A visit to Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island
(May 23-26, 2008)
By
Dr.A.K.Srivastava, #1420, Crescent Dr., TarryTown,NewYork,NY10591,U.S.A.
In India-# 2-D, PDIL/ Srijan Aptts. ,B -9/8,Sector-62,Noida-201301(U.P.),India
A great writer wrote that the world was like a “Book”. If you had not traveled, you have read only “one page of the Book”.
United States of America is a great country on many counts. Area, size, wealth & prosperity, technology etc. are some among many of these. Roughly, it is three times in area and one-fourth of population than her other democratic-ally: India. It is also said roughly one-third of U.S.A. resides in the west-coast, another one-third in North-East (New England and Middle- Atlantic region), and balance one-third is spread throughout the rest of U.S.A. Seeing North-East is an experience in itself, because of its greenery, beautiful land-escape consisting of long meadows, mountains ,wild-forests, lakes/water- bodies, proximity to Atlantic ocean, history, pleasant weather, nicely connected by Air, Rail, Surface-transport( both Road and water),besides well mannered and warm people. It has great hubs in Business ( New York , Boston to mention among many),Academics ( Harvard, MIT etc.),Science & Technology, Industry etc. We had another great occasion to visit as our 38th marriage-Anniversary was falling on 24.5.2008 during our scheduled week-end combined with Memorial Day celebrations (on 26/5/2008).We had earlier traveled through some of the area of north-East during our one of the earlier visits to U.S.A. in 2000,when we stayed in Long-Island and visited New York , Washington DC, Niagara Falls, etc. covering in about a week’s time. This time we are at more ease and settled living with our children and grand-children and having more leisurely-paced-life, in relatively small town( but fully and adequately equipped in infra-structure) of Tarry Town, in neighborhood of New York.
Good things come in small packages. Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island may be small in size compared to other bestowed states of Alaska, Texas, California etc. in U.S.A., but are important to a visitor from a far-land in India.
We wished to spend more time in Connecticut, but could’nt do so, because of our very tight scheduled and having to adjust to personal schedules of other members of our family to their respective offices/colleges/schools. So, we decided to do it next time and passed through Connecticut. At one of our stop-overs, we enjoyed the complementary Memorial Day picnic Party at the outskirts of Hartford hosted by war-veteran’s families, followed by our generous donations.
Our first stop of this trip was Boston, the commercial and political capital of the state of Massachusetts ( loosely meaning in the American-Indian words as ”At the great Hill. It resembles the quest of English pilgrims who set sail for America in 1620 aboard a ship named ”May Fair”, dreamed of establishing a religious community that would become a
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model of pious living, as quoted in the Bible. They envisioned ”A city on a Hill”, serving a shining example to the world. Massachusetts has always been an attraction to all visitors across the world as the land of oldest university in U.S.A.( Harvard university, founded in Cambridge in 1636 ),salem witch-trials (19 people were hanged to death in 1692 accused of practicing witch-craft),Boston mass-acre( British soldiers fired upon an angry mob in 1770-killing 5 people),Tea protest (in 1773 Protesting British Tea-taxes, dumping British-tea in Boston harbor),the first battle of American Revolution( in 1775 fought in Lexington and Concord), Invention of telephone in 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell, birth place of 35th President of America : john F. Kennedy, etc. Samuel Adams is another great name as a revolutionary in the history of Boston.
Boston has many attractions to see for people of varied interests. It is said in Boston you have two Bostons. First- Boston of yester years—when virtually the history of U.S.A. begins. For tourists the focus is down town areas, which houses its land mark buildings in Faneuil Hall, Paul Revere ’s house, Freedom trail etc—a Boston of American history books. It encompasses also the expansive green land-escapes of Boston Common, and public gardens, the water fronts that account for the city’s maritime origins, eateries from divergent cultures & cuisines, shopping & recreational orchards.
The other Boston – the great Boston—on the other hand encompasses a web-like sprawal of new communities in neighboring Back way, Charles Town, Roxbury, and separate municipalities like Brookline, Cambridge & Quincy ,and score of outer suburbs from Braintree to Newton to Woburn- with overall population of more than 5.6 million heads.
Keeping in view our immediate focus, we selected our hotel in down town : Hotel Hyatt Regency Boston on Lafayette Avenue. It is a centrally located nice hotel with many historical locations, eateries, entertain & shopping centers at walking distance away. Rooms were nicely appointed, with other facilities Viz. heated indoor pools, saunas, steam-rooms, gym at sixth floor. We wanted first to take some rest, after driving for about 200 miles from Tarry Town.
It was 23rd may 2008 Friday afternoon, when we checked in the hotel and after some light refreshment /coffee, and rest, we started on foot to explore some of the city’s important land marks. It was a pleasant weather, partially sunny, moderate day time temperature in mid-sixties degree Fahrenheit ( *F),but a bit windy. Luckily, we took our jackets, as it was pretty cold in the night at Long Wharf, Boston harbor ocean-front areas.
We strolled leisurely to city-hall ,Faneuil Hall ,Quincy Market, Aquarium, Christopher Columbus Park on Atlantic Avenue. The area near Faneuil Hall, Quincy market was full of life with many live-street shows: Drummers, Pole gymnastic shows, street-dancers with huge gatherings—all enjoying themselves, many in groups; shops displaying a variety of goods and souvenirs/memoria special to Boston; eateries offering Continental /American ,Middle-Eastern, Thai, Japanese, Mexican, Indian cousins. We did some window-shopping (and purchased on the way some gift-items from Eddie Bauer ‘s exclusive
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stores in down-town),spent some time at a couple of shows ,strolled at Boston harbor water front side, had our dinner at a Mexican restaurant and came back to hotel at around 11 PM, as small kids/children were sleepy. It was a hectic day as we started from Tarry Town early in the morning, after completing other routine chorus and preparations required for a long week-end-trip, accompanying small children and walking miles after miles during the day seeing various places/events.
Next day on 24th may 2008,it was 38th Marriage Anniversary of our marriage with Mrs. Shanti Srivastava. After usual greetings, exchanging pleasantries, we quickly got ready after breakfast in the hotel-rooms, for another active and exciting day in Boston. Purposely, we did not take our car from hotel-parking, as we wanted to explore the city with our own pace and in our ways.
First, we went to purchase tickets for whale sight-seeing in their own sanctuary. It is a 4-5 hours programme, typically cruising 30-40 miles eastward in the Atlantic ocean to the “stellwagen Bank national marine Sanctuary”, a shallow submarine platform formed by receding glaciers about 18000 years ago, spanning an area of 842 sq. miles. This protected area is home to Humpback and Mink whales, along with white sided dolphins, blue fin Tuna and northern Lobsters. These huge creatures are fed here and live in colonies.
The cruise-vessel was a huge multi-decked vessel with large glass paneled view-windows and galley services with light snacks and refreshments. Though, it was a sunny day, the temperature in the deep ocean must be either in end fifties or early sixties degree Fahrenheit. As the vessel was moving with an average speed of 40 nautical miles per hour, it was quite chilly and windy on the decks. An expert- professional marine biologist was at service as guide/naturalist, explaining various facts and figures about the whales and other marine lives.
It was a life-time experience to see Hump-back and Mink whales, in different shapes and sizes, some measuring may be up to 8000-9000 pounds in weight, singly or couples moving in a row, one after another, or in parallel, or a family of five to eight giants-creatures in the sunny mid-day, about 40-50 miles away from the shores, each displacing huge volumes of water ,may be sufficient to fill a huge swimming pool, with each dive. Our marine-biologist guide explained that these creatures need feed up to 2000 pounds of fish each day. Many whales liked “singing” making siren-type sound and blowing water from gills as a fountain or simply running for a few hundred feet with their open mouth showing explicitly their mouth & jaw with array of sharp teeth. It was also explained to us why it is environmentally a must to save these giant-animals in their own habitat/environment and save their extinction? We’ll were happy, excited, thrilled, and satisfied with our experience, which was worth of its costs, in terms of money, time and troubles. We generously filmed all whale-seeing events and shall make a small personal video. It was 4=30 PM and we were feeling hungry as our stocks of snacks, juices, soda were already exhausted during the 5-51/2 hours trail.
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After a quick bite at an Indian restaurant at Quincy market food court, we were ready for our next expedition to explore Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology ( M I T) in the evening.
Boston is a city famous for academics, science and technology, tourism, banking, other industries, besides the old other revenue generating occupations in trade, fishing, and ship building. Today, there are some 60 colleges and universities within Greater Boston, making education perhaps city’s biggest industry. Every fall more than 250,000 students flood the area—highest concentration of any major metropolitan area in the U.S.A. Boston has 23 major libraries on its university campus, hundred of museums and advanced research/academic study centres considered a must for any genuinely interested individual in academics. It is varied, specialized, comprehensive and accessible.
It is practically impossible to do justice with the places to see of academic interests, given the time-frame available at our disposal. So, we decided to have a bird-eye view and scan the area as closely as possible .We passed through Massachusetts Avenue, stopping at places viz. Kendall Square, Central Square, Harvard Square, and seeing a few libraries/museums from only out side. We joked among ourselves to come back again, as early as possible but at least at the time of admission of our grand-children in this world famous/prestigious academic temple It is a dream of any individual to have some academic relation with this famous academic institution. We came back to our hotel-room by 10-30 PM.
On the morning of 25th may 2008, the third-day of our trip, we went for a hearty work-out at the hotel Gym., have a fun at the swimming pools, for about an hour, before we got ready to check-out the hotel and move for the next destination of our trip.
Our next stop was Salem, after about 30 minutes drive from Boston. It is a small town in the north-east of Boston, famous for its witch-craft trials in 1692 and culminating into hanging of 19 people and death by crushing of one person. It had shaken the conscience of the America of the late seventeenth century.
Since, it is a small city, We parked our car in the parking-lot of a mall and leisurely strolled in the city and finally went to see “Salem Witch museum” at Washington Square, north opposite Salem Commission on SR-1 A. We also attended audio-visual presentation, explaining about the circumstances, socio-religious-cultural setting of late seventeenth century, influence of religious-institutions on the day to day life of people in Salem, their inspirations, criminal-justice system of those days etc. It was also explained how lack of ( scientific and / or rational ) knowledge, coupled with action/incidence by certain individuals/group of people transformed into an aggravated situation of acute fear perception, resulting into a wrong decision/bad trend, reflecting the negative side of the society? How the effect of certain fungus on wheat crop, which was innocently went to feed teenager girls of those times, who were confined to the four walls of house, deprived of social-contacts, education, and any other form of entertainment with access to only needle-work or household- chorus were made to death, because of no fault of them. We still get some similar examples in the country side of certain un-developed region of rural
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India, where un-married or some times newly-married women show symptoms of aggression, hysteria, fits, unruly behaviour, which are treated and cured with help from clinical psychologist and modern day medicines. After our tour to Salem city, we proceeded to Rhode Island and taken lunch at ‘IHOP’ on the way.
It was 70-75 minutes drive to reach Providence, the capital of the Rhode Island. Rhode Island is the tinniest of all 50 states comprising U.S.A., but has longest name. Its official name is “State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations”. It has 400 miles of shore-lines, but each and every resident is not far away beyond 14 miles of sea shore.
City of Providence was established in 1636, by separatist minister: Roger Williams, who fled Massachusetts fearing arrest because of his liberal views on “Free rights of worship with out interference or regulations by the state” .In Providence, we choose our hotel in down town—‘Renaissance Providence Hotel’ at Avenue of Arts Road—a Marriott group hotel. It was a nice hotel, within a furlong of capitol-State house, Providence-mall, Brown University and many important land-marks, museums, memorials etc.
In evening we went for a long walk in water place Park, a four acre urban Park focused on 240 ft. diameter basin joining the Providence and Woonasquatucket rivers. The Providence river-walk was fascinating with Venetian-style foot bridges, cobble-stone and brick walk-ways, camp-fire type fire within the river-bed etc. In the evening, we took our dinner at the “Uno”—an American restaurant.
Next day was Memorial day—on 26th may 2008.After a nice work-out in the Gym at the hotel, we went for breakfast at the food court of Providence-Place mall and did some shopping ,taking advantage of the special discounts being offered for the day. Lunch was at the hotel. After some rest at hotel rooms, in the evening, we went to see the Brown University and other land marks in the city and finally to a park at India street, near Providence Port harbor. The dinner was got packed from “Taste of India” at Wickenden Street and taken in the hotel rooms.
On the last day of our trip on 27th may 2008, after a work-out at the hotel Gym. and the breakfast, we checked-out and started to go to River fall, in Massachusetts( about 35 minutes drive south-east on I-195) to see “Battleship Cove”.
Battleship Cove is an impressive collection of historic 20th century naval ships: covering a soviet-built missile corvette” Hiddensee”, PT Boats: 796 and 617 torpedo boats;AH-1 Cobra attack Helicopters those served in Vietnam war, besides main ships like USS Massachusetts( Big Mamie),a 680 feet battle-ship that served 35 battles during World War-II( WR-II),covering both Atlantic and Pacific ; USS Joseph P. kennedy,Jr. ,a destroyer that was engaged in action in Korea, Vietnam and the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 and a WR-II attack submarine : USS Lionfish.
USS Massachusetts was built in Quincy, Massachusetts and was commissioned in April 1946 .It was decommissioned by US Navy in December 1946. It’ s 16”size projectile
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ammunition with a mass of about 1 MT and range of 20 miles on the enemy-ships was
famous for its wide and effective destruction. The visit to main deck, gun turrets, nine decks of ships’s interior, engine rooms make an exhaustive and unique experience about the way of life on board, technology of yester years, ambitions, communication systems in the era of forties & fiftyees of twentieth century in the U.S. Navy. The display of sleeping rows, both for officers and marines; kitchen, items in stores, dinning-rooms, instrument-rooms (mostly Neumatic type instruments were being used),hospital /operation theatre, dentistry and pharmacy etc. make an interesting and educational tour. Some of the items on display viz. clothes, daily life items like cookies, chocolates, double edged Gillette shaving blades/ razors, half burnt letters during Pearl Harbor Japanese action were interesting and worth mentioning. Most of the ship is still kept in running condition.
Destroyer ship: USS Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. was commissioned on December 15,1945 and after it’s useful action-life was decommissioned from US navy in 1973.
Visit to Balco -class sub-marine USS Lion fish gives an impression about sailor’s day to day activities under sea. The sun-marine USS Lion fish has two engines ,each of 5500 horse power, enough to propel with a speed of 20-25 knots on surface and 9.8 knots in the water. The sub-marine was commissioned on 1st November 1944 and de-commissioned on January 16,1946.
It seems the Russian-ship ”Hiddensee” was nicely designed , built and maintained than any of the American ships, we visited/ seen. ”Hiddensee” was presented to U.S.A.
By East-Germany and is still nicely maintained.
A visit to Battleship Cove shall be remembered by us for a long time due to its uniqueness, exhaustive and informative coverage and as vintage of WR-II--part of our history.
We all returned to Tarry Town on 27th May 2008 late evening , though a bit tired, but still enthusiastic and bubbling because of satisfying enjoyable long week-end trip.
I personally look forward to another such trip in the future as soon as possible.
Note :- The idea to write this note was of my daughter: Mrs. Priyanka Sinha, who encouraged me to pen it and send to her in my hand-writing. She was personally not part of this trip.
Dr. A. K. Srivastava
Tarry Town: June 05,2008