Monday, September 28, 2009 

At Home

where smoke belching chimneys are nestled within green hills and roads names are strangely musical. Where childhood games revolved around matching industrial products with the local factory names...Timken, Tayo, Agrico.
where the early morning wake up caller has a tufted head and goes "tooey-too". Apparently the little one harbors an intense hatred for curtains. If not for them darned curtains, I would get a more personal wake up call...apparently!
where the festivities are for everyone - the people in town and for those across the river. Where the pujo bonus brings about an unheard of frenzy in the marketplace. It might not be the biggest or the flashiest, but there is still the prize winning jute work, the dhaanker saaj, the lights, the natoon sari, the dhunichi naach and para-r program...
the "aloo chaap from bangaal" at Ambagan and the fair at Sabuj Sangha.

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1:27 AM | | | links to this post

Sunday, September 06, 2009 

What's The Use of Going Someplace

if one cannot blog about it afterwards..Right?

So, without much further ado, here is an account of our weekend in the mountains of West Virginia. More specifically in the Seneca State Forest. Please note that the lack of internets in the said mountains prevented us from providing minute by minute updates on our whereabouts on Facebook.

Since we are on the subject of lacks, our little cabin in the woods, by the river, did not have running water or electricity- yet another reason why those by the minute updates would not have been possible. Also the State Forest where this cabin is located happens to be within the boundaries of the only National Radio Quiet Zone, so there was no cell phone reception or for that matter any radio reception. The only radio station we found was a country station on the AM band. All this courtesy, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory(NRAO) in nearby Green Bank which many folks might recognize from the movie, Contact.

But one thing our cabin did not lack was oodles of old fashioned charm - think hand pumped water and wood burning stoves, the wood for which was thoughtfully provided in a shed nearby. For a day or two, I had my own personal wood shed - woo hoo! The interior was lit with propane lamps and we even had a propane powered refrigerator. The not so charming part - the pit toilet. Feel the need for a bath - take a dip in the stream behind the cabin. Not so adventurous - go down a steep hill to the ranger station, pay a few quarters for the modern convenience of a hot shower.

Without electricity and television, night literally falls. You can play Scrabble for only so long. Thankfully, without all the extraneous hum of city living, falling asleep is easy.

An early coffee enjoyed on the sun dappled stairs of the cabin and a hearty breakfast later we set out for a long trek through the wilderness. Don't expect any great views here. And the one spot that held the promise of a view - an abandoned fire tower was partially dismantled to discourage climbing. Ugh!

On the way back, we stopped by the NRAO and got our geek on. Initially, this was planned as group trip but all the others bailed out on us at the very end. In retrospect, I was quite glad they did- we managed to enjoy a peaceful and quite weekend in the mountains just by ourselves.

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8:57 PM | | | links to this post

About me

  • Liberal,open-minded with a known weakness for bespectacled and intelligent men. Love nature and all of God's creatures big and small with exception of the slimy, slithery ones and Aishwarya Rai. Netflix junkie. Enjoy cooking/experimenting with new and exotic ingredients. Dabble in art and music occassionally. Still cannot resist free food. Get paid for solving traffic problems.
  • From Silver Spring, Maryland, United States
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