Ahoy! All tea off the ship!

Trip to Boston,Massachusetts

December 2006

Boston Trip – December 28 2006- Jan 2 2007

It was a good opportunity to see Ketki and of course , Boston (the famous place known for the Boston Tea party)..plus there are the world famous universities like the Harvard, MIT..what else could you ask for? I planned this trip just a week before..and I dragged Sayani into it..and we were glad we went together.

Places we saw –

Museum of fine arts – This is the first I have been to in US. My dream has been to see as many places I can in US and I have always thought how is it to be inside a BIG museum like they show in the movies? Here we were..one of the biggest I have seen. They have two floors of exhibits – the first showing the Americas, the Egyptian, Nubian, Greek and Etruscan art, musical instruments, Indian, Korean, southeast asian and Islamic art, Japanese, African, oceanic art, contemporary, prints and photographs and the second floor had impressionism and 20th century European art,Egyptian art, greek and roman art, Chinese and Himalayan art, Japanese art and Buddhist temple room and textile and fashion arts. Phew..that was with a little bit of help from the pamphlet itself. We had one evening and it was impossible to cover it all. We could briefly visit the Greek, the Egyptian, Chinese, roman art..the Indian we decided to skip thanks to the overconfidence that we knew ‘everything’ about India..:).well I am not a very artistic person and I probably cant comment much on the exhibit itself. But we definitely did have some fun taking pictures in the museum. I was using SLR camera for the first time and I think I had a hard time getting used to some of the options in the camera. Well, they came out with a 50-50 chance of being evaluated good. So much for the art! But the section on textile exhibits was good and interesting.

Museum of science – This is another huge building – three levels of exhibits. On the lower level we saw the Bird’s world, the dinosaurs and the theatre of electricity. We could attend the ‘live electricity show’..this was much less electric than the one at Singapore science park..here the presenter called on a lot of kids for volunteers and made it more interactive. It was fantastic, no doubt. All about Van de Graff generators and the lightning effects of electricity..it certainly doesn’t do any harm to have about 50000volts passing through your body but as long as it is at a very low ampere value..like nanoamperes or something..I believe a current of about a mA is fatal. Phew! The second floor has the omni theater. We watched the Alaska: Spirit of the Wild..Sayani has some good shots inside the theater. It is the 180deg type of theatre. The Singapore one was much better I felt. Probably the show also made the difference..I watched a show on Grand Canyon in Singapore whereas here I watched an ordinary one in the wild. But the advancement in technology is truly amazing. Exhibits in the Optics section and Illusions were also interesting. But the science centre at Singapore is the best I have had. I actually spent two days there and I still didn’t finish seeing the place.

The best part of the museum of science was the Body Worlds 2 exhibition, which is not a year long event..these are organized in different places. Dr. Gunther von Hagen’s BODY WORLDS exhibitions are the original anatomical exhibitions of real human bodies. On display worldwide for more than 10 years, they have been on display in Asia, Europe, Canada and the United States. The creator of this exhibition, Dr.Gunther von Hagens is the inventor of plastination –the pioneering technology that makes contemporary anatomical exhibits possible. It’s a patented method of anatomical preservation which replaces body fluids and fat in donor specimens with reactive fluid plastics. Before the plastic hardens, the specimens are fixed into dynamic, lifelike poses. Plastination is a slow and labor-intensive process and it takes nearly a year to transform a donated body into a plastinate. The specimens convey the intricacies and individuality of the body that simply don’t translate with constructed models. The wide range of specimens shows how the body works when it is healthy and when it is not. Compare healthy lungs with those of a smoker, a disease-free liver with one showing cirrhosis and a slice of a normal human body that shows fat tissue and its relentless ability to shorten life. What also struck me was the exhibits on the different embryonic

stages, with 1 week to a few months..that was stunning..including how it looks inside the mother’s womb. Dynamic poses included football kicking pose, yoga pose, baseball catching pose, padmasana pose, roman thinking pose..etc..Photography is not allowed inside, and I just managed to take one with my cell phone camera though..:)

USS constitution – this is the oldest commissioned naval warship afloat. It seems it was lauched in 1797. There is an upper deck and below it is the gun deck. Each gun weighs about 3 tons each..(phew!) and the gun deck also has food and drinks for every meal for about 400 people. Below this is the berth deck where the sailors sleep. There are hammocks everywhere. It is partially partitioned for a surgeons’ room for the sick sailors. I wonder if any survived if they got sick..also there are rooms for storing armory and gun powder.. The ship is big and is also called the ‘Old Ironsides’, and we got a guided tour of the ship. It was a naval officer who was guiding us and she told us many stories of what they used to do when people got sick..how the sailors couldn’t take bath for months..

Prudential Center Skywalk Observatory – A must see, the Skywalk observatory is Boston’s and New Englands’ tallest and only observatory. It offers breathtaking views of the city and beyond. It is within Prudential Tower and since it was New year time, we got to see the ‘Holly’..

Boston Public garden – This was during New Year Eve and we got there in the evening. It was pretty crowded. I saw ice skating in front of me for the first time and there were ‘colourful’ ice sculptures marking the eve. The State house also stands majestically close to the park and it was a memorable evening indeed with the family fireworks continuously for about half hour or so and I think it was the best after the Diwali Nite at Madison. Pretty much like the sight of an Indian Mela with people carrying candies and the children scurrying with balloons and lighted hats…it was a colourful night indeed.

Boston’s freedom trail – this is supposed to be a day long walk and the final destination was the USS constitution. It was raining that day and we cheated ourselves by directly going to the final destination and claiming that we did the freedom trail because we got there in time as per the freedom trail that we were supposed to be at the Constitution at half past two in the afternoon or so. So much for the freedom trail!

Harvard University Campus – this was the grand finale touch to the trip. We want to somehow make it to the great Harvard campus and atleast prove to ourselves that we can atleast we can be there physically once..:). So we made it there and it was typical English weather there, raining and cloudy for the most part of it. But it was Cambridge and what else can one expect? It was an overwhelming experience to be there, on the campus which houses the largest academic library in the world..that is a staggering fact..it was a holiday and unfortunately we could not get inside the library. But we managed to take a shot with the founder, John Harvard himself..;). And ofcourse, to satiate ourselves, we also located the Chemistry department, which was called the ‘Edward Mallinckrodt Chemical Laboratory’.

Overall, the trip was great and packed. Boston is definitely more expensive than Madison and I think one factor is because it is a big city and big cities are definitely more expensive. Rest apart, we had a great time!

Finally that was it.and it was time to return home and get ready for the flight. So long, Boston!

Places we didn’t see – New England Holocaust memorial; Arnold Arboretum; John F Kennedy Presidential library; Fenway Park;New England Aquarium; Fanevil Hall Marketplace.