So much time has lapsed between my last post and this one and so much has happened. The roadtrip was great. We made it to Boston, MA, stayed there for a few days and then drove back to NJ to catch a flight to India- so technically we covered the width of the continent and then some! It was absolutely fantastic at that level. The chains- of restaurants, motels, gas stations. The unflinching appearance of rest areas along the highways.The very things that were a comfort factor also make the country somewhat homogeneous. This gets thrown up in contrast (not in comparison) as I return now from Goa. An hour and a flight from New Delhi and it may as well have been a different country- food, language, religion, architecture. But I am getting ahead of myself. With the lack of internet access for the last part of the road trip I did not get a chance to update the blog regularly.

After Austin, we drove through Arkansas, Tennessee, Virginia,West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and finally arrived in Massachusetts. We stayed in Memphis, TN and Roaneke, TN and finally in Westborough MA.

Without going into too many details (which might yet show up in my future blogs) here are some top award winners.

Starting with the important first...
The poshest Restrooms- TN
Most fun- Austin TX (of course having friends in Austin, bends it in its favor)
Larget expanse of nothingness, mile after mile after mile- TX
Funniest state sign ("Dont Mess with Texas" having lost some of its luster)- Virginia
"Buckle Up Virginia- Its a law we can live with"
Most promise of fun- Memphis
It would have been more fun if we had stayed there overnight and been able to to go to listen to some live music and also if we could get all our friends there.

Hola from Austin! We are taking a break in Austin. We both are spending quality time with our respective college friends. After a rather heavy lunch of piles of tortilla chips, fajitas and a wonderfully moist tres leches cake, my friend is comatose next to me. I have promised to make chai and wake her up. We totally reverted back to college days with trying on clothes in a store, eating, shopping, talking about life, plans, families etc etc.

On our several road trips back and forth between California and Texas, we always took I-40. We rather liked it, with its stunning views, quaint roadside shops and abundance of rest areas. The streach of I -10 between Arizona and Texas has been rather bland in comparison. The landscape did not change much. El Paso was very interesting. It was a bit bizarre to see Mexico-right there! The shanty slums across the street were Mexico. I couldn't help but wonder what goes through their minds as they watch the freeways and across the freeways the malls, the stores the comsumer glut.

Yesterday we stayed at Demings, New Mexico. A small one street town and that one street was called Motel Drive. We stayed in a Gujarti owned Best Western, with its "barely there" amneties and "could have been better" standards of cleanliness. Could have stayed at the one across the street that declared " American Owned and Operated"...I guess the Potels will have to wisen up if they want to keep business.

After leaving Chandler Arizona we took a short detour to see wild flowers in a national park. Beautiful yellow poppies and purple flowers whose names I forget at this moment growing wild and abundant amidst cactuses that were two stories high!

Tonight we plan to eat yet another heavy mexican dinner, sleep well, do our laundry at the friends place and head out again. We have been travelling eastwards on I-10 mostly all this while, now we will head north to our final destination, New York.

Greetings from Phoenix!
We left LA dusty and stormy, a beautiful sunset in the rear view mirror. A sign board tells us that we are traveling "at sea level". We stayed with college friends catching up on old times planning to meet soon in the future. They have been very busy with two kids-one a toddler and the other a six month old. In our friend's words he has been so busy he thought "No Country for Old Men" was a documentary on the future of social security...seriously.

On a more general note, the beautiful long stretches of freeways are a constant source of amazement to us. That someone had the foresight to build freeways that wide, that strong...those beautiful webs of interchanges that we see flying past in the moon roof. Then of course the ultimate - the kohl dark freeways of Phoenix, so smooth it feels like one is slipping over a slab of melting butter.

We stayed last night with our friends from Nepal and woke up to the beautiful smells and sounds of prayers. Our friend's father is visiting from Nepal. Their little daughter is peeping from the other side of the door , too shy to come and talk. She speaks no Hindi and little English and I can barely understand Nepali. She is asking her mother why I have a white computer (Mac) while they have a black one (Dell) and which one is better- Ah the big question that many have fought over!

Stay tuned!

Greetings from LA!
We have started our cross -country road trip. A slow goodbye to the US. We will travel from the west coast to east and then fly awayyy!
There was one annoying thing after another on the last day. Each could be a blog posting in itself.

We shipped all our stuff in a container a few days before our final departure. It went smoothly with four packer and movers working in perfect synch. We packed all the small stuff to save money and let them handle the furniture, art work etc. They rocked and were laughing and chatting as the day wore on while our respective backs were burning and our smiles fading by the end of the day! The rest of the condo -owners in the building (mostly elderly people) gave us grief over all things big and small- Dont let the main door stay open ( one of us was always watching), dont move the door wedge( wedge!getting worked up about a door wedge!!),they wanted to know how long the loading will take because of "security concerns". I don't think the fact that the movers were two turbaned sikh gentlemen helped. (but I sincerely hope this is only my hyper active albeit tired imagination).

Selling the cars was another interesting experience...but more on that later. We have a couple of hours before we have to get on the road again! Auf Weidersehn!

Thumbs up! Shumbs up!...the landlord is trying to find as much wiggle room as he can to deduct money...argh!!! We got stood up by people who were going to buy our car...double arrrgh!!! Last minute, badly ditched. An old "friend" tried to make the most of it and offered to buy it for pittance plus had an attitude as if he was doing us a huge favor. Why? Why is so hard for some people to resist the urge to take advantage of others.
Last minute stresses are inevitable, but there are many many things to be thankful for. We have had a steady stream of friends helping us. We had an impromptu party last night when some friends arrived and helped us late into the night, they cooked using all we had in the fridge and ribbed us about all our "possessions"( mostly my collection of assorted glass bottles I use to store everything from lentils to paper clips.) It was an evening spent chatting, laughing, singing, debating and of course packing.
Thats what I want to remember from this experience and not the unpleasant stressful hours.

It is almost the middle of the month and this isn't your average sized month anyways...so the big d-day (departure day) is fast approaching. Some of the major milestones achieved in the last few days- decision about retirement accounts etc (the boring laborious stuff), decision to book a container that will carry across the seven seas everything we have- ah priceless! We feel there should be at least some continuity to this whole thing. Small reminders of what we built for ourselves here.
The landlord came by today and gave two thumbs up to the house. He said in his adorable "Gherman Aaacent" that we have "kepht da place soo kleen". Goody! my last two days of chlorine obsession seems to have worked. My better(?) and usually a little less cluttered half believes I went over-board but what the heck!

The landlord said that he hopes and wishes his doctor son would move back to CA from Texas where he lives now. Different country ditto parents.
Several more steps to go...shall report.

Stage fright=Return to India

The feeling is not very different from the one I remember from my time as a stage actor many eons ago. Now as a filmmaker, this is how I imagine it:

Pulled by an invisible string I walk down a dimly lit corridor. The bright green room with its warm comforting smells of fabric and make-up is now behind me. The cement floor I walk on is cold and the walls around me reflective, throwing a thousand different versions of me back at me. I walk with a my heart pounding, my palms sweaty with a feeling that is an unequal and ever-changing cocktail of fear, excitement and anticipation. I know what lies ahead, beyond. I have been there before and yet there is this strong urge to stop, to rest a bit, to lay my face against the cool cement wall, to stall. I can hear voices from outside, muffled, excited, questioning. Soon, very soon, I will be in the wings, waiting for my turn, trying to get a glimpse of them, trying to make out familiar comforting faces in the dark. I will wait. counting. Thousand and One. Thousand and two. Thousand and three. Enter.