The first, off the block, were team Tulane and Team Chicago. Our members were to be seen all over NSCB airport, Kolkata and then IGI airport, New Delhi. We had a break at Frankfurt and Air India gave us a first-hand feel of the forthcoming attraction “Jail” in the enclosure there. On our flight from Frankfurt to Chicago, aboard Air India, the food suddenly changed language to what appeared like German. I couldn’t make one sachet out from the other and for the first time in my life, I missed being in the company of the “Xerox guy” (he knows German, the way I know bengali).
At the O’Hare airport, Chicago we were greeted by our local student coordinator, Pooja. Despite the long and tiring journey, her appearance had infused new life into members of the Chicago team. The accommodation was arranged at nothing less than “Marriott- the Marriott” and people settled happily until food was served. All of us were sharing rooms (and beds and blankets) with our colleagues. The first feel of Chicago and Michigan Avenue was very pleasant and one only had to step out of the secure confines of the hotel to realize why Chicago (and this article) is called the windy city. The rooms had a fantastic view of Lake Michigan and the royal feel of downtown (the most posh address in Chicago. No Oprah doesn’t live here).
Dinner brought together the vegetarians to form the cooking club. And, were they well prepared! What else do you expect with an air-force officer at the helm of affairs? Their ration was large enough to feed an army and constituted everything from cereals, legumes, spices and condiments to the all terrain favourite “Maggi”. Breakfast continued to be the same day-break after day-break and even the most enthusiastic of the non-vegetarians lost hope after day four. When one of us declared that “he could eat anything that moves”, people started being more sombre in his company. That guy literally devoured everything that came his way (sometimes even without trying to identify the object of his affection). We were grateful that he did not ask for sea-food during our visit to the aquarium.
Our single point of contact (SPOC) was a powerhouse and had flown in, from Egypt, the same day as us. She took control from the very beginning and assigned the best faculty members to teach each lecture. In the very first session the Dean was mighty impressed with the stature of questions asked by the team members (I too was taken aback until I realized that there was limited and rational participation by section ’B’). They showed us around the library first so that our literary germs, lying dormant somewhere, would feel the urge to surface. Most of us didn’t bite the bait and kept our germs under control. The ‘educated ’one amongst us hit the library and gym with equal gusto (probably using the books as weights).
Pooja took very good care of all of us and guided us through Michigan Avenue, etc. despite her busy schedule. Our team members returned the favor by teaching her finance (taking turns to do so), until she had completely mis-understood the subject.
Michigan Avenue was like fashion-street. The best were dressed in the best and the strong wind didn’t seem to deter them from making new style statements everyday. Everyone was amazed at the gusts of wind that were like nothing we had ever seen before. One day when the vegetarian club cooked ‘chana’ my roomy made it even windier at night.
Visit to the “Chicago board of trade” was an eye-opener. Things like that are strictly out of bounds in India. To actually see trading on the floor (the call-out style) was just too good. For the first time in five months I had seen something louder and more chaotic than section ‘B’. The team leader had to spend considerable time in deciding on the gift for our educator at CBOT. My suggestion, to enclose a disclaimer saying that the sculpture wasn’t a yoga pose to be imitated, met with much disdain. (The sculpture was an idol of “Nataraj”).
Then we had team-mates who didn’t like the US of A because there was no-one to carry booze and grocery from the stores to the hotel. People who’ve never carried essential commodities for their biological kids carried heavy doses of booze over more than a mile or two. People’s dedication was commendable.
It wasn’t all hard work for team Chicago. Over the weekend we visited famous buildings, aquarium, museum and a boat-ride to appreciate the architectural marvel that’s Chicago. Every building had a past and every one of them appeared equally important. Some people tried the Indian restaurant down the street and some ate a lot of ‘khichdi’ because the president of the vegetarian club was away for the weekend. The other members of the club didn’t risk cooking anything else apart from ‘Maggi’.
And then the inevitable happened. One of us, who has a dubious “team-mates rights record” disappeared over the weekend not to appear on Monday much to the agony of one of us. While the agonized guy created a scene over the former’s disappearance, the former returned later on Monday night to say, ”Dude, I had a blast”. Well sir, so did we (though of a different kind). The agony uncle took an entire night to recover from the trauma thus caused.
People hit the internet like their lifeline. Face book helped exchange daily reports and experiences across time zones. The team from Manila was most eloquent and at one point I “unfriended” (the new word of 2009- recognized by Oxford dictionary) their communicator for spamming my face book too often. Surprisingly, the most silent were the guys in Germany. We are yet to hear from them. They are in our prayers. They were supposed to stay somewhere near a concentration camp and were accompanied by the Chairperson, GMP. The team at Tulane were participating in a lot of adventurous activities and one of them even appeared like an alien in a picture forwarded to us. A lady kept sending pictures of all the automobiles she had befriended and our mess-in-charge ate alligators (and liked them too). We are in for a surprise change in the menu when we get back.
Across geographies, the other thing that kept people binding and fretting was “Capstone”. People spent hours on their laptops trying to figure out how to get their team to the last but one position from the last position. Every time they logged-in, their strategy had been changed by another team member who could not be hit hard because he was in another continent. So, people kept brushing their vocabulary of Hindi curses and abuses lest they forgot the same in a foreign land. Most of have maintained our touch with Parliamentary language.
My trip came to an abrupt end due to an emergency back home. The mood of this article can tell that things are going well. Thanks to cooperation from all team-mates, our coordinator, their coordinator and our SPOC.
POSTED BY DR PALLAV
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