Landing

It is about forty years back that I read ‘Golada mElondu suttu’ a travelogue in Kannada written by Sri T K Ramarao who was a well known Kannada novelist. He had written about his tour of the US and Europe. That was followed by ‘Naanoo amerikege hogidde’ by Sri Krishnananda kamat, ‘Amerikadalli gorooru” by Sri. Gorur Ramaswamy iyengar and ‘Aparavayaskana amerikaa yaatre’ by Sri A N Murthy Rao all in Kannada. Apart from these, I have read few more, whose names and authors I do not remember. I can not recollect the exact contents and details of the books that I have mentioned but I very well remember having enjoyed reading all of them.

Golada melondu suttu was descriptive in a very appealing way and I remember having liked it and reading it for a second time. What had appealed to me most and has remained in my mind even today is Sri Ramarao’s description of the ‘Greyhound’ bus service, explaining their speed, punctuality and comfort, along with the passenger facilities available en route. Compared to the bus service we had back home at that time it sounded out of the world. After reading that, I had longed to travel at least once by a ‘Greyhound’ bus. The bus services in India have improved a lot over the years and I feel that they come very close, if not equal to, the services provided here. But in my mind, the greyhound continues to be the picture of speed and comfort. It is a pity that after decades of imagination, when I am actually here, whatever travel I am going to do in this country will be by car and flight, and I am disappointed that I have not seen any greyhound buses on the freeways till now. I am yet to travel to many more parts of the country and at least hope to see one of them at close quarters. Coming back to track, I am surprised that I do not remember any specific part of 'Amerikadalli goruru' except that it was laced with Sri Gorur’s signature humour and Sri Murthy Rao, if I remember right, has pondered more over many other aspects of life in general than his travel experiences in his book. If any of you have read the book and feel I am wrong, please correct me. Sri Kamat gave a very good, description of American living in a light hearted way. I think that he stayed here for a year or more and so, had a closer view.

What am I going to write about? how and why? I have no idea what one has to concentrate up on while writing an account of one’s travel and experiences in a new place. I do not know what exactly to see from the point of view of describing what was seen, and how to assimilate the thoughts that cropped up on the spot and express everything clearly. With the information and communication facilities that are in place now and with the tremendous increase in the number of people going abroad on education, jobs and pleasure, almost every second person has seen what ever one tries to write about. And from India,The United states must probably be the most visited foreign country. Every Tom, Dick, Harry and Raghunandan have visited this country, seen it with their own eyes and have their own impressions. Why should anybody bother to know what I feel? But, I decided that I will write whatever I saw through my eyes and describe the thoughts that formed in my mind and so, will go ahead.

As we disembarked from the aircraft and headed towards the immigration and customs, I was anxious about the food stuff that we had carried with us. I had to marked ‘yes’ for the question ‘are you carrying any food’ in the questionnaire that had been given to us on the flight, (I was glad to fill it up. It cut about 30 minutes out of boredom) and was wondering whether I should have just said ‘no’. My sister in law, who had trained us about conducting ourselves in front of visa officers back in Mumbai and the immigrations and custom officials in the airport, had overlooked this questionnaire. I decided to emulate the father of our nation at least while in foreign air or on foreign soil, and had been truthful. But I was now wondering if all the jackfruit chips, banana chips, Dharvad pedha, cashew barfi, bhakar wada and assorted packets of ‘ready to prepare’ curry powders would go into the trash bins?

The immigration officer asked the same set of questions that were asked when we went to the visa interview in Mumbai (I do not know if they had mailed the questions too along with our finger prints) and waved us through. Because of my truthful ‘yes’ for food, we needed to go through the agricultural products channel and fortunately there was a good natured officer who had had a good lunch and probably a bit sleepy.

“What do you have there?”
“Home made snacks” (they were made in homes alright, though not ours)
“Do you have any curry leaves”
“No”
“Cumin seeds?”
“No”
“Pickles”
“No”
And we were through.

After a short ceremony of facing the camera with our luggage trolley, with out which my sister in law, i call her Bhanu, would not allow us to set foot in Detroit (she is even more adamant then the US immigration in these matters) we were on our way home.



The very first American whom we saw on his own soil was the policeman regulating the lines at the immigration counters. He looked very alert and smart in his black uniform. I had seen the US cops in movies and they look even better in person.
Just out of the airport, I was immensely impressed with the wide smooth roads, side paths, well maintained common space and the systematic traffic. As I looked around after getting out of the car in front of the house, I felt that it is a part of paradise.