Days with My Grandchildren

In one of the days when Sunay calls up on video phone every day to impress that he is fine with his wife & children or otherwise just enquires about us, to my utter surprise he subtly suggested me to join them at their “Anubeaufort Mansion”. His face was displaying an emotion of worry.

At that moment I just woke up from bed in my shabbily organised urban Kolkata home, quite scared to show up to Anurita, provoking a rebuke from her… ‘Uncle please take care of yourself’ & da a da da. ‘This is not the way you should live on.’

Ordinarily, I expect only their welfare and nothing else, however, when I washed my face, I gradually started to come in terms with the reality, I have never been to the States and the very thought of mine going to a country that I have never laid my legs on, my mind was getting gradually filled with suspense, excitement, heart getting filled up and then over flowing & then all of sudden there was a feeling of emptiness.

I was a bit worried to start with, and then thought may be things are fine with a bit of one or two going hey where necessitating the call.

Ever since I have been getting video & voice calls from Anurita more frequently than ever before and sometimes I could see her in a trouser and a untidy T shirt with dishevelled hair showing a vivid signs of impatience with her face zooming out in sheer desperation and thus kept me guessing all the time.

At times I failed to comprehend that in spite Anurita being from a middle class Bengali family, all the time she tends to speak to me in English and to my thorough contentment with every passing day her vocabulary became more & more cogent & enhancing than ever before.

Well I decided to board a flight to Los Angeles, went to the web to SmartTravels.com to book a ticket online. Expectedly found that hopping flights offer the most attractive price and bought a ticket for myself in Emirates Bangalore – Dubai – Paris – Newark – Los Angeles, oops too many hops isn’t it? Have to bear it because my pocket is not that great and not supporting me enough. Great however was my joy to imagine that I would better then get to pan many world cities in one go.

Anurita took special interest and had mailed me the form I – 134 an affidavit of support, signed and endorsed digitally via US Foreign office in Phoenix. I was being sponsored on Anurita’s account. Then I paid Visa issuance fee through HDFC Bank Net-banking. I prefer net banking to video banking, may be as I am old fashioned and like to operate the instrument I learnt during my boyhood. In the late evening the previous day I had got an encrypted sms from an ID called VT – America VID, the brief text communicated that I have an appointment tomorrow at 9 in the morning. I eagerly got up, dressed up well and with all the soft copies on a BlueRay Disc and a hard copy I arrived in front of the Consulate office only to be stopped by the security at the gate, had to show my soft copies which he scanned on the hand held machine got an online approval and then the zoomer gate opened with a bip. I was not allowed to go in and asked to sit on a most unimpressive stool instead. A while later the counter in front of us started flashing my name & passport number, while I reached in front of the ATM like machine it blinked press your thumb here - a plastic thing a lookalike credit card emerged. Waited for a while, and a guy landed – Yeah….

‘Those of who got the card in hand please go & swipe it on the door.’

I was amongst the last one to swipe - the door opened automatically, but allowed only my height fewer 6 inches and literally I had to bent down to get into the space where there was dignified seating arrangements. Someone called my passport number and ordered ‘please follow me’. This guy an American looked smart, overwhelmingly enigmatic and asked me ‘Yes, Mr. Chattopadhyay would you like give your interview in English or in your mother tongue.’ I said ‘English’, Oh well …. He asked me a lot of private questions and asked what your daughter in law does? Her bank account no?’ I was dumbfounded, how can someone be so personal in order to grant a just non-immigrant B2 Visa. Any way compulsions were mine – I had to call Anurita & get the detail smsed and the moment I did show him the sms – he rang up the Bank helpline.

– Hallow – Consulate officer – US Embassy from Kolkata India calling, I need some statutory information to be asked concurrently online with the visitor & the sponsor.

The bank put the call on hold for verification; in the meanwhile biometry of the ten fingers of mine was done. I think once the source was confirmed through video image matching, the call was made open. A conference video call then was made to Anurita and the bank and the details were confirmed and finally he signed off the paper and said latest within 48 hours all your travel documents will reach at your mailing address.

I stayed home the whole day waiting for the documents to come back to me; I was more worried about the biometric passport which was on the way. The moment I got hold of the documents in my hand I felt as if I am flying and got some vibrations and Jetlag feelings as well.

On the D Day I left home and then Boarded AC Double Decker bus from the complex and then arrived at the Airport, smoothly flown to Bengaloru International Airport. Got myself transferred to the lounge – ground staff arrived

– Sir, You are travelling by Emirates
– how do you know
– actually Sir your pictures arrive at our phones early,
- Sir may I will help you through the immigration,

I gladly obliged and she briefed me all the procedures which I eventually followed. Immigration was not a big issue till I arrived at the Charles De Gaulle International Airport, well there was a 4 hour stop and we were taken to the transit passenger lounge at CDG 2 – Terminal C- Oh fabulous it was having an exotic bar with furnishings & menu catalogue largely similar to Jules Vernes of the Eiffel – second level. And there was a picture of the City of Paris in there in one corner, showing how incredible the City looks at night!!!

Now the Frenchmen at the reverse transit immigration started troubling me, I was x-rayed and scanned completely to see if any remains of any terrorism are left in me. Oh Gush horrible it was, they did not leave any part of my body to reassure that. Any way I boarded back to the Aircraft this time it is A480, having a digital theatre room, and an onboard lounge, options were given by the Cabin Crew to have dinner at the seat or at the lounge, I opted for the later. I Wined & Dined in style – took good sips of Martini with steaks of Duck-Lamb-Pork with strains & beads of carrot, spinach, lettuce & all– the idea sounded to me like a coalition.

I went back to sleep & woke up to find our Aircraft hovering above a city of not such a joy it seemed, cool clusters of huge high rises – well I was told by the co-passenger that we are about to land at the Newark Liberty International Airport – and the announcement followed. Oops! That’s my port of entry at the US. With a hangover of half sleep, we got down at the arrival lounge. The American with his usual accent asked me to lay my hands on a place I felt like a glass for my biometric impression, asked to sign on a glass like thing where I could barely follow the trailing lines of my signature – however the guy asked – gentlemen; finish your signature in one go - that made me more nervous. The documents were checked in great detail, confirmations were made online only to clear me up to board a flight now finally heading for Los Angeles.

The flight were a bit gruelling & I was not enjoying it any more, started to have the feeling of Jet leg by now, but great was my hope and agony to meet Oisiki & Aharsri, who would come to the Airport to receive me. Oisiki only suggested ‘Grandpa you would arrive at the LAX and then we would drive you down to Phoenix, via North Arizona, we would then show you the picturesque landscape of the Arizona Plateau and a rare side view of the Grand Canyon as well. To my utter surprise I could spot a few pine trees on the way which produced instant jubilations as I could draw some resemblance to my past visions.

While we were on board on the Daimler Benz car and on the way Aharsri showed me the joint which offers a mind-blowing 8000 Calorie burger to die for! It is either a triple or a Quadruple bypass burger at the Heart Attack Grille in Chundler, Arizona. Wheel chair ride – part of the service which the eatery provides on hospital theme are the main attractions of the restaurant. Together they said Grandpa ‘you only say when you prey to die; now take a look what a co-incidence, you arrive near a joint which resonates your theme.’

We arrived at the West Brooke village, Arizona, with Aharsri steering and intelligently manoeuvring the 2700CC Sedan with 6 cylinder 16 valve dual VVT engine with automatic Climate control, driver's manually-adjustable lumbar support, electroluminescent instrument cluster, tortoise shell styling leather upholstery, steering wheel and of course left hand drive besides many other features which I can’t remember now. I sat on the front while Oisiki kept on murmuring all that from behind. I even saw the gadget called GPS which was giving direction of where to head for and it once gave Aharsri a warning beep that the car has turned left instead of right. Oh God! must be it a few hundred thousand dollar car!! I imagined.

We arrived at the “Anubeaufort Mansion”. The very sight of the mansion more than amazed me and it made a huge statement of its own. Oh “Anubeaufort” – the common names of grandmother & wife adjoined with American flavour. I only thanked God for this entire dream come true situation.

I was too tired to get into the details at that moment and after having a refreshing bath went back to fast sleep, had more than a good afternoon nap. Got up in the late evening and literally was looking forward to meet Anurita & Sunay.

They arrived quite late and Anurita said Uncle ‘it’s getting darker and we will have our Dinner right now, but before that here is some surprise for you.’ She picked three balloon glasses and took out a red stuff from the freezer. She showed me and said ‘look this is Saint-Emilion Grand Cru Classé – Aah a French wine.’ She poured on the glasses a little less than half full and then asked Uncle ‘Give this glass a swirl’ - ‘and feel the aroma you know what it is called – it’s arome de bouche’. I smelt like a first timer and got a great feeling of the smell only to be told by Anurita that "it’s Truffles aroma and this is one of my favourite wine and you know this is brewed out of grapes from the Bordeaux region of northern France with vintage for a period of anything between 15 to 25 years.”

‘Oh great taste’ I said but then she forwarded me some cheese and said “here is Reblochon cheese feel the tang.” I was flabbergasted looking at the gourmet Anurita and her grand style of serving the dinner. I was wondering how she still could manage the mustard seed fish curry and sidal sutkir chatni in here as well, cause in the end she has to carry on her duty as the Endowed Chair in the Arizona State University.

In the morning I entered the bath & toilet area and was in a great mood to take a closer look. It had a Jacquzi, Sauna & Shower cabinet besides an elegant bathtub. I sat on the commode and as usual and got up in between, the moment I raised my butt there was a sound of water flow only to realise that it was Auto flash of Kohler commode giving me a bold look stare, immediately I sat back to gain control of the situation. Next to the bath area it had a private Gymnasium where I did nothing but took my weight with mixed anticipation.

Oisiki bunked school in the morning, more so because she was too excited to show me a few things which she felt have borne fruit out of her relentless efforts. What she tells me is that she is a flora lover and it is her aim is to be an environment protection activist.

She took me to the gardens all around the mansion and started showing me her passionately nurtured produce of nature one by one. ‘Grandpa take a look here is one I grew last year – that’s ‘Magnificum Gerenium’ – a fading violet flower like poppy with 4 petals, before I could completely see it she jumped on to the next one – ‘this is Banksia’ – it looked like bird’s nest having threaded beads of petals in brick red colour, immediately it struck in my mind that this makes a good stuff for a bouquet. ‘Come here that’s Dianthus’ – pink petals with reddish centre zone.

‘Grandpa you see this tree the flower called Caribea Heliconia shall blossom in a few weeks, you know it will have petals like leafs twisted helically in cone shape somewhat like – murir thongar mato pechano.’ ‘Come come feel this flower this is our own Viburnum – it looks like a known flower, tell me where have you seen this before? Instantly it hit my senses and I said Oh! That’s ‘forget me not’ found in Shillong but you know dear Oisiki you see them in Ooty as well.

Oh! Fabulous I felt so soothing with my eyes getting a sweet treat and wondered how the nature manages to grow such vibrant colours from the same mother earth but through various stems of plants, what could be the chemical processes that yields such combination of colour, flavour and looks at the same time; I realised the nature is incredibly astounding.


In the afternoon Aharsri got back from college on his bicycle and said Grandpa – ‘what have you done the whole day?’ I said nothing except good quality time spent with Oisiki and have probably enhanced my knowledge on botany.

He said - 'come I will take you around' – I was more than ready and obliged. He then started to show me the Mansion on the lap of 15 acres of nature. ‘Grandpa – take a look the sleeping stone face you see that’s the sculpture of the courtyard garden.’

The mansion had a splendid architectural look, having eleganstone textured exterior, the top corners of the entire outer line was covered for a height of one feet of weathered cane stick bunches greyish in colour.

There was a main wing and a children’s wing the later also housed my guest room. Both these wings were connected with a concrete canopy, the top roofing was of bluescope colour coated corrugated high tensile steel sheeting. Windows were all Aluminium framed with glazing of somewhat superior quality which I have never seen elsewhere.

We then got into the lobby and the uniform stairs all over the house were of marble with a two seats in every flight may be three treads apart. The flooring was of American Oak, there were no carpets in sight. The rooms were separated with TRESPA VIRTUON compressed teak wood panels. The doors were all of Burmese teak with ultra modern hardware; the main door was hydraulically operated. Every room had one wall of Krystal Maribor insulating double glass panels from the UK, it had 1cm of vacuum gap in between to ensure insulation and enough undistorted lights in each room – Aharsri described. Wall like windows were all fitted with remotely operated auto Venetian blinds.

Paintings collected from the World over were arranged in such an outstanding fashion that spoke of great sense of order, reflecting power, grace and beauty in splendid proportions. And the overall interior look was nothing less than Royal.

I asked who designed all these here. Aharsri mentioned that the main Architect was Mr Simmone Overrand supported well by Ms Lary Jose Garner his Junior. Well done creators! I said to myself.

Aharsri then took me to the USGA Camel back Golf Club - a 18 hole Golf Course, all of a sudden he takes out a Jack Nicklaus Golf stick from the kit kept in the car and asked me to follow him to the teeing ground, he then lays a few Yokohama Golf ball on to the ground, swings his stick and said Grandpa ‘go, go see where it lands’ I literally crawled to find the ball and found none, but then Aharsri followed and holed the ball after striking the flag stick once in 9 attempts. Then he says ‘now you give it a try’, I swung with a huge back lift after practising a few empty swings, could not hole the ball till 27 attempts and pleaded for equity to Aharsri. The game went on for a while with nothing notable happening.

On our way back Aharsri picked up a few groceries from the Wall MART, of course that was not on his own choice but after a call from Anurita – his sweet gaudy mom.

Sunay said in the night – ‘Dad – this weekend Anurita & I shall take you to an unexplored destination and would probably leave Oisiki & Aharsri behind.’

It was a strange and a tense waiting for the weekend with premonition of impending dilemma as I am supposed to be here presumably to broker some serious issues for which I may have been dragged in so far. To know more please read my Book!!!!!! :)Face Book: http://www.facebook.com/Shantanu.C.1985