traveltalk

1^st June Sunday started on a very relaxed note.  Not too many visitors to the U.S.Space and Rocket Centre.  With the schedules of the children in hand, we prepared our time table for recording the missions, taking pictures of the different activities and attending various presentations.

The children looked very happy during meal times with pizzas for lunch and burgers & brownies for supper.  We too felt happy when the consellors  appreciated our children..  One of them said “I Love Your Kids.”

A humid morning was followed by cooling showers in the evening.

Looking forward for our kids’ missions.

The Chaperones

`If you don’t like the weather here just wait for 5 minutes, it will change”: Quote by Huntsville resident. We have proof of this when it starts to rain in the afternoon after a morning of mandatory shades and cap gear  sunshine. The water -splattered kids were of course ecstatic and my mosquitoes were especially animated swarming as they were all around us abuzz with news of a new assignment `to make our own robot’ after which they would be, hold your breath, `interviewed’. The accompanying Counselor looked harassed, happy and resigned all at the same time. Welcome to our world ,I thought. Just one mosquito was enough to put that look on our faces. The poor man had all 6 of them.

We Chaperones did our official time tabling today on the basis of the Missions that the kids start from Monday. We get to video shoot, photograph and watch their activities on a need to basis and we need to get the activities and times right before we set off on the site visits. The kids of course think we just hang around and eat. This notion is aided and abetted by the fact that we get to meet them regularly only at meal times. It also doesn’t help that we wait in the cafeteria till all of them from different groups have come and gone. Some of them are of the belief that we eat afresh with each group. I have seen them giving us knowing, envious looks each time we pass them with a tray of anything in our hands.

While the younger ones are always happy to see us and greet us with enthusiastic shouts of `Hey Ma’am’, the older ones are more studied in their approach ,post new found independence on foreign soil. There are restrained half waves and repressed smiles. There is the all pervasive demeanour of ` We know you like to feel you are still in control but we really know better! How fast they grow and…go.

We constantly walk under the giant, looming, monumental presence of the earth bound rockets and space stations. They are comforting and unsettling at the same time. We see what man is capable of doing and has done and what these same minds and the matter they create are capable of undoing. To us  educators it is all the more unnerving because we already are privy to the sometimes blinding and sometimes gradual unleashing of a similar brilliance that gave birth to these magnificent machines, from these young wards who we like to think we are teaching. Truth to tell we learn how to teach them when they show us how it is they like to learn.

We adults decided we needed a fun story to tell the kids when we met them again so took a ride in the `Space Shot’ an amusement ride that takes you up about 60 ft and drops you down. We shared this news with them with a deep sense of accomplishment only to have it shattered by a 10 year old who said casually `Oh that. The one in our own Wonderla is even scarier’. Further smiles were wiped from our faces when we were told that we were `sort of missed’ and that this place was really `awesome and organized’. Compared to what I wanted to ask but from previous experience knew better than to do that for fear of hearing the answer.

After the frenetic activity of New York and Washington, for us chaperones , with the kids away most of the times, time weighs heavily here …as we are beginning to also, what with ice creams and pizzas on a daily basis and the presence of the  fountain of life for every teenager anywhere in the world—the ubiquitous Coke and potato chips.

The sparrows have all migrated from India to the US. I have followed their trail for the last 15 years that I’ve been visiting this country. But I know ,like their human counterparts, this too will soon be a country they will migrate from rather than to. They may, like many, have learned to live here but their hearts are still in transit, waiting for the final destination….home, in India. Like Shreyas, one of my older kids, a young man of few words, succinctly put it when I asked him how he was holding up. `I’m not lonely Ma’am, but India is’.

Without my 37 pieces of precious cargo India certainly is. Mera Bharath  hamesha Mahaan’.

Signing off for now,

hemaa narayan

After a day of fun & frolic, the official orientation for our kids was on 30th May at 5 p.m. as scheduled.  Clearcut instructions were given about the activities and the expected behaviour.  They were divided into groups – Orion, Taurus, Yeag er, Pulley to name a few. There are two counsellors incharge of each group.  Immediately after the orientation, they were taken for various activities.  They have already experienced moonwalk, zero gravity, rock climbing, etc.  Children look EXCITED AND HAPPY all the time.

We the chaperones too had a orientation and were taken on a campus tour.  We were shown how we can watch and record the activities of our kids.  One of the impressive places we were taken to was the Davidson Centre.  We  were dumbstruck at the sight of the gigantic rockets some of which are original.  We were exposed to the life of astronauts in space.

The Chaperones

Sorry I  have  been out of it for a while. Jet lag and a general sense of out- of -this-worldliness  notwithstanding, I have been mostly preoccupied with the very pedestrian- no pun intended – concerns of planes, trains ans automobiles —-all of which at one time or the other have been our chosen mode of transportation or one by default.

Travelling by commuter aircraft from W’ton  to Huntsville, Alabama,  was in itself a whole different trip with each one of us feeling the yaw and pull of the smll aircraft. We pretty much had the entire  aircraft to ourselves with a few disbelieving Americans at the sight of so many Indians in one plane , along for the ride.

At Huntsville the NAsA presence was perceptible almost immediately. We were summarily herded off   into  the NASA buses and from there the kids were grouped, badged and bundled of into their various rooms along with their `linens’,While they seemed a little uncertain about parting company from us, thay seemed resigned  to  the idea. It was we adults who immediately felt the strong twinges of separation anxiety from `our children’.We saw glimpses of them through the course of the day and similarly the next day at meal times, following their Counselors, talking to students from other countries, and each time they seem more relaxed, getting into the loop, finding their groove and generally getting literally with the programme…forgive me but I like spelling the Indian way  and you will not see `program’ and `color ‘ intentionally on my Blog!!

Meal times are different. We have a large hall that seats about 500 people at   a time and our `dinner’ which is their `supper’ the last meal of the day,is over by 6.00p.m.. Tough for us,but apparently a piece of cake, literally and otherwise to the kids. The unlimited supply of Pepsi and Coke—Krithika’s mum don’t worry– we have informmed the Counselors that she can’t have too much of either!!—scrambled eggs, pasta, noodles etc –not too much rice and veggies–you think these kids are gonna complain??   It’s just no contest….the NASAA meals win every time.

The kids and us have had tours of the Campus and the sight of the magnificent` big birds’- the rockets, shuttles, space memoribilia, the Museum exhibits are truly impressive. India has indubitably   splendid minds and brilliant executors of our own space programmes, but we need to learn how to package and `sell’ our sizeable and truly noteworthy accomplishments to our own people and get the young ones to realise and participate in an inherent discovery and pursuit of national pride. The US Flag and the three letters proclaiming the origin of the rockets and other devices of this land are symbols that are reinforced everywhere until those of non-US origins also  start relating to the idea of the colours and the name  as perhaps having a more personal connection than  they actually do in reality.

The Saturn V in  all its magnitude-most rocket parts here have been used in rael missions, and     this particular  one   has all three of its authentic segments. You walk into the hall and are reduced to gasping and gawking. It doesn’t matter who built and why, just the sheer power and size of that magnificent structure sucks the breath away from you. Aditya , one of my mosquitoes, is probably going to set up camp there.

We chaperones are meant to be a  silent  presence, watching and not directly interacting. I understand how letting  something go means you also let it grow. It’s happening even as I write.

Signing off for now,

hemaa narayan

So many firsts! The first overseas dream trip, first time setting foot on the land of opportunities, “AMERICA”…

 New York was just “awesome” with the breathtaking skyscrapers and a sea of people of different colors, shapes and sizes.

From the city of hype – in terms of business, technology and fashion, we took off to the seat of power, WASHINGTON D.C., full of museums, monuments and memorials.

After the hectic sightseeing and a very satisfying shopping spree, it was time for the main destination (also the final) The NASA Space Camp at Huntsville, Alabama.   At the airport, we had a few anxious moments when a student could not find his boarding pass.  After teachers scrambling here and there looking for the missing boarding pass, what do we find? It is all along in his coat pocket. After a few coughed up extra charges for the overweight baggage, we experienced the novelty of a commuter flight, which our kids described as “Air BMTC bus”.

Transportation – Land, Air and Water. We have done it all during this trip. The SVM children are amazing and enterprising in ways hat apply to all these modes. They can read maps, figure out quicker ways to get to a place and different ways to reach one instead of the usual tried and tested.

Here we felt the pangs of separation from our “wards” as they were taken away by the official counselors of the Space Camp.

We are now looking forward to the “meal times” as those are the only times we get at least to see “our children”.

Today has been a lot of monument and memorial visits. I forgot to mention that the Statue of Liberty has been dubbed `Liberty Aunty” by our kids. A little bit of the Indian fraternal flavour to the lady.

The kids are settling down with ease to the walk abouts and the Metro rides. Their easy acceptance of the new makes the novelty of any freesh experience last for just a few minutes after which it already is in the realm of the familiar and old. My mosquitoes Mohit, Ashish,Junaid,Puneeth and Aditya are steady in their pursuit of the unusual in all things noise or automobile related. They either create the decibels or respond to anything that does. The Ferraris, the Yamahas have had more camera space than the W’ton monument or the Abe Lincoln memorial. Karthik has been elevated to Bumble Bee status from the Mosquito cadre courtesy his general dominance of the rest of his troop and the visible enhancement of his confidence level.

W’ton AIr and Space Musuem offers  a good menu of 3d movies one of which `3d Sun’ we saw today. The general pronouncement from the teen tribe has been `awesome’.

The weather has been cloudy but great for walking and apparently eating. The proof of the pudding are the several clean plates we get to see.

We have had a lot of the locals stop and ask our kids questions of where they are from and what our agenda is. They have been only too happy to launch into the NASA speech as well as impressing everybody with their general confidence and congeniality.

Tomorrow there’s some more sight seeing and the day after we leave for Huntsville for the last leg of our journey and the most significant one to which our T-shirt proclamation will bear witness-SVM NASA 2008.

A note to all who may be reading these blogs-. These posts are often written in the wee hours of the morning and generally sans my lenses/glasses… hence the typos most unbecoming of an English major not to mention Teacher. Apologies. Spell check is sometimes not checked on my toolbar!

Signing off for now,

hemaa narayan

Easy DC: Well not so easy to begin with. We started off from New York to Washington D C without incident but on arrival at the La Guardia airport found that Delta Airlines did not allow more than 1 check in baggaage per person. Imagine deciding which piece goes and which stays on as cabin baggage while farming out lunch to 46 people at the Airport—and having it—-and all the time taking an extensive mental  inventory on whether the erstwhile check-in and now cabin baggage has shampos,gels, lotions, toothpaste or other contraband items in it which yoyu may have to junk regardless of cost, sentiment or utility, while also enterprisingly divesting yourself of your shoes for security and still finding a window seat on thw aircraft!! All in a days work for the SVM Astrorockers.

We made it to DcC to find that the Melrose Hotel– a Boutique Hotel—while boasting of splendid rooms and located on the famed Pennsylvania Avenue where a structure called the White House among other locations of such ilk may be found, was not built around a lobby meant for 37 opinionated students. Not to worry, we did alright as the Americans say and have taught the latter how small spaces can be intelligently used when one adopts postures that adapt to the ebb and flow of the population at any given time. The rooms at this Hotel are truly luxurious in terms of space and very well appointed beds.

Dinner was pretty grand at the The Taj Palace managed by Mr.Mian, a Bangla Deshi gentleman who by his own admission `love children ‘as he has three of his own. The kids of course know a good thing when it comes their way and played the `we are the travel weary students off to NASA’ to the hilt. Needless to say the Dessert that followed was befitting of such hard working souls!!

Tomorrow is the local sight seeing day. All should go well. Abhishek, who had a cold earlier during the evening, looks infinitely better after his rest and ready to take on the Washington offerings. My `mosquitoes’ are turning out to be extremely adaptable young squirts who handle new places with the elan of seasoned travellers. My older boys are really the sort of young men who look out for you and their younger kind, the aforementioned famed `mosquitoes’.They have pretty much covered the gamut of all roles from shouldering big brother resposibilities to literally big bags, from delivering lunch and dinner packages to messages, from calculating differnces in prices from India to the US to how many cans of Pepsi a certain young man can drink in a day, thay have been admirable and more importantly been there for us when needed. The young ladies are just wondrous, young people..funny, smart, absent minded and always capable of doing 12 things at one time.

We ,the adults live and learn all the time…as always from those we supposedly teach.

Signing off for now,

hemaa narayan

It’s hard to believe that back home in Bangalore people have Fans almost whirling off thier bases and the ACs on full blast as some of our first purchases in New York were thick sweatshirts or additional shirts to keep us warm in the evenings wrapped in the last blast of the chill of the already forgotten winter along with the airy anticipation of the spring. Spring, despite our runny noses and wind bitten cheeks and lips seems to have left an early calling card to the New Yorkers as she seems to be in the air and in what people here wear. Clothes here, despite the aforementioned temperature dips, already are lighter, shorter and of summery hues. The SVM students and Staff are however, despite the chill factor, completely in tune with the city’s dictataes attire wise as we are all kitted out in our cool cottons and Indian summer gear plus the newly acquired jackets/sweatshirts of course.

New york and her monuments have all been paid homage to by every tourist who visits anad we have been no different. The Statue of Liberty with her eternally extended arm, Ellis island with it’s truly haunting pictures and memorabllia, Ground Zero and it’s harrowing and humble remains, Times Square bearing testimony to the city that never sleeps, the Empire State building with its blustery heights and images of King Kong looming in every body’s minds thanks to Hollywood remakes….the list goes on. We did all this and more. We visited parks, Wax Works Museums where we literally rubbed shoulders with the Pope, the President and the Pop star amongst others and screamed our lungs off irrespective of age and official standing in the Ripley’s Believe It or Not Chamber of Horrors

Our 37 strong body of children have been drawing smiles and second looks everywhere they go. So far for all the right reasons!! They have been themselves..spontaneous, curious, quite honest in their interest or lack of it and above all true Indians ..while singing their School prayer earnestly in the morning or lapsing into the language of their comfort and choice when truly wanting to express themselves.

I have had a whole new experience ….watching all these new stories that will soon be very fond memories unfold for me once again… through the children. New York was getting old ….until I saw it all over again through their eyes.

Will try to add the pictures to this page asap.Wait to hear from the astro rockers themselves soon.

Signing off for now

hemaa narayan