क्रिसमस ट्री का सौन्दर्य

Today she is at home, means in the hotel room. Jun left at seven thirty in the morning, after having a delicious breakfast. he rang her some time back, will be back at five in the evening, and then they will go to Walmart. She watched news and then one movie to know the tit bit of American culture. Yesterday she went to training center. Emailed to didi and Nanha, who had written, Assam is in the grip of violence, she hoped things get better soon. They ate some nice cookies and drank milk chocolate in the lunch break and went for a walk around the center. They saw fast moving heavy traffic, large hotels, restaurant and big showrooms on the way.  In the evening they went to market with jun’s friend, he showed them some big shops of vegetables, flowers and gifts. They had Indian food in Balaji and brought some strawberries, avocados, brinjals and cucumbers. The waiter at Balaji was sad although he was smiling to see them. There was an Indian girl in the front of dollar shop asking for help. In the Indian food mart sales persons were not looking well dressed. So everybody is not so well to-do in Houston. Yesterday she read much about the city, its hot and humid weather, its traffic, concrete jungle and also about its plus points. Now she is familiar with many names and places of the city. It is a huge city. She is enjoying every moment here. They have another two weeks here to see the city, to feel it, to live in the richest country of the world, some of the most talented people, most beautiful people and story teller live here. Holidays are always fun and holidaying in US is  really something.

Today morning she was in petro skill training center's coffee room. She got there a guide to Houston; some of the findings are interesting so she has noted it down for the article, which she is going to write afterwards-

The city was named after Samuel Houston, who was in his life time governor of Tennessee and Texas, signer of Texas declaration of independence from Mexico.

The first word spoken from the surface of the moon when the first astronauts landed in July 1969 was Houston.

The racial mix here is 54% white, 23% Hispanic, 19% Black and 4% other Asian or other races.

 Oil is in the veins of Houston. Texaco and Exon are two petroleum industry top giants.

In the evening they went for sightseeing. They saw the museum of natural sciences, IMAX theatre, aquarium and zoo. They went to Galleria and Katy mills mall and saw number of beautiful shops decorated with Christmas trees and toys. It was all like a dreamland. There one could buy anything under the sun from eatables to furniture and camera to microwave ovens.

Today she is again in the hotel room alone. Jun has gone for his field visit part of the tour. Yesterday they went to NASA, Mr Mike sun-in-law of jun friend’s relative showed them the surrounding and explained many interesting things about NASA. They spent good time there, earlier it was hot and suddenly rain started and temperature dropped down and they all were shivering with cold.  They drove in to NASA metro train and toured around the space mission center and saw the actual size mars rockets and shuttle, which will be part of the next space station of NASA, it is international space station made by the help of 150 nations other than America. There they bought two souvenirs for Nanha. They went to the clear lake city also and saw a semi complete house; it was fully carpeted white large, centrally air-conditioned house and belonged to an Assamese family, whose daughter was married to this American astronaut. They served delicious lunch for them. Then they saw another house which had four bedrooms, fully air conditioned, it belonged to Mr Mike.

बारिश और तूफान

It is raining outside since early morning, clouds can be seen and thunder can be heard continuously from the room, so she did not go for a walk as she had thought, did some yogasan and kriya.  Room temperature is quite comfortable. They have brought so many woolens but no need for them inside.  She has almost prepared meal for today, moong dal, rice and mix veg, for lunch, tried salad but did not like the flavour of tomato. It was a bit hard also. She thought, American think big, eat big, drink big and they do everything big. Otherwise food was good. It is a nice experience to cook in US and watch TV while cooking. It is a bit lonely but she is feeling good, will learn many new things about American culture in coming days.

TV news is full of weather forecasting. A tornado is about to come in the city by evening. There is traffic jam on some places and roads are covered with few inches of water. She finds it amazing that roads are flooded here also like India. TV coverage of weather is excellent here with coloured diagrams. They told about some day care center where children got hurt due to rain and big storm. It seems they are obsessed with rain telling how many inches were rained during last hour in different areas and how much will be in next half an hour. They are telling to be in the room away from windows. She can here fire brigade siren outside hotel room. Many cars are parked in the open area. There is a small grass patch looking beautiful after rain.

 Jun has left for his work place that is training center. It is sun shining outside. They had brown bread with butter and tea in breakfast. Yesterday they could go for a walk for some time, rain had stopped.  They needed some butter and biscuits. First shop was near petrol pump, here they call it convenience store, sale person was a Pakistani named Wahid and second shopkeeper was Chinese or Japanese. They bought one nail cutter also. Jun came back around five in the evening; they had peanuts and tea with his friends. Dinner was again rice+dal with veggies. Today she will make fried rice, there is no provision for making roti. Last night they could talk to Nanha and parents, it was five am in India.  Jun got nanha’a email also. Tomorrow she will go to training center with jun. her right ear is ringing, perhaps God is trying to talk to her, and his ways are strange. They did kriya in the morning, but when opened the windows for fresh air, noise was disturbing very much. They cannot open window here because across the hotel is highway, where heavy traffic is continuously moving.

Just now she heard melodious violin on TV played by children in annual student concert. Now she has to take bath, do neti kriya, exercise, pranayama, meditation and write e mails, also to read books she has brought from India, and then make a list of gifts they will buy for friends and relatives. Then she will go for a walk around the hotel, cook food for lunch and take a nap in the afternoon. At this moment she is feeling homesick, feeling a bit lonely.  Never thought about this perhaps this is due to cold or pin drop silence in the room. It will be good to keep TV on, but most of the programmes show violence. God is with her here this moment and after completing all the jobs mentioned above will feel good.

After bath and all she went outside, sun was shining and strong wind was blowing also. Houston is near sea so it seems that storms are common phenomena here.  She could not walk due to wind and loud noise from the high way. Continuous flow of big and very big vehicles on the road was making great noise. One cannot walk on the roadside here even she could not in front of hotel in the parking area. She wondered where they are going all the time. While eating breakfast she watched some part of a movie, persons are confused, weeping, having complex relations, speaking bad language and ill-treating each other. But she knows this is not real America as Indian movies do not present reality of Indian society.