THE LAST RECEPTION

The morning was spent in quiet exploration. We visited the Pentagon which was out of bounds because of security reasons. We took the subway to the Arlington Cemetery. I was totally fascinated by the acres upon acres of gravestones and the fabulous marble mausoleum dedicated to the Unknown Soldier and witnessed the half-hourly change of guard. Robert Lee’s palatial mansion has now been converted into a museum but they have recreated the 19th century feel to the house with the rooms all done up in old style. The memorial to the Civil War dead stands close to Lee’s house. It was a day spent in quiet remembrance of all those fallen heroes.
It was a hell of task getting all the “tottos” across to Maryland and Jethu actually had to hire a mini-van to get everything inside. Saturday, the 17th of June, was the “boubhat” at the Martin Crosswinds. The feeling was quite mixed for us because our stay in the US was drawing to a close but the evening was totally fun-filled. Mejo Jethu was again the star of the show as he burned up the dance floor with his funky dance moves. The food was good, but the after party was even better as we hung out till early in the morning having a good time.
Washington DC has tons of things to see and we epitomised the intrepid traveller. We visited the vast Smithsonian Museum but only managed to go to the Air and Space Museum which was great. We systematically saw the Washington Memorial, the White House albeit from far, and the newest World War 2 Memorial. The WW2 memorial is an artistic tribute to the fallen heroes of the second World War which a fountain in the centre. The wonderful Lincoln Memorial was next as we paid homage to the great man and his noble ideals. The Vietnam Memorial was perhaps the most emotional of all, which has a huge wall with the names of each of the 58,000 dead engraved on it. People still come today to pay their respects and cards and roses lay strewn and people wept on the walls. The Korean War Memorial was the last of the day after which we had quite a time walking to a subway for we were tired and hungry by then.
Monday morning yielded quite an adventure or should I say a misadventure. Rinididi and I decided to go and check out the Holocaust Museum and she kept the subway passes with herself. The Museum was a dampener for we had little time on us and the shows were due to start only later. No sooner had we reached the station than we found that a train had arrived. Assuming it to be a blue train, we hopped on after confirming it from a lady who was talking on the phone who, seconds later changed her mind and as a consequence, Rinididi skipped out of it just as the doors slammed shut. I was dumbfounded for she had the tickets with herself and there was no way I could exit the station. Luckily with patience, I rendezvoused with her at Pentagon City Station having endured a crazy 20 minutes. She was livid at me for being hasty.
Monday lunch was again sushi for us at the Café Asia. We finally left Arlington in the evening, endured heavy rains and safely made our way back to Ramsey. Tuesday was spent with Seuli Aunty and Bachchu Jethu at their Staten Island residence although most of the time was divided between the ferry cruise and then a fine dinner where again sushi dominated proceedings along with a crunchy soft-shell crab that blew us. Tubai joined us only for dinner having started work following his recent graduation. It was a great day but we were slowly facing the truth that we had less than 24 hours left in the USA as we drove down toward Ramsey.