Random Thoughts: Summer of 2010

It is embarrassing. I just noticed that my last blog was posted on April 18, 2010, over a year ago. I cannot come up with any good excuse for my silence for such a prolonged period. It was definitely a very busy one year. Sinan went to France in January of 2010 to do his semester abroad at the Lorraine campus of Georgia Tech in Metz. Semahat and I traveled to Metz in May when his semester was over, and the three of us traveled together to the Provence region of southern France, spending mother’s day in Nice and sightseeing in nearby towns of Monte Carlo a week before the famous Monaco Grand Prix, Cannes one day before the start of the film festival, walking around in a spectacular medieval fortress-like village on a hill, St. Paul de Vence (supposedly the second most visited village in France), finally returning to Paris to spend the last three nights there, all using public transportation at the insistence of Sinan.

Georgia Tech. Metz, France.

View of Nice, France.

Typical street in St.Paul de Vence

Monte Carlo, one week prior to the Grand Prix. Viewing Stands are Ready.

In mid-July, Sheela, Chris, Kaya and Kiran came from Dhaka to spend part of their summer vacation with us. This was the first time we got to meet Kiran , who was born in Bangkok in December of 2009. When Sheela went to Bangkok to give birth, I was hoping that I might have the pleasure of sharing a birthday with him. However, Kiran had other ideas, so he came to this world on the 17th of December, one day too late to share his birthday with me. Although we see him on Skype on a regular basis, this was our first face to face meeting, and he won over his grandparents immediately with his charming good looks, ready smile and cheerful disposition. All the toys and children’s books came up to the family room from the basement. These were the same sturdy American made toys that Sheela and Sinan played with when they were little, and which were also used by Kaya till last year. Kaya was now outgrowing them, but he was helpful in teaching his brother how to play with them.

Family Portrait, July 2010.

Brothers Hesse, July, 2010.

Kaya was four and a half year old when they came here last July. He has turned out to be a real delight; playful, and at the same time hungry to learn everything about his surroundings and beyond. He could carry on an intelligent conversation with any one. I really enjoyed our one on one times when we went to visit the Science Center, the Aviary, and other interesting places in and around Pittsburgh. One thing I tried to do whenever we went out was to show him different makes and models of cars and teach him how to identify them. Once I showed him a Honda, and told him how the “H” identifies this make of car. Next we saw a Hyundai. I said,
“When you see a straight H, it is a Honda, a Japanese car, but when it is a slanted H-“,
“You mean a diagonal H”?
“Yes, when you see a diagonal H, it is a Hyundai, a Korean car”.
I had intentionally avoided using the word diagonal, but I now I know I didn’t have to, not with him. Once, Kaya and I were in the car driving to the Science Center in Pittsburgh. There was a construction crew on the highway, with all their heavy equipment. Kaya asked me what they were doing. I explained to him that the highway has to be fixed every few years, because of the damage caused by the large number of vehicles using it all the time. He said,
“In Bangladesh, when the roads get bad, they don’t fix them”.
“Why not”?
“I don’t know”.
“May be they don’t have the money”.
“They do, Dadu. They are building all those buildings everywhere”. I guess he was referring to all the luxury condominiums going up in the part of Dhaka where they live. I said,
“May be they should use some of that money to fix their roads”. Kaya agreed. ”Yes, they should”.
At the Science Center, Kaya’s favorite exhibit was the World War II era submarine USS Requiem, which is permanently moored on the Ohio River. He enjoyed walking inside the submarine and seeing the engine room, the crew cabins, the periscope, and mostly the torpedoes. He asked the world war veterans who volunteer as guides inside the submarine, how the torpedoes were fired. When we returned home, I went on the internet and showed him a few videos of torpedoes blowing up battle ships, and the battle ships firing depth charges, just to satisfy his curiosity. Kaya also loved the story “Angle of Attack” written by uncle Sinan when he was a third grader. In this story, also illustrated by Sinan, a little boy goes on a joy ride in an F-22 fighter plane with his uncle, who was an Air Force pilot. While flying around, they encounter two Russian MIG fighter planes. In the ensuing dogfight, the uncle shoots down both MIGs with his sidewinder missiles. While Kaya was still interested in dinosaurs, now he started drawing submarines, fighter planes, rockets, and missiles. No wonder his parents think I am a bad influence on him. They are trying their best to bring him up in an environment where he does not see or hear about any kind of violence, or even hear what they consider to be unsuitable words such as “stupid”, or “kill” uttered around him. Good luck to them. Anyway, summer vacation was about to be over, but Sheela agreed to stay behind for two extra weeks with the boys after Chris’s return to work, provided I accompanied them to Dhaka. I agreed, and we had two more weeks of fun in Pittsburgh.
I will end this post by recalling a conversation I had with Kaya in the plane from Pittsburgh to JFK, on our way to Dhaka. It was one of those commuter planes, a small regional jet with sitting for 67 people. The plane was about half full. Kaya and I were sitting on one side of the aisle, while Sheela and Kiran were across the aisle, one row behind. As soon as we were airborne, Kaya started asking all kinds of questions about passenger planes. I told him about different models of Boeing and Airbus planes. Our conversation continued non-stop during the entire hour long flight. The gentleman across the aisle must have been listening, along with all the other passengers around us. He handed me the Delta in-flight magazine, pointing to the page which had pictures and short descriptions of all the planes in the Delta fleet. Kaya was happy to see those. I pointed out to him that the biggest passenger plane, the Airbus A380, was missing from the list, because Delta did not own any of those. As we started our descent towards JFK, Kaya asked me,”Dadu, have I been to more places than you have?” I answered, “No, but that is because I am much older than you. I am sure you will see much more than what I have seen when you get older.” He said, “When I retire?” I answered, “No, long before that”. He was quiet. Then out of the blue, he said,
“Dadu, sometimes you anger me.” I was taken by surprise. I said,
“How do I anger you?”
“When you talk sternly with me if I do something bad.”
“May be you should try not to do anything bad, so I don’t have to talk sternly. Right?”
“Right.”
The plane landed, and we headed for the International terminal to catch our next plane, a Qatar Airways flight to Dhaka via Doha. Summer vacation was over.