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A Travelogue

Recently I made a trip to the USA accompanying my
younger son Ujjal who started his undergraduate
studies (BS in Computer Science) at the Louisiana
State University, Baton Rouge, beginning Fall 2003. We
had a nice trip by KLM/North West from Calcutta to
Baton Rouge via Amsterdam and Memphis. From Delhi to
Amsterdam, a Brazilian student doing her BA in
philosophy in Aberdeen, UK, was our co-passenger. She
came to India on a holiday tour and her main purpose
was to study Buddhist philosophy. During our 8-hour
travel from Delhi to Amsterdam, she gave me a lot of
insights into the teachings of Lord Buddha. I, though
am from the land of Gautam Buddha, I have scant
knowledge about Buddhist philosophy!!

Exactly on schedule, our plane landed at Baton Rouge
at 11:44 PM on August 6, and I was thrilled to see my
elder son Jyotishman after one full year, waiting at
the Airport Lounge to receive us. (Jyotishman is
pursuing his Ph. D. in Computer Science at Iowa State
University from Fall 2002)

At Memphis, our port of entry, we went through our
immigration check; but I was a bit worried since I
could not find my two registered bags. The airport
personnel however assured me that the baggage would be
delivered at our hotel the next day. We stayed at a
motel in Port Allen, and next day my two bags were
delivered with an apology letter along with a check of
$50.00 to compensate my inconvenience. I was
overwhelmed at the system and the concern the airlines
showed us.

We stayed in Port Allen, about 16 miles from Baton
Rouge. Flowing in between Baton Rouge and Port Allen,
is the world's longest river Mississippi. I had only
heard about the river Mississippi and I was thrilled
when I crossed the river while going to the LSU Campus
at Baton Rouge. The LSU Campus, a big campus of 32,000
students is full of scenic beauty with lakes and
greenery everywhere. To carry out various formalities
for my son's admission, we had to visit various
departments and were greeted warmly wherever we went.
There is discipline; punctuality and sincerity of
purpose everywhere.

While staying at Baton Rouge for two weeks, we also
visited various sites of historic importance in
Louisiana including the famous USS Kidd - a restored
World War II destroyer kept nicely on the bank of the
Mississippi for the visitors. This reminded me the
historic relics of Assam - the Rang Ghar, the Tala Tal
Ghar, the Kareng Ghar, the Siva Sagar and Jay Sagar
Pukhuri and Barpeta Namghar etc. which are not getting
due attention and publicity to attract foreign
tourists.

After the completion of Ujjal's orientation and
registration formalities, I along with Jyotishman came
to Ames on August 18. Ames is a small city in Iowa and
surrounded on all sides by cornfields. Jyotishman and
Satyam, son of B.K.Bhuyan, live together in apartment
close to their university (Iowa State University).
Satyam is doing his graduate studies in Physics and
both Satyam and Jyotishman joined ISU in Fall 2002.
When we arrived at Ames from Baton Rouge, in the mean
time B. K. Bhuyan also had arrived in Ames from
Guwahati and I was very happy to have company.

I along with Bhuyan visited the ISU campus, various
places of the city of Ames and Des Moines - the
capital city of Iowa. It is a memorable event when we
saw the first electronic digital computer invented by
Iowa State Mathematics and Physics professor John
Vincent Atanasoff in 1930. We were also amazed to see
the vast corn and soybean fields in and around the
city of Ames. How scientific way the agricultural
production is carried out in USA - one has to see
physically to believe. Why these methods cannot be
implemented in India where 80% people live on
agriculture?

After staying about 10 days at Ames, I along with
Bhuyan went to Denver/Westminster on August 31 by
Greyhound bus. At Denver, Ganesh Bhuyan, who has lived
in Westminster for the last 20 years, received us.
Ganesh Bhuyan works in US Federal Government in
Internal Revenue Service Department. We stayed for one
week with Ganesh Bhuyan and he and his wife Jacqueline
took great care of us for the whole week. Every day at
night he arranged for two very good Hindi movies for
our entertainment.

On September 2, Ganesh Bhuyan took us to University of
Colorado at Colorado Springs and introduced us Jugal
K. Kalita, Associate Professor of Computer Science of
UCCS. We enjoyed the beautiful campus of UCCS
surrounded by mountains and nice landscape. We were
also highly impressed at the project work initiated by
Prof Kalita regarding collection and preservation old
Assamese manuscripts. It is a big task, however we are
sure the project will be highly successful at the able
hands of Prof Kalita. He then took us to the Rocky
Mountains of Colorado. One can never forget the beauty
of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. It is a gift of
nature and tourists from all over the world visit
Colorado mainly to enjoy the beauty of Rocky Mountains
and also for skiing.

On return from Colorado Springs to Westminster, we
also visited University of Colorado at Boulder, a big
and beautiful campus indeed; the famous Buddhist
temple and the ISKCON center of Denver.

On September 6, both B K Bhuyan and myself returned to
Ames again by Greyhound bus and reached Ames on 7th
morning. On the same evening, we had an Assamese
family get together at the residence of Prof Arun
Barua where Prof Madan Kumar Bhattacharyya's family
also joined. We discussed a lot regarding America's
systems, values, perceptions etc .

On 8th September I boarded my plane in Des Moines for
my return to India and reached Calcutta on 10th
September.

In conclusion, I would like to mention that this
second visit of mine to USA is quite memorable in a
sense that I had the opportunity to visit four
university campuses and many other important places.
The river Mississippi flowing by the side of city
Baton Rouge and the Rocky Mountains of Colorado will
leave a lasting impression on me. I have also had a
glimpse of various systems of different institutions
establishments of America. I was really moved to see
the discipline, the punctuality, the commitment, the
warmth and above all the respect to the systems, rules
and procedures. We are yet to learn lot of things.

- Adhar Chandra Pathak, Duliajan, Assam. Shri Pathak
is Chief Engineer (OSD), Oil India Limited