May 2010, The Chicago Chapter
Place & Year: Chicago, USA / 8-Apr-2010 | 9-Apr-2010
Author: Vishwa
Prologue | It has become a back to back trip to Chicago now. With Vishnu’s Graduation ceremony coming into place, I travelled to Chicago just after a month from my last trip. This was a short one for a couple of days only. With no big plans in mind, I left the office on Friday after changing to a jeans pant from the regular formals. Jeans always make me feel comfortable.
View of the hall
I thought I would be on time for the flight. I had both the SLR and camcorder in the bag. The security people wanted to confirm if it was explosives, funny stuff. They unpacked all my things in the bag and found my hair gel and deodorant. They were over the weight that could be carried on the cabin. He either wanted me to drop it there or check in the baggage. I opted to trash it and was about an hour early for the flight. This was when they announced the flight was delayed by an hour. After 30 minutes the delay increased by another hour. Finally after making calls for about 1 hour to India and another hour with people in US, grabbing a couple of coffees then a smoothie which I hated and ended up trashing, it was 10. At last I boarded the flight. I could not believe it was already more than 3 hours of wait for the flight. The flight was very small and with the small number of people sitting around, it almost looked like a private jet. The weather was very bad and there were heavy turbulence all through the way. After an hour time, I could feel a bright light flash inside my closed eyes. I first thought it was the light from the wings, but after successive repetition of the flash in irregular intervals, I opened the eyes to check what it was. Out of the window, I saw one of the most spectacular views that I have only seen in the Discovery Channel. The plane was over a huge cloud which had lightning flashing below it. I knew the feel and beauty of this sight could never be captured on a camera but must only be remembered. With a very bad landing having high turbulence, I finally reached Chicago at midnight. Vishnu and Ramya were waiting and we took a train home.
Vishnu after the Graduation ceremony
Vishnu had cooked “Samabar” and “Lemon Rasam” (South Indian Dishes). I had been having a bad tummy for a week now. So I just had a taste of it and settled with some curd rice. Aparna’s parents were around and they were there for the graduation ceremony. We hit the bed and I could remember waking up to see Vishnu dressed up in her black dress which was particularly purchased for the occasion. She woke me up to get my opinion on how she looked in the dress. She was very beautiful and the dress well suited her. Then I went back to sleep. In an hour time Vishnu again woke me up to have Aparna’s gown pressed. Finally in another 20 minutes Vishnu and Aparna literally flew to catch the shuttle service to reach the university. It took me over an hour time to get ready and Bharathi came home to pick me and Aparna’s parents in car. As we reached the university I could feel the excitement in air. It was a huge crowd and as expected most of them were Indians and I could spot a couple of ladies in saree on random look. I took a seat comfortable to get a good view of the dais. Bharathi went back to pick up a few others.
The ceremony started with a grad orchestra playing and a few students leading others having flags in their hands. There were more than 500 students who walked in, slowly occupying the chairs in the middle. The arrangement and lighting was appreciable. I clicked a few snaps and tried to spot Vishnu in my zoom lens but ended up in vain. Then she called me in mobile and waved her hand. As the speeches by various guests started in which I had the least interest, I walked around the outer edge of the seats and positioned myself to get a good view and clicked a lot of snaps of every single happening. I was also able to spot Vishnu at a long distance and took some snaps. The students made various gestures on the dais as they were awarded with the degree where one of them actually did a full blown somersault in air right in the middle of the stage. The excitement of every student was dispersed in the place. As Vishnu walked on the stage, I tried clicking almost every step of hers and achieved it too.
Vishnu with her colleagues
After the ceremony everyone came out of the hall and the students joined us in some time. It was a moment of cherishment for everyone and I could feel that in Vishnu’s eyes. We spent about 20 minutes right in center of the road which was temporally blocked for the occasion. A lot of pictures were taken here. Then we entered another building in which snacks was arranged. Vishnu took me around introducing everyone and then we grabbed a few bites of the cookies and left home. The first thing we did was to load the pictures and videos in the computer and scan almost every pixel in each file, commenting on every single one who appeared. It went on for hours as we simultaneously had lunch and then a break for coffee too. When it was almost 6, everyone came back to the world and realized the plans to take Aparna’s parents to Navy Pier for fireworks. Though we started off with the entire pace we could, we soon realized that we will not be able to make it. So finally thought about taking them to the Lake Shore and tied them up in all thermals and jackets we could grab. I picked one from Jez. The weather was pretty cold and it was a nice walk along the shore for about an hour.
Vishnu in her Graduation dress
From there Aparna decided to take their parents’ home while Ramya, Vishnu and I took a bus to downtown. Bala was at a dance club and we joined him in about 45 minute’s time. As always I had nothing much to do in a place like that and continued to chat with people till Vishnu was ready to go. It was midnight and we waited for a shuttle to take us back home when Tamizh called Vishnu and offered a drive back home as he was on his way there with Jez. He came in about 20 minutes meanwhile we picked a sub for Dinner. As we reached home Aparna and her parents were fast asleep and we had dinner and little chit chat at Jez’s place. It was about 2:00 in the morning and all that I remembered was crashing on the floor in the living room with Vishnu deep in sleep even before me.
The plan was to join Aparna’s parents to Aurora Temple next morning but when I woke up I was very sure my physical pain will not allow me to do that. Though my eyes were closing without my control, I could not sleep due to all the rumble noise created by people getting ready for the temple. But Vishnu never seemed to have a problem. Everyone left in sometime and I never wanted to disturb Vishnu. I called up people in India and spoke to them every story I could for 1.5 Hrs. But after that with no other choice left, I woke up Vishnu. With a coffee in hand we browsed through every single pic on her laptop which was ranging from events in college to various occasions. After many years I got to speak with Vishnu for such a long time. We got a call from Arishankar, our college mate and had a long chat. I never realized hours were running by except for the blues of leaving back to Jersey in the evening. At around 4:00 everyone returned and then I left the house at 5. Vishnu came with me to the Airport and it looked like a very short journey. Hugging her bye I entered into the security check line. The journey back was fine except for the fact that I had to resume work the next morning. I reached home before mid-night and had a small talk with Naveen before hitting the bed about all the happenings and slept off to get ready for the week ahead.