The Last Summer

For your reading benefit, I have linked here to all the posts about stuff from this summer. As always, thanks for reading, and I always enjoy reading comments.

India
Part 1: Chennai, beautiful temples, and the sad fact that I still don't know any Tamil 
Part 2: more temples, beaches, and...kittens
Part 3: Hyderabad! How I almost met the Chief Minister (not really)
Part 4
Part 5
Acadia National Park: Part 1 Part 2

Summer vacation defines childhood. It is among the few things that make childhood an almost pleasant stage of life, such as Happy Meals, Moon Bounces, and hairlessness. But eventually, the time comes when we must bid farewell to this most beautiful of childhood privileges. I too am now savoring the last few days of summer as I will probably never again have such an extended break until, like, retirement.

I spent my summer at home in Bedford, and though I missed my school friends in Philly, I had a marvelous time here. The moment I returned from Philadelphia at the beginning of the summer, my dad, brother and I escaped to  India for three weeks. I spent the six weeks following that working at an Biomechanics lab at MGH, playing the guitar, seeing family and friends, and discovering ever greater ways to waste time. The most wonderful thing about home is that it barely changes. Of course I hate to say goodbye to all of this again, but I certainly am looking forward to my 2nd year at Jefferson, the new things I'll learn, and the people I will meet.

Acadia National Park: Part 2

How to skip stones

1. Pick your stone. It should be smooth and flat.
2. Put your index finger against the edge of the stone and hold the flat sides of the rock with your thumb and middle finger on either side.
3. Flick the stone across the surface of the water with a sharp wrist movement.
4. Keep trying.

Saturday


We awoke with sore and achey legs on Saturday morning. But today, our legs would get some rest, because today, we would be going sea kayaking! We drove back down to Bar Harbor, over to Coastal Kayaking Tours where we all got outfitted with various gear necessary for kayaking out at sea. Praneetha and I shared a kayak, with her sitting up front and me in the back operating the rudder. d

We are Bostonians. We do not believe in giving right of way, even in the water. 

Nobody capsized, but we still managed to get soaked with seawater after Vishnu and Manoj found a water pump and sprayed us all. I wish I had pictures of our epic battle, but I think we were all afraid of getting our cameras wet.

See the island in the back? 6 hours later, we would WALK to it after the tide went down.

We returned to our hotel rooms to shower, desalt our clothes, and consume grilled cheese sandwiches. We couldn't figure out how to spend the rest of the afternoon - biking, hiking the Precipice, or walking along the shore and taking it easy. It was 5 PM by the time we finally decided to head out to Bar Island. Bar island is an island half the time - meaning it is surrounded by water during high tide, but when it's low tide, you can walk (or drive!) right to it from the harbor. And the coolest part was that we had been kayaking on that water just that morning! The miracles of nature.

We had been kayaking on this ground 6 hours ago!

After Bar Island, we went over to Jordan Pond House, where we walked along the trails next to the lakes. During this trek we played contact (yes, that game), rapid-fire style. When we returned to Jordan Pond House, we indulged in tea, crumpets, and a glorious seafood dinner. This time, we had fresh seafood: shrimp, lobster, mussels, and scallops. Yum.

Shrimp, lobster, and scallops

Mussels! 

So many musselsss

Stuffed to the brim, we headed home. For the second night in a row, I was asleep before my head hit the pillow. Nothing cures insomnia like a day of craziness. 

Sunday

Today would be our last day in Acadia, but there was no way we would leave Maine without biking. Sindhu, Ramya, Prasant, Manoj, Vishnu and I all rented some mountain bikes which we took onto the Acadia Carriage Roads. Carriage roads were originally meant for horse drawn carriages, but I guess everyone uses them for biking (though we did see a horsedrawn carriage while we were biking!). We biked a huge loop from Bar Harbor to Jordan Pond House and all the way back, stopping a few times in between to admire the ocean view or take pictures.

Biking break next to the lake. That rhymed. 

We rendezvoused with our parents after biking, and picnicked next to the lake for our lunch. And just when we were finished, right on cue, it started raining. And that's when we knew it was time to go home. Because I am stupid, I never brought my camera to take pictures. Sindhu however has a professional photography camera, and if I can get some of those pictures, I will upload them for certain.

Thanks for reading!

Click here to read about other summer adventures!

Acadia National Park: Part 1

(At the expense of traveling like a travel brochure) Maine is where it's at during the dog days of summer. The weather is glorious, the people are friendly (and they're all Red Sox fans), mosquitoes are scarce, and lobster is abundant. And a trip to Maine is only made better when you go with friends.


In case you're unfamiliar with Indian people, specifically Telugu people, this is really all you need to know:

1. Wherever we go, we travel in packs (why bring three, when you can bring sixteen, amirite?)
2. We have food (we are obsessed with our own cooking)
3. We are always 2.5 hours behind (10 AM =12:30 PM)


Thursday

Four families we were, seventeen people in all, who set out from Westford bright and early on Thursday morning. It's about a five hour drive to Acadia National Park on Routes 495 and 1 North, and shuffling kids between cars along the way, we eventually reached our hotel in Bar Harbor by afternoon.

A bunch of Indian people. Oh wait, that's us. 

Horsing around by the Visitor's Center. No pun intended.

We drove up to  Cadillac Mountain that afternoon to see the sunset. But when we got to the top, the sun was nowhere to be seen. Instead, the entire top of the mountain was enveloped by cloud! Within minutes, we were covered in a layer of condensed vapor. We hiked for a bit on the mountain, slipping once or twice on the dew covered rocks.

So much fog! 

That night, Sindhu, Ramya, Prasant, and I took a moonlit nightly stroll down a road called Stony Brook Lane. Apparently, streetlights don't exist in Maine. Pretty soon it got wicked dark, and we were forced to link arms to avoid getting lost. I forgot how frightening the forest is at night. Later, we found that Stony Brook Lane led right to the ocean!! #Missed opportunity.

Friday


Bright eyed and eager, we set out to our first activity of the day: hiking the Beehive Trail on Champlain Mountain. Hiking up a mountain is not hard, but it can be scary in the beginning. When you're four inches away from the ledge below which there is a 200 foot drop, you tread slowly and carefully. We did this for about twenty minutes, and after realizing that we were in fact, not going to fall, we scampered up the mountain and reached the top, where we enjoyed a beautiful view of the harbor.

The great ascent

My mother in her infamous hiking boots. 

Hardcore auntieez

But going back down the mountain is worse, since you have to be a lot more careful not to slip or jump too far or you will ruin your knees. We finally reached the foot of the mountain, having earned a few dings and scrapes, and mutually agreed that the Beehive is no longer enough for us, and we will try the harder Precipice Trail next. We then picnicked out at Sand Beach.

You probably think beaches look like this.

Wrong. They look like this:

There are rocks. There is seaweed. The water is BLOODY COLD (this is summertime). Nevertheless there are crazy people who go swimming and bodyboarding. Vishnu built a sand volcano which I later accidentally on purpose destroyed.

Don't be fooled. The water was freezing. 

Our next stop was Thunder Hole, which is a little inlet carved by glaciers where you can stand and get soaked by huge waves spraying you at high tide. We scaled more rocks but then stopped after getting yelled at by our parents. That afternoon, we went to some tide pools, where we passed the time getting squirted at by snails, trying to skip mussels shells, and harassing baby crabs. By 5 PM, we were completely beat and returned to our rooms to rest, shower, and change.

Danger is my middle name. 

This is a cool picture of Vishnu

We went back up the Cadillac Mountain for a second try, and this time, were successful in viewing the sunset.  It was truly beautiful...sitting atop the mountain, being able to see 300 degrees of horizon, and watching the sun slowly disappear. And even cooler was the fact that right opposite to the sun, there was a full moon. And the sky was freaking purple.

The purpleness of the sky cannot be appreciated in this picture. 

We returned to sea level oohing and aahing, and headed to downtown Bar Harbor to get dinner. Praneetha and I succumbed to our intense seafood cravings and absconded to the Thirsty Whale, where we ate fried shrimp, fried scallops, fried haddock, clam chowder, and fish n chips to our heart's content.

This isn't my picture. I stole it from the internet. 

Needless to say, we all passed out on the car ride home. Of course, a night of rest would be necessary for the adventures of the next day!
See Acadia Part 2

India Part 3: Hyderabad! How I almost met the Chief Minister (not really)

Hello, from the top bunk of a sleeper overnight express train (which I am currently sharing with Pujitha because this train got overbooked). We are on our way from Hyderabad to Nellore. It is a 10 hour journey and I should probably be sleeping. Since I am notoriously incapable of sleeping on things that move, I have decided to start this post.

Today, my last day in Hyderabad, was rather exciting because we got a private tour of the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh's personal office! Including the room where he holds press conferences, meetings, and even his personal nap room! If you have seen the telugu movie Leader, it actually looks something like that. It was very, very cool.

How on earth did we get access? As it turns out, my dad went to Veterinary School with someone who ended up as an IAS officer in Hyderabad and has an office in the Secretariat (which is like the white house, except for Andhra Pradesh). Also, the CM himself was out of state today so his office was empty and available for touring. I wish I could have taken pictures, but our camera was locked up as soon as we entered the building for the sake of security.

This is the outside. It was hard even getting a picture of this.

In Hyderabad, we moved into my other uncle's home (he is my mom's older brother and Raghava's father). On Monday morning, my uncle took me to his hospital. He is a dermatologist, but spends the first half of his day working as an internist at a Railway Hospital in Hyderabad. As I learned, government owned and operated hospitals such as these are truly a world apart from hospitals in the US. Nobody gets private rooms. Instead, there is a gigantic ward with rows of beds right next to each other. Everything is also kind of dirty and smells of phenol cleaner. But hospital costs are probably considerably lower (which makes sense, since I doubt many patients have health insurance to cover their bills).

Because of the diversity of cases you see in such hospitals, they're generally really good for learning. I however didn't see any standout cases except for one woman with stroke of the right internal capsule and resulting left hemiparesis. I had to perform a neurological exam on her and missed a few cranial nerves :/

On Tuesday, we watched Kung Fu Panda 2 (which was awesome!) in IMAX 3D at Prasad's Mall Complex and on Wednesday, Raghava, Pujitha, Vishnu and I did a bit of sightseeing at Golconda Fort and the Seven Tombs of Qutub Shahi. I only recently realized how many Telugu movie songs are filmed at Golkonda (or are they all sets??).

The four of us went a fancy restaurant afterwards, where we partook in the most ridiculous buffet ever.

Now we are off to Nellore, which is the closest I have to a hometown, to visit my dad's side of the family. Back to the coast! I shall greatly miss this non-humid weather.

Continued in India Part 4

India part 2: more temples, beaches, and KITTENS!

Sri Ramanatha Swamy Temple, Rameshwaram

This one is also, clearly, massive. 

According to mythology, Lord Rama prayed to Shiva at this location for absolution of his sins after the war against Ravana. Thus, the temple's main deity, Lord Shiva, is called Ramanatha Swamy. This temple is considered very holy, and one of the four Char Dham shrines that many Hindus visit at least once in their lifetime, and so we saw lots of people from all over India making their pilgrimage here.

The whole gang minus Raghava. 

Former Indian President Abdul Kalam grew up in a small fishing village near Rameswaram. We drove over to his house and bought some seashells and other trinkets at a store owned by his family. How touristy.

I'm pretty sure it didn't look like this when he was growing up. 

 Finally, we set off to the last locale on our trip: Thanjavur, a.k.a. Tanjore, an ancient and awesome city with a rich history.


Brihadeeswara Temple, Tanjore

We set off to the temple that evening to take some beautiful nighttime pictures while it was all lit up! Truly spectacular, as you can see.

The entrance. 

This picture makes it seem way smaller than it actually is. 

After much persuasion, I got everybody to sit like this. 

The Great Living Chola Temples (UNESCO World Heritage Site) are temples that were built by the Chola dynasty's most famous king: Rajaraja Chola I. The foremost of these temples is the Brihadeeswara Temple, dedicated to Lord Shiva. Its center piece is a massive 6 foot Shiva Lingam, possibly the largest ever. Also, the temple is thought to be the world's first complete granite temple. The large structure at the apex of the main tower is believed by some to be made of a single block of stone (though this is controversial), meaning that some sort of ramp-like mechanism would have been needed to transport it all the way to the top.

Daytime. You can appreciate it's size. 

About to enter the inside of the tower!

Inside, hundreds of sculptures of classical dancers

Some were left unfinished!

The ancient script that to this day, is indecipherable. 

Wall fresco of Rajaraja I himself!

Can you imagine what it took to build temples of this size in the 11th century?

We toured the temple inside and out the next morning, encountering sculptures, archaic forms of writing, and bat droppings. Three or four hours later, we were finally ready to leave and drove back to Chennai. The next day was spent mainly relaxing and playing badminton outside (heat permitting). Oh, and we ate mangoes. Lots and lots of mangoes.

Group of Monuments, Mahabalipuram

An hour's drive from Chennai is Mahabalipuram, a small coastal town. It is famous for its beautiful monolithic monuments built by kings of the Pallava dynasty in the 7th, 8th, and 9th centuries. My dad and uncle took me and the boys (Vishnu, Naveen, and Raghava) to tour these monuments the next day. It was HOTTT

During the annual festival, classical dancers dance against the backdrop of this sculpture. 

Stone chariots!

We earned a few cuts and scrapes climbing and performing stunts on the rocks. We visited the beach again and then went to a restaurant where we ordered chow mein, Indian style. Quite tasty!

KITTIES!!
In Chennai, we found a few tiny kittens on the street. They seemed aimless and motherless, so we cared for them for the next two days until finally giving them up to Blue Cross India (animal rescue) after their mother never showed up. In the meantime, we enjoyed watching them interact with the dog, Jimmy, and sneaking them bits of curry from our plates.

Don't be fooled. Jimmy was more scared of the kittens than they were of Jimmy. 

Brothers

They explore the house

Get a bit thirsty

Yes, he FELL ASLEEP in my hands. How is this not the most adorable thing you have ever seen??

Continued in India Part 3

India part 1: Chennai, beautiful temples, and the sad fact that I still don't know any Tamil

I always remember my first day in India. It is marked by certain things that happen in a certain order:
1. I step off the plane and am greeted by the smell of smoke/pollution/whatever the heck that is.
2. I start sweating.
3. We pace nervously, waiting for the last of our many suitcases to show up at the baggage claim, hoping to god that none of them show up in Africa this time.
4. We finally spot my uncle in the crowd of people mobbing the new arrivals outside the airport.
5. We ride home, swerving and honking, feeling weird not wearing a seatbelt.
6. My aunt forces hot beverages on us (yes, it is 104 degrees outside).

This time, my first day was distinctly memorable as in addition to all of the above, the power went out for six hours (and with it, the AC and fan) upon our arrival. We sat and sweated until 3 PM, when I fell asleep (or passed out from exhaustion/heat stroke).

If you have ever been on vacation with my family, then you know that we don't believe in leisure time. I was woken up at the crack of dawn and given 8 minutes to shower and get dressed before we were all packed into a van that would take us on our temple tour of South India. A gang of seven tourists were we: me, my brother, my dad, my grandparents (dad's parents), and my cousins Raghava and Pujitha who luckily also had holidays.

Our van. 

"Why are you taking pictures" ~ Vishnu. We stopped to eat somewhere.

Sri Ranganatha Swamy Temple, Srirangam, Trichy

The temple from the front. 

This was our first stop. Sri Rangathaswamy is a reclining form of Lord Vishnu, and this is the temple's main deity. We stood in line for about an hour and half before finally getting to see the deity. 0.5 milliseconds later, we were pushed forward by the people behind us (this is normal and to be expected).

This is probably what it looks like. I wouldn't really know. 

This temple is probably the most important temple of all for Vaishnavites (devotees of Vishnu) and is said to be the largest temple in India, at 156 acres, and the largest functioning Hindu temple in the world. Believe me, it's big. I experienced this firsthand while trying to walk around the temple's inner courtyard at midday. I was able to walk about a fifth of the way before blisters started to develop on the bottoms of my feet.

I tried to take a picture of a map. You can vaguely see that the temple is massive.

So biggggggg

That afternoon, we bid farewell to Srirangam and drove even deeper south to Madurai, where we retired into a couple of hotel rooms. Raghava, Pujitha, and I spent the evening exploring Madurai and buying pirated dvds to watch in the van.

Meenakshi Amman Temple, Madurai

The next morning, we were up bright and early to avoid a huge darshan line. This temple is special in that it is one of the few (maybe the only) super massive temples that has a female main deity: Goddess Meenakshi, a distinct form of Parvati, consort of Lord Shiva. There is also an additional shrine for Lord Sundareshwar, a form of Lord Shiva.

So many colors

You should click on this picture to see it in full detail. 

"Whoaaaa"

So freaking BIG

Outside. Luckily it wasn't hot yet. 

Arjun!

This is a very beautiful temple, with four gopurams (towers, basically) that are very tall and colorfully painted. Inside, there are tons of sculptures, including a huge statue of Nataraja made of pure silver. Everything is beautifully lit and you just want to take photographs of all of it even though there are people yelling at you not to. And of course, there is an elephant that gives you its blessings in exchange for a rupee or a banana.

Didn't expect to see the elephant's butt, did you? 

KITTAAAAAAAAAY!!!

That afternoon, we set off to Rameswaram, a small island off the east coast of Tamil Nadu, located partway between India and Sri Lanka . We stopped for a bit on the bridge connecting Rameswaram to a skinny peninsula off the mainland, which is surrounded on either side by the Indian Ocean. It was very windy and as we were right up against the coast, it was extremely humid.

That evening, we also visited the beach, though our grandparents forbade us to go swimming since it was full moon and we probably would have gotten swept away by the tide. So we whiled away the time eating biscuits, collecting seashells, and making strange sand sculptures.

Continued in India part 2