***Day 1***
It was a good night’s sleep despite me constantly dreaming about hanging on the wings of the plane for my journey. It was almost 9 am by the time I woke up and immediately got around to planning the day forward. That’s when Mr. Accounts casually informed me that he would be going for work for around four hours and be back for lunch. Now let me tell you Mr. Accounts has previously made a living out of throwing my best laid plans out of order as if it were a vegetable not fit for consumption. Time has made him more professional which was evident as he quite politely refused my ideas of a morning road trip and I didn't even feel bad.
‘Oh well, there is a television……and internet…….umm…..and oh yeah you know there is a swimming pool outside,” he said combing his hair meticulously
“I flew a 1000 miles to browse the net and watch TV?”
“See I will be back in the afternoon and we will go to the Stone Mountain Park.” He left through the door but put his head back in again for a final word. “And that was 871.7 miles you traveled not a thousand, muahaahaha”
Ass. No wonder they called him Mr. Accounts. So I did what was available to do.
We overslept again since we were dead tired from all the walking. Today we decided on the waterpark and set off at one for the Six Flags Whitewater Park. But after driving for more than half hour, we never found it. Thanks to Mr. Accounts and his idea on saving $10 on the rented GPS. His claims of knowing Atlanta very well fell flat on its face as we made our sorry way back home.
En route we stopped at downtown Atlanta for checking out the CNN headquarters. At $13 a tour it was worth it as we were taken systematically albeit briefly through all their programming procedures. We also saw a live news broadcast. I have to say it was pretty exciting. The room was filled with TV screens in each and every space. And in the spaces where they could not fit a TV, they had lights or other electronics. Not the workplace, many of us outside the media like to imagine. Pretty serious stuff. Other things in downtown Atlanta were not so interesting and nowhere close to the northern cities of New York and Boston. The south of US is a very sleepy face unless ofcourse you are a duck and are liable to be shot by a farmer or harassed by tourists for no fault of yours.
“I flew a 1000 miles to browse the net and watch TV?”
“See I will be back in the afternoon and we will go to the Stone Mountain Park.” He left through the door but put his head back in again for a final word. “And that was 871.7 miles you traveled not a thousand, muahaahaha”
Ass. No wonder they called him Mr. Accounts. So I did what was available to do.
I browsed the net. I was lazily checking the India West Indies cricket scores when I got distracted by voices downstairs. I put my nose and eyes through the blinds to see what the commotion was about. And what I saw blew my senses away which fortunately didn’t include my eyes. They were wide open along with my mouth. The reason for this…..not one but I give you five yes five gorgeous bikini clad women, were rubbing their arms and legs with sunscreen and
preparing to lie on the pool lounge chairs, book in one hand and chilled beer in the other.
I have never understood the white man’s obsession with tanning himself let alone a white woman’s but I decided to keep my understanding or lack of it on the back burner for the time being as the air conditioned room I was sitting in suddenly started to feel hot. I stayed glued to the window cursing myself for not getting my swimming shorts. Staying at home in the morning did have something eventful after all. The Americans are a queer lot though. If it is the weekend or a holiday, then they forget all their worries and just party hard as they can. We workaholic, anxiety gripped Indians have a plethora of issues on our heads even when we are on a picnic.
Mr. Accounts appeared as he had promised in the afternoon and I told him about the grand views on offer below.
“Yeah that” he said with boredom. I immediately understood that he was a front row spectator every weekend and what made him all the more happy was that he was getting it all for free.
Mr. Accounts appeared as he had promised in the afternoon and I told him about the grand views on offer below.
“Yeah that” he said with boredom. I immediately understood that he was a front row spectator every weekend and what made him all the more happy was that he was getting it all for free.
“Why don’t you try your luck with some of the girls down there?” I asked
“You know me Ray. I will be shivering like jelly and will not be able to get my eyes off the pair. And there are lots of pairs, I would say five of them, so that would make it a grand total of ten br…” he said sheepishly before I cut him off
“You know me Ray. I will be shivering like jelly and will not be able to get my eyes off the pair. And there are lots of pairs, I would say five of them, so that would make it a grand total of ten br…” he said sheepishly before I cut him off
“Eh wait a minute…pairs?” It was then I realized what he meant by pairs. That is why geeks shouldn’t be sent out on girl hunting missions. Bloody descendant of Ramanujam.
After lunch we were off to Stone Mountain Park which is named after the Granite Stone Dome, claimed locally t
o be the world’s largest piece of exposed granite. Ofcourse it is all about the marketing but as you can see from the picture, it is a quite a sight.
(Left : Stone Mountain courtesy www.wikipedia.org)
We bought our passes and proceeded to check out each and every attraction the park had to offer. The most famous of them was a laser show projected on the stone carving on the mountain but that was to be at 9:30 at night. So the first thing we checked out was the journey to the center of the earth 4-D show, in which the fourth dimension was the feeling of actually being there. For example in the scene when the actors on screen were rowing their boat through the rough sea, water was poured on us spectators to simulate the effect. After the show we checked out the scenic railroad which was as boring as it got. The glum faces on the train were more scenic than the landscape on the outside.
After lunch we were off to Stone Mountain Park which is named after the Granite Stone Dome, claimed locally t
o be the world’s largest piece of exposed granite. Ofcourse it is all about the marketing but as you can see from the picture, it is a quite a sight.
(Left : Stone Mountain courtesy www.wikipedia.org)
We bought our passes and proceeded to check out each and every attraction the park had to offer. The most famous of them was a laser show projected on the stone carving on the mountain but that was to be at 9:30 at night. So the first thing we checked out was the journey to the center of the earth 4-D show, in which the fourth dimension was the feeling of actually being there. For example in the scene when the actors on screen were rowing their boat through the rough sea, water was poured on us spectators to simulate the effect. After the show we checked out the scenic railroad which was as boring as it got. The glum faces on the train were more scenic than the landscape on the outside.
We tried pedal boating next and it proved to be a good exercise in the searing afternoon sun. We also had some fun to ourselves as we chased and harassed the ducks who were not at all amused by this sudden invasion of humans. I sometimes wonder what do animals even think about us. They must be going “Look at these two legged idiots, got tired of the land and now have come to mess around in the water.”
After leaving the ducks in peace, we took the Swiss-built cable car to the summit of the mountain. It gave us some wonderful views of the surrounding area but there was nothing much else to do up there other than trying to fake that I was hurtling downhill.
All the climbing, boating, duck harassing had made us hungry and we drove to ten miles to Norcross to check out the Global Mall which in reality is a complete misnomer. It doesn’t even cover more than five states of India. Yes, you heard it right – India. I had never seen anything like it before in the US. It wasn’t a huge mall or something but it was completely made by the Indian community for the Indian community. Its most famous attraction was its completely desi food court. In the left corner they had chaat and in the right corner they had South Indian. It was a welcome sight especially since the last week, the only semblance of food I had eaten was pizzas and burgers. I immediately jumped on the samosas and dahi puri and ordered them before Mr. Accounts could calculate the bill. After that sumptuous supper we drove to Stone Mountain Park again where the laser show was about to begin. It was spectacular and since it was on the night before the Independence Day, they did a freedom special with the Star Spangled Banner providing an apt climax.
We overslept again since we were dead tired from all the walking. Today we decided on the waterpark and set off at one for the Six Flags Whitewater Park. But after driving for more than half hour, we never found it. Thanks to Mr. Accounts and his idea on saving $10 on the rented GPS. His claims of knowing Atlanta very well fell flat on its face as we made our sorry way back home.
En route we stopped at downtown Atlanta for checking out the CNN headquarters. At $13 a tour it was worth it as we were taken systematically albeit briefly through all their programming procedures. We also saw a live news broadcast. I have to say it was pretty exciting. The room was filled with TV screens in each and every space. And in the spaces where they could not fit a TV, they had lights or other electronics. Not the workplace, many of us outside the media like to imagine. Pretty serious stuff. Other things in downtown Atlanta were not so interesting and nowhere close to the northern cities of New York and Boston. The south of US is a very sleepy face unless ofcourse you are a duck and are liable to be shot by a farmer or harassed by tourists for no fault of yours.
- The exterior of the Mandir is made of Turkish Limra limestone.
- The main floor is made of Italian Carrara marble.The ground floor and basement is made of Indian Sandstone.
- Estimated cost $19 million What amazed me was the carvings on the pillars and the ceilings and they were exactly like the ones you would be likely to find in India especially the temples in the South
There was also flush lighting in the floor, of the ultraviolet kind which cast a nice peaceful blue hue on the white marble walls and ceiling. We paid our respects and made our way out. Since it was a clear sunny day, the temple’s beauty was magnified tenfold, a white citadel standing in contrast to the clear blue sky. We rounded the day off by making some chhole-puri, a bit of wine and watching Top Gun on the telly.
***Day 3 - Ruby Falls***
Today was excursion day and we didn’t have anything planned. After consulting with the Telugu roomie(he looked like a replica of Chiranjeevi , only with lesser hair), we came to know of Ruby Falls. After checking some pictures on the net, we decided that this was unquestionably where we were going. Ruby Falls was 116 miles north of us in Chattanooga, Tennessee and I put my racing car driver skills to good use by getting there in just ninety minutes.
The Ruby Falls are an underground falls located in the Ruby Falls caverns. I will give no description as words are pointless to describe this place. Forget words even pictures don’t do it justice. The only thing I can say is that I have never been inside a cave in my life, not even the famous Ajanta Ellora. So this was a unique experience. It was a 55 minute journey to almost 1000 feet below the Lookout Mountain and although the initial moments were exciting, it tends to become slightly tedious and claustrophobic after a while. But the visit ends with the sight of the falls and that is worth the admission ticket.
So those were the three wonderful days. But Sunday evening after driving back from the falls was an unmitigated disaster which will be the next post.
Till then ….adios. To be continued…
