chapter 1

Author’s NoteWho said the U.S. is not an exotic holiday destination any longer? That the days when a trip to the U.S. was replete with adventure, uncertainty, thrills and chills are long gone? Believe me, it becomes all that and more when two Luddites land in that country on their debut trip abroad.Yes, debut trip. I’m not kidding. Until my husband and I went to the U.S. in 2018, we hadn’t ventured outside India, not even to nearby countries. Armchair travel and listening goggle-eyed to pulsating stories of other people’s expeditions to foreign lands had been our favoured and safe mode of tourism. We were happy to let our neighbouring countries be. No crossing the seas to stomp through Sri Lankan forests or to laze on the beaches of Maldives for us. No desire to go clambering all over the mountains of Bhutan or Nepal. And we magnanimously left the UAE to thousands of others.Then, the impossible happened. ‘You MUST come to Syracuse for my graduation.’ Thus spake Arpitha, the daughter-in-law. Over the phone, of course, but that was enough; it worked like magic. The wheels of overseas travel began to spin like crazy and soon we were in the U.S. This was in 2018, though, before the Covid 19 virus threw a spanner into all impromptu travel plans.The U.S. is beautiful. We discovered that first-hand during our forty-day sojourn in the country. But it did take some getting used to. We had to remember a few simple basics. That we were actually breathing fresh air. That a queue meant standing a few paces behind the person in front, not adjacent to them. That walking was always on the right, even in the mega corridors of shopping malls. That the groaning and creaking houses we visited were not haunted but made of wood. That walls had ears. That multiple switches were scarce. That switches in homes and hotels were upside down and rarely near beds or doors. That passages were often dark, and locating the upside down switches was an adventure in itself. That restrooms had paper, not water. And that ‘Big’ was the operative word—everything, like the country itself, was giant-sized.However, it was the heavy reliance on technology that stumped us. If you think a visit to a First World country is a walk in the park because of the many facilities it has, you have another think coming. You can’t afford to be technologically challenged if you want to use those facilities. We were. But so what? We had a tech-savvy son and daughter-in-law to take care of all that and help us out of scrapes—technology-related or otherwise. We had warm friends to host us and take us around. And thus we blundered our way through many parts of the U.S.—landing in Chicago, going to Syracuse, cruising from Boston in the East Coast to California in the west, before wending back, and many other places in between. We had a wonderful time through it all.This light-hearted travelogue recounts the eventful and enjoyable forty days we spent in the U.S. I’m not sure if St Augustine got it right when he said, ‘The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.’ But I hope you read all the pages of this book and indifferent travellers are encouraged to travel and go places, literally. With all safety precautions and shots in place, of course. And be sure to have a smart phone with you. Or a smart son and daughter-in-law.Khyrunnisa A.2022