I am just back from a stint at the zoo. Oops, I guess I am starting off nearly at the middle of the chapter. Well here goes then ...... There is an organization called International friends here in Tucson, who arrange to have a student matched with an american family, so that there can be an exchange of culture of sorts. Yeah! I know, I never usually go into all this.....come to study , so why get into anything else but this was highly recommended by my senior here, Pooja. So I was a little excited when I was contacted by LuAnn a few days ago. She happens to be a judge here in Tucson.
She planned an outing for me today, August 21st, Sunday.
When today finally arrived I was looking forward to the evening with all smiles. This would be my first proper outing in Tucson and for somebody like me who scarce stays indoors or works 24 hours a day......it was going to be a welcome break. Shalini would have been left alone at home ,so she also joined in.
And it was precisely at 5:15 that LuAnn herself came knocking at our door. After a brief round of introductions, she handed over a complete goodie bag to me, there was a packet of wild rice with spices and instructions on cooking, some masala naans, a packet of sweets, a water-bottle and some Tucson postcards .....which she told me I could write home with. There was such a wonderful and almost carelessly included sense of warmth in her gesture and in each carefully chosen gift..... which astounded me.
Her other international friend, Sudhir from bangalore, was already waiting in the car with her boyfriend Dennis. They drove us to a restaurant called Chopped, where I ordered a chicken sandwich which was delicious. LuAnn, Sudhir,and Shalini opted for salads. The sandwich was delicious, and I got lemonade too with ice. LuAnn kept us alive with jokes throughout and asking us about what surprised us the most about the states and our first entry here. I replied it was the diversity in their topography ...India has the same thing but on a very small scale....and that people here were so friendly. They said New York would be different, Tucson being a small town people were very friendly.
We were met at the restaurant by two of LuAnn's friends, Sue a school teacher who had the summer off and had joined a research expedition to Africa on the trail of wild elephants. And Veronice or as LuAnn called her, V, who was a judge too and also an athlete. She was talking about having biked to Mount Lemon on the top of the Catalinas and then run down the slope.
The greatest thing about it all , was the amazing range of professions on that table......... and the backgrounds alone, of all the people sitting there, could have told stories till breakfast the next day.
We left Sue and V to go to the zoo. It was a 5-10 mins drive. On the way LuAnn pointed out the park, where people were roller-skating, doing squat exercises or simply running. The mountains bordered the lush green park surrounded by tall palm trees, and it was beautiful.
The zoo had an ice-cream safari on, and on going inside I had an ice-cream sandwich. It was ice-cream in between two slices of chocolate cake. I had been complaining just two days back of how I had not had a ice-cream since I had come and here I was.........
The zoo was not San Diego, .......there were kids all around , some having their faces painted , others with popsicle sticks, and with the word "popsicle" I felt as if I had stepped right into a story book chapter of the Five find-outers. But the zoo was not like Alipur zoo in Calcutta, where your nose warns you of what animal is next to come in sight. It covered a very small space and within it, it had tried to recreate the jungle atmosphere. Walking under overgrown bamboo trees hovering over our heads and thick bushes beside the walkway......our first encounter was with the rhino. Then the pelicans on one leg, zebras and antelopes....and there in a pond, the first thing which made me stick to the railing for a few seconds , were two little ducklings........a shade of brown and black , not much larger than the palm of my hand , who were wading from one end of the pool to the other in glee and showing off their newly developed swimming skills I guess. Their mother kept a watchful eye from the shore .....but they in their own companionship and the coolness of the water seemed to be having the time of their lives.
In Hyderbad it had been Charminar which had first made me stop and love the city. In Tucson, two little ducklings are responsible.
Later from the lion's cage to the rhea to the camdary (I have forgotten its name) to amazingly colored macaws and parakeets, and elephants, and tortoises that looked as if they were rocks, and a snoozing polar bear which looked totally like bruno while sleeping ...trying to snap its nose and running as if living his dream, and sprinklers which suddenly shot out of the ground and started watering the plants like in Jurassic park, and with melting ice-creams in our hands ,...........and a mountain which hovered in the distance but seemed closer , much closer .....
well that was how today turned out for me.
I was amazed by the warmth of it, the warmth of the hug LuAnn gave me with a wish for the "all the best" for classes, the drink Dennis toasted to the start of our classes...... this was the first time I shared a conversation on a dinner table about elephants and research on their dna , and mount lemmon and climbing and jogging it for your workups, and books and jhumpa lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies, and Life of Pais..........three indians and four americans across sandwiches and salads ina restaurant called "Chopped".
2 comments:
"Her other international friend, Sudhir from bangalore, was already waiting in the car with her boyfriend Dennis."
Yeh line kuch to bhi confusing hai but still it was good enough to make me laugh.
A toast to the new life you've well begun!... Keep exploring and make a lotta friends, its great to know that you're getting along well(thanks to the li'l ducklings)...for the nth time, I'm reminding you again of some snaps and a telephone number...
Love.
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