A Thursday in Blueland...

Thursday was the day scheduled for our tryst with destiny, which can be plainly stated as our day to visit Atlanta downtown, and the many attractions it offered.

We started our journey with MARTA. Before you get any ideas, MARTA is the local rail transport system that ferries people from one corner of Atlanta to another. A very efficient and easy way to get around the city of Atlanta, Marta will save you a lot of those traffic & parking problems. As is said, a city's transport system is its lifeline, and MARTA does its job really well at that.

After a 30 minutes journey, we reached downtown Atlanta. A short walk later, we were at the Georgia Aquarium. The Georgia Aquarium is "the world's largest aquarium with 8 million gallons of fresh & marine water, and over 100000 animals representing 500 species from around the globe. " Sounds impressive.

And it sure is. The variety of marine life kept in this aquarium is mind-boggling. From jelly-fish to piranhas, from penguins to eels, from sea-lions to stingrays, from sea-horses to beluga whales, the aquarium gives you a feeling that you have explored all creatures of the sea. Enough of me, now let the pictures do some talking..

Fish, fish in the tank..

Beluga Whale
African Penguins
A sea of colour
Mr. Tortoise

There were two very important lessons I learnt from my trip to the aquarium. First, that there is a massive effort involved in making any species feel at home in a foreign eco-system. The georgia aquarium is doing a great job in making all these animals feel perfectly at home.

The second lesson is, that animals kept in closed enclosures like to pose for cameras! I have clicked otters, sea-lions, beluga whales(photo above), tortoises(photo above) posing gracefully for the visitors. I don't think there is anything special the aquarium does to ensure that shutter-happy photographers like me get a good collection of photographs. I tend to believe that its not only humans that enjoy their celebrity status, but several animals exposed to being photographed also do. Ever wonder why those lions in all those safari photos pose so gracefully? I bet every time a lion sees a photographer he goes "Honey, straigten up your mane, the paparazzi is here!" , "Oh not again, I am just finishing off that gazelle. Hold on, let me get some more of that blood on my teeth".

Whatever.

Aquarium done, we started to walk towards Philips Arena, for our rendezvous with ice-hockey. On the way, we walked into the Centennial Olympic park. For the uninitiated, Atlanta city played host to the Olympics in 1996, which also happened to be the 100th Olympics after Baron Pierre de Coubertin revived the ancient Greek tradition of Olympics in 1896. The Centennial Park is built to commemorate the 1996 Olympics celebrated in Atlanta. Again, I'll let the pictures do most of my job:

Olympic Memorial

The Torch
Entrance to the Olympic Park

Sports are followed religiously all across the world. Every country/region has its own favourites. Asia has cricket & Europe has football. US has a large collection of sports, each having its own dedicated fan following. And we were about to witness one of them.

Ice-hockey is originally a Canadian sport(officially Canada's winter sport). Simply referred as hockey, but played on ice with a puck. Here in US, NHL is the league of professional ice-hockey teams. The teams come from different regions from the US, and as is with each sport here, the team names are most exciting. Examples: Devils(New Jersey), Flyers(Philadelphia), Panthers(Florida), Hurricanes(Carolina). We were here to witness the encounter between Thrashers(Atlanta) and Lightening(Tampa Bay).

The atmosphere at the arena was electric. There was so much adrenaline, so much excitement, so much thrill & anticipation in the fans, that it made me remember a live India Pakistan match that I had seen once. And being the home team, Atlanta Thrashers were obviously the favourites.

The match lasted for 2 hours, and I can say, not even for one moment were we any far from the edge of our seats. Ice-hockey is a very fast paced game, and with the fan-frenzy reaching crazy levels every time the Thrashers controlled the puck, the experience was a one-in-a-lifetime experience for us. Even the breaks between periods were amazing, with tiny-tots donning ice-hockey gear and having a go at the game.

Here are some photos for you to feast your eyes on:

Thrashers...Thrashers...

The usher
The guy with the toughest job in the rink
What the puck are you waiting for?

The Star Sprangled Arena

Kids have their go

Waiting....

And so..a wonderful evening comes to an end.

Of course, this post would not be complete without thanking our gracious hosts for the evening, who took as around and made this experience an everlasting memory. Thank you guys...you are the best.

With this post, Coherent Rambling completes 100 posts, and also marks its second anniversary. It is a major milestone for me, considering the lazy writer that I am. There were many times in these two years when I contemplated closing the blog, came close to doing it actually a few times, but there was something that brought me back. Maybe this blog has evolved from being more than a medium. To me, coherent rambling is a manifestation of my inner self. My soul speaks freely here, expresses itself, and many a times I end up writing not from my head but from my heart. My medium has now become an image of me.

Or has it become me?

Do keep reading, and commenting. Your thoughts are more valuable to me than my own. On this note, I will sign off for today.

Adios

Happy Saint Valentine's Day

A very Happy St. Valentine's Day to you all. For a more historical perspective, please visit Wiki

Valentine's Day has evolved into a celebration of love. Love, in all its varying forms, is the most complex of human emotions. An emotion that can bring happiness in one's life as much as it can bring sadness. It can be linked to both joy and sorrow, to smiles & tears, to peace & to anger.

Though more commercialized today, love has become a commodity more than an emotion. There is still a group of old-schoolers who believe in the orthodox definitions of purity & sacrifice in love. The rest are just there to cash in. In today' world, love has contorted into a feeling that is not complete without physical intimacy. Most of the cases of so-called 'lovers' that I see are in it just for the intimacy, nothing else.

And mainstream commercialization takes its pride in putting a price to everything. So your love is not true till you have gifted that 100$ teddy bear, or that 50$ bunch of roses. Putting a price on love is most certainly not romantic.

Having said that, what is the one thing I'd want to do most with the person I love? Spend some quality time with her, maybe go out on a beach, or a small trek, or a long drive. A gift definitely indicates how special that person is for you, but it certainly does not mean that a gift is all it takes to love or not love a person.

And before I leave, here's some fodder for your thought on the day when love is the biggest celebrity of all :

"People walk around today calling everyone their best friend, the term doesn't have any meaning anymore. Mere acquaintances are lavished with hugs & kisses upon a second or at most a third meeting, birthday cards get passed around offices so everybody can scribble a snippet of sentimentality for a colleague they barely met, and everyone just loves everyone. As a result when you tell somebody you love them today, it isn't much heard..." -Allan Shore, Boston Legal

The Atlanta Post - Late night edition

Well..late night edition coz its 10 pm here...no other reason..honest!

All right, the headlines. Yours truly has reached atlanta safely, after a tiring 17 hr non-stop flight, followed by 3 more hours on the airplane. It was literally a pain in the proverbial butt.

The one thing that hit me as I entered US was the chilly wind. The last time I was hit by such a wind was at 3000 m above sea level. I was surprised to find such fresh air in a country that has the most number of automobiles in the world. More on this later.

My travel did not end yet. There was another 40 miles of drive left, but this was a breeze in the cadillac that had come over to recieve me(ya..some perks do come with the job).

The hotel suite is also wonderful. I am still waiting for my camera to arrive, so I will post pictures of my suite, and more later.

Well, whether I am liking it here in the US? Yes, of course. I have always been a game for new challenges, and I am loving it here.

Will I want to stay forever in the US? No. That's as direct as it gets. US is a wonderful country, no doubt. The people here are amazing, lots of shopping options...but..I like India more. Living in the US for a few months is a great idea, and worth every bit of the experience. But what we have in India is called a life. Even though the traffic is unruly, and the streets are dirty, but at the end of the day, home is home.

How do I know? Well, i've been out of mine for the last 6+ years :-)

More on atlanta to follow.

Post #97

The countdown to the 100th post has begun, and what a post that is going to be!

Reason? Well, coherent ramblings will now be posted from the US of A. That s correct. Yours truly is flying out tonight to the land of dreams, but not for very long.

Post #98 will be next week, after I get the 20+ hrs of travel out of my head. Till then, comment on the "why" series below.

adios for now..but promise to keep visiting, as I promise to post my travelogues, and my usual ramblings here...

till then...