Dad got a new BBQ!

Look carefully at the penguin in the top left-hand corner.

Here are some diary entries that Dad wrote in 2001. They’re great and I’m glad he finally sent them to me so I could post them!

Ospreys – Summer 2001

We have a couple of tall oak trees at the back of our yard. These trees are almost 50 to 60 feet high. There is an osprey’s nest about half way up one of these trees. The nest is clearly visible from our upstairs and downstairs back windows. We saw a pair of ospreys early in February. They were sitting on a snow bank at the end of our driveway and eating a dead animal, possibly a squirrel. We saw them very frequently after that. We also became familiar with their calls. You could hear them loud and clear every morning, even if you could not see them. Once we saw one of the birds sitting on a branch and holding on to something long in its talons. Joy thought that it was a dead snake. As we were watching, the snake fell from its talon on to the snow below. The second osprey flew in from the bush and finished off the meal sitting on the snow.

In April, one of the ospreys was spending a lot of time sitting in the nest. Soon after both ospreys were bringing food to the nest and we saw a chick poking its head out. It was a lot of fun to watch the ospreys and their activities in our backyard. In early May, we received seven days of heavy rain. Almost five inches of rain fell in this period. Our little pond became full to the brim and started to flow under the road. It was full of frogs and tadpoles. After the rainy period we did not see the ospreys for a long period of time. I am not sure what happened to the chick.

July and August were very dry in Woodbridge. Our pond is totally dry. I should take this opportunity to clear up all the dead leaves in the pond. Lately, we have seen one osprey at the back of our house. We also hear it in the morning some days. I hear that ospreys come back to the same nest every year. I am looking forward seeing them back next year.


New York trip – Spring 2001

We took a trip to New York by commuter train. It takes about one hour and forty minutes to go to the Grand Central station from New Haven by Metro North trains. The fare is $12 one-way, in the off peak hours and $16 in peak hours. In comparison, Amtrack Regional trains cost $32 and the Acela express costs $64. It takes approximately 90 minutes by Amtrak to go to Penn station.

Went to a Broadway play: “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”. We stayed at the Mayfair hotel located opposite Central Park. We had very good Greek food near Broadway. We also had expensive Indian food at “Nirvana”, a penthouse restaurant with a great view of Central Park. Most of the $12 that they charged us for four samosas must go towards rent. Unfortunately, the food was nothing to write home about.

Sanjoy and I made another trip to New York in May. Joy had a meeting at head office in Manhattan and we tagged along with her. Joy went to work in the morning and we took a taxi to Battery Park to catch a ferry to see the Statue of Liberty. The cab driver was from Bangladesh. We talked in Bengali about the city and about Canada. It sure is a small world. As we walked through the park we saw a lot of vendors selling sunglasses, watches and pretzels to the tourists. I am sure you have seen them on Yonge Street in Toronto or Oxford Street in London.

The ferry ride to the Statue of Liberty is spectacular. We got lovely views of the skyscrapers of Lower Manhattan including the World Trade Centre. I believe that one of the large Canadian developers has also built a complex in this area. We walked around the island and sat on the grass to look up at the huge statue. The line up to get to the torch of the statue was long. The estimated time to get to the top was about three hours. We decided to have some breakfast and just enjoy the lovely spring day. The inscriptions on the tablet in the hand of Lady Liberty and some of the symbolism, such as the broken chain, were pretty moving. May is a not high tourist season and school was not yet out, but the whole place was full of visitors from all over the world. If you listened carefully you could hear almost 10 different languages being spoken.

We took the ferry to Ellis Island from the Statue of Liberty. Ellis Island was a processing centre for immigrants who came to the USA from 1892 to 1954. First and second-class passengers were processed on board ship, but third or steerage class were ferried to Ellis Island where they underwent medical and legal examination in the Main Building. Some twelve million people landed here; today their descendants account for almost 40% of the country’s population. It is a staggering number when you stop to think about it.

The facility was abandoned in 1954 until it became a National Monument in 1965. The main building has been lovingly restored and is now a museum. They have also put all the arrival records on a web site. If your grandparents came through Ellis Island, you should check out this site. I came to Canada by ship and landed in a similar large hall in Quebec City. As a result, Ellis Island really touched a chord within me.

We took a ferry back to Battery Park and walked to the World Trade Centre. It is a short walk and it seemed that a lot of the buildings on either side of the road were being renovated to become condominium residences. It must be a wonderful place to live, if you like living in a big city. It is in Manhattan, but there is a waterfront park at your doorstep and a wonderful view of Hudson River and the Statue of Liberty from the windows.

Sanjoy and I went up to the observation platform on the second tower. The view from the top was just breathtaking. We took a lot of pictures and just stood on the roof and watched. We had pizza for lunch before going down. We walked around the towers and right there in front of the WTC was a farmer’s market. A boy was selling fresh bread, honey and flowers from a stall. We also found this small Greek Orthodox Church in front of the WTC. I was very impressed to see a farmer’s market and a small church coexisting with the tall skyscrapers in the shadow of the WTC.

We took a cab back to our hotel to meet Joy and took the train back to New Haven.

[Ellis Island arrival records can be found at http://www.ellisislandrecords.org]

Bibhas has returned from India with the panjika. One of Mom's friends at work who is from China mentioned that they also have something similar to a panjika. What is it? The panjika is a lunar calendar marking religious holidays, pujas and other auspicious occasions that can be used to schedule important events...such as weddings.

It turns out there are three auspicious days in November and December: November 25th, November 27th and December 8th. The second date is ruled out because it is a weekday and additionally the auspicious time (yes it's that precise) begins at 3.00 AM. The 25th is a Sunday, therfore a possible candidate. But really the ideal date is December 8th. Why? It's a Saturday. The auspicious time is a reasonable 6.30 PM (although it goes till 4.30 AM). But most importantly it is my Dad's birthday...and also my uncle's! So December 8th, 2001 is the tentative date for the Connecticut part of the wedding.

In other news...our mailbox was vandalized! As Dad drove along the road he said it looked like every tenth mailbox had been bashed in. Some were badly damaged but others were just kind of lying on their sides. This prompted the following observations on his part: "If your mailbox is really screwed in tight and it is hit by a baseball bat then the mailbox gets really mangled and the post gets all damaged. But! If the mailbox is only hanging onto the post with a few nails, then when it is hit with a baseball bat it just flys off. It looks bad, since it's lying on the ground, but it will only be lightly damaged! Luckily, this was the case for our mailbox...but on repairing it, I put more nails in so...if it gets hit again it will get mangled."

Maybe we should look into getting a vandal-proof mailbox. According to the US Postal Service: "Mailboxes are considered federal property, and federal law (Title 18, United States Code, Section 1705), makes it a crime to vandalize them (and to injure, deface or destroy any mail deposited in them). Violators can be fined up to $250,000 or imprisoned for up to three years for each act of vandalism."

What? $250,000!?

courtesy of the ACME License Maker

hey, that guy's stealing our car. the nerve!

that house has been on sale for ages...

new england house rumoured to be built atop an old indian burial ground...

After unpacking and re-assembling enough items to make the house liveable, my family has abandoned the confines of the ExecuStay suites to actually start living there... I'm sure their nostalgic memories of the neutral tones and pre-fabricated decor of their "smartly appointed living accommodations for stays of 30 days or longer" are already fading. The computer is up and running and the cable modem has been procured, so it shouldn't be long until my Dad takes over the reins here again. I am going down to Connecticut this Friday to check out the new digs. Stay tuned for the first installment of themukherjees.com from scenic southern Connecticut!