiastic son-in-law chalked out an itinerary for the historic fabled public park popularly known as Boston Commons, perhaps the park of this kind opened first time in America. Nearby historic places like Charles Town Navy yard, World famous MIT and Harvard Universities were also included in the tour itinerary. On a fine Sunday morning we drove to midtown Boston to have a brush with historic settings, kept alive amidst the modern and vibrant Boston with an unparalleled collection of colleges and Universities, Libraries and Museums, Technological Institutions and Medical Centers which make it one of the most stimulating urban centers in America. Superlatives are common place in Boston. Adjectives such as ‘First’ and characterized not only many of city’s homes and churches, but universities and colleges, its restaurants, its parks-even its subway system, oldest in the western hemisphere. Here were invented the telephone, the telegraph, the safety razor, the spark plug; the digital computer, the instant camera, medical anesthesia, the electric pace maker. The first organ transplant of any kind was conducted in a Boston hospital ,and the first book and first News paper still is, along with the Atlantic Monthly, Banker and Tradesman ,and Christian Science Monitor .Boston also lay claim to America’s firs Military company ,First Trade Union, First Post Office ,First Commercial Bank; First Credit Union, First Grand Lodge of Masons ,First Passenger Elevator, First YMCA, First Football Stadium, First American Hockey Team, First Rowing Club, First Commercial Building with electric lights, First scheduled Passenger Airline flight, First Computer Museum and First Public Housing projects. The 1780 Massachusetts Constitution is the oldest written constitution in effect in the world and was the model for the U.S. Constitution. Most importantly Boston also was the birth place of nation’s Independence spearheaded by sons of Liberty a patriotic group, who organized Boston Tea Party in1773.Boston offers an unprecedented collection of historic settings .The first visit by a pope to U.S territory, on the deck of USS Constitution, when the Navy Flagship and oldest commissioned (21st October 1797) warship afloat made a goodwill visit to Naples (ITALY) in 1849.
In the 19th century, Boston was the unquestioned literary capital of the United State of America, where Ralf Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Louisa May Alcott, H.W. Longfellow, Nathaniel Hawthorn, Robert Lee Frost and others lived and wrote .Boston continues to produce a disproportionate share of high profile authors including George V. Higgins, Doris Kearns Godwin, Henry Louis Gates, Robert B. Parker, James Carol. Robin Cook, Lois Lowry, Jeremiah Healy, Cornel West, Jane Langton. The city in short is a brainy place.
BOSTON DUCK TOUR: Facilities for touring the historic as well as modern city of Boston are plenty .one may chose between luxurious saloons drawn by horses or an amphibious bus –Boston Duck, with life jacket facility for passengers. It is quite an amazing experience to avail the facility on Boston Duck Tours. The fun began as soon as we boarded the ‘Duck’, a World War II style amphibious landing vehicle used by the Allied Force in Normandy landing (Western France) operations on 6th June 1944. We were greeted by the tour guide who appeared to be very affable to us and vaunted a pair of goggles his prized possession as a souvenir purchased from Connaught Place, New Delhi and reminiscence some of his sweet memories while in India few years back. The well versed, proficient guide narrated the significance of each site our Duck glided through. We enjoyed the journey like never before. We cruised by all places that make Boston the birth place of freedom and a city of first, from golden-domed Old State House to Bunker Hill and to Boston commons and Copley squire to Big Dig (The Central Artery/Tunnel Project known as the Big Dig ) ,Quincy Market to Prudential Tower in state street and more .As the best of Boston unfolds before us, our guide narrated us little known facts and interesting insights about the unique and wonderful city .When we thought that we have seen it all ,there’s still more. It’s time for “Splashdown” as the captain splash the Duck right into the Charles River for a breathtaking view of the Boston and Cambridge skylines ,spectacular architectural building of Massachusetts Institute of Technology to the right side while we cruised through the Charles river and the skyscrapers of Boston business district to the left. Really this kind of panoramic view, one will not get anywhere else.
BOSTON COMMONS: Dating back to 1634, Boston Commons is a central Park in downtown Boston, and considered to be the oldest city park in U.S.A. The park is associated with many historic and epoch making events since its foundation. The commons was used as a camp by the British before the American Revolutionary War, from which they marched towards Lexington Green, where they were confronted by the Minutemen(colonist militia) on19th April 1775 and the first bullet fired, heralding the American War of Independence, was heard round the world .It was used as a place of public gathering and the leaders of sons of Liberty ; Samuel Adams, Paul Revere ,James Otis ,Benedict Arnold, Benjamin Rush and John Hancock made several rhetoric and passionate speeches arousing patriotic feelings against the colonial British Empire . A meeting held in 1773 was prelude to the epoch making Boston Tea Party organized by sons of Liberty with stimulating slogan “No taxation without Representation”. The old oak tree in the park was used for public hangings until 1817.Today ,Boston Commons ,in fact the world’s first public urban park, serves as a public park for all to use for formal and informal gatherings. Events such as concerts, protests, soft ball games, Boston marathon, and ice skating (on frog pond) often take place in the park. Famous personalities such as Martin Luther King Jr., Mikhail Gorbachev and Pope John Paul II have made speeches there .We visited the park on a Sunday after the snow carpet melted, yielding space to the green grass. Enjoyed the settings most, near a cherry blossom tree being worshiped by some Japanese, beautifully attired in their ethnic best. We took some photographs also with them.
USS CONSTITUTION: Our next program was for a visit to Boston Historical Park, located in the Charlestown Navy Yard. The museum is situated near the ship USS Constitution at the end of Boston freedom trail. The museum, through its collections and interactive exhibits, tell the story of Constitution (Old Ironsides) and the people who designed, built, and sailed her. The USS Constitution is a wooden hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States navy named by the first president George Washington after the U.S. Constitution in 1797.She is the world’s oldest commissioned naval vessel still afloat. Her first duties were to provide protection for American merchant shipping during the quasi –war with France in 1812 and to defeat the Barbary Pirates in coalition with the Sweden navy in the late 18th and early 19th centuries .The Barbary brothers were plundering merchant vessels and demanding hefty tribute to allow safe passage in the Mediterranean Sea. The appeasement policy by the American delegates under the aegis of Treaty of Paris in 1783 towards the Barbary Brothers was a temporary respite from the attack of Tripolitan pirates .When Thomas Jefferson became President of America in 1801 ,he refused to pay tribute and sent a United States Naval fleet headed by USS Constitution to defeat the infamous Barbary Pirates: Tripolitans of North Africa( Ottoman Empire , including Tunis, Algiers ,and Tripoli).She circled the world in 1840s. During the American civil war, she served as a training ship for the U.S .Naval Academy. The already famous naval frigate was retired from active service in1881and has been berthed at Pier -1 of the Charlestown Navy Yard at the end of Boston’s freedom Trail-a 2.5 mile (4km) long path through down town Boston, passing by 16 locations significant to the history of the United States, marked largely with red brick, it winds between Boston Commons to the Bunker Hill monument in Charlestown and end at Charlestown Navy Yard.
MASACHUSSETS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLGY: On a sunny Sunday morning we drove to Cambridge through the Harvard Bridge over River Charles to have a look at the world famous MIT sanding impressively alongside Charles river .Founded in 1861 in response to the increasing industrialization of the United States, MIT adopted a European Polytechnic University model and stressed laboratory instruction in applied science and engineering ,mathematics, and technology ,and widely known for its innovation and academic excellence ,making it one of the most prestigious institutions of higher learning in the world. From art and architecture to history and culture, there is plenty to see and do, both on campus and in the greater Boston area .MIT’s alumni are entrepreneurs, researchers, policy makers, and above all leaders - have helped to shape the world we know today. MIT’s notable alumni include Kofi Annan, Benjamin Netanyahu, Shirley Ann Jackson, Buzz Aldrin (2nd person to walk on moon), Drew Houston, Richard Feynman, I.M.Pei, William Clay Ford Jr and Amar Bose. We have been overwhelmed with emotion at the memorial plaque in building 6 honoring George Eastman, founder of Eastman Kodak, who helped maintain MIT’s independence and stalled a proposal for its merger with Harvard University. Between1912-1920, Eastman donated 20 million USD in cash and Kodak stock to MIT.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY: After a memorable visit to the MIT campus with dozens of awe inspiring buildings, representing diverse architectural styles, representing huge commitment to utilitarian minimalism and embellished exuberance, we drove to neighboring Harvard campus a distance of 5 minutes drive. Though MIT has much larger programs in most engineering fields; but Harvard also has exceptional programs in many engineering fields .Both are very strong in science and economics.MIT is stronger in theoretical linguistics; Harvard is stronger in historical linguistics. Undoubtedly, Harvard is the oldest and most prestigious university of the world, established in 1636 by John Harvard, a godly gentleman and lover of learning. Though John Harvard lived only 31 years, born in Nov.1607 and died in Sept.1638 but founded the now most famous for its history, influence and wealth and considered one of the most prestigious universities of the world. It has produced 8 U.S. Presidents, 158 Nobel laureates, 32 heads of states, 359 Rhodes scholars,48 Pulitzer prize winners so far. Harvard’s notable alumni include, Barak Obama, J.F.Kennedy, F.D.Roosevelt, Theoder Roosevelt,John Adams,John Quincy Adams, Al Gore, Bill Gates, Mark Zukerberg, Helen Killer, Henery Kissinger, R.W.Emerson, Robert Lee Frost, J.Oppenheimer, T.S.Elliot, Subramanion Swamy, P.Chidambaram, Abhisekh Manu Singhvi, Fareed Zakaria and the list continues. After an educative detour in the mesmerizing beautiful campus old and new, we took photographs at the sculpture in bronze of the great lover of learning John Harvard in Harvard yard, customarily touching the left shoe of the statue, which has become shiny from human contact over the years, to bring good luck as per popular belief. On the way back to Quincy, was reminded of our own lover of learning and symbol of hope, Pyarimohan Acharya who lived only 29 years(1852-1881) and founded P.M Academy in Cuttack, the millennium city in Odisha.
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