Umbra by Kishore Murthy

I had the opportunity of meeting my cousins on the weekend. My second cousin S lives in Washington DC. Her parents who live in Alabama were driving down to Boston to attend their son’s graduation from MIT and did a stopover in DC. It felt great to be with family members and it seemed to placate the gnawing homesickness I have been feeling lately.

Driving into DC makes my wife and even me a little batty. I was happy that she was the one driving, after all she knows the roads a whole lot more than me. We had printed out the route from MapQuest and it pulled a number on us and took us in the wrong direction. My wife spotted it before we were completely offtrack and figured out that she was better off without the stupid map. And soon we were heading in the right direction.

S lives in a beautiful and very cutesy apartment. It has two floors/levels… the upper level has the living space, dining space and kitchen. The lower level is connected by stairs and has the bedrooms and bathrooms. There is even a common rooftop deck with a good view. Having a space that opens to the sky especially in the city is a treat.

My cousins who drove from Alabama got to meet my wife and daughter for the very first time. The evening was filled with lots of laughter and chitchat. S whipped up some really good Italian food which I thoroughly enjoyed. Salad with caramelized pears with almonds and goat cheese, pasta with pesto sauce and some zucchini thrown on the side. The meal concluded with cake, strawberries and whipped cream dessert that my wife made. I had a wonderful time and I hope everyone else did .

Anju behaved very well throughout the evening and went to sleep around 2100hrs. As we bid our goodbyes I tell my cousin to have lots of fun and a blast. How very apt and appropriate of me to say something like that to someone on a Road Trip?? My cousin was gracious enough to remind me and I wished her again ‘Have fun but don’t have a blast‘ .

My wife Jessica has a wide spectrum of taste when it comes to music and is really into it. I also listen to music but its minuscule when compared to her and I don’t really understand it. Crowded House is one of that bands that she loves and was wanting to see perform. So, when she found out that Crowded House was playing at the 9:30 Club in DC (on 2 May) she had to go see it. I bailed out and she planned to attend it with friends who loved them as much as her. Her parents were coming on that day to spend the weekend playing with their grand daughter, Anju. Since Anju still had separation anxiety issues I stayed home to man the baby, while the baby took care of entertaining the in-laws .

My wife had lived in Alexandria for many years before she moved to India to stay with me. And when we planned to move back to the US, we were very lucky to land an apartment in the same Apartment Complex that she used to live in. It made our life easier knowing that at least one person knew the neighborhood. Its been 2 months now since we moved here and I am still getting to know my way around.

For the first time on Friday (2 May) I drove on the highway… it was during the day and I was following directions scribbled by my wife and picked her up from the metro station at Pentagon city without any problem. And with that in mind she asked me to do the same again after the Crowded House Concert. It was 2345 hrs when she called and I left home immediately. And for some reason I asked her father, Fred to tag along and he did so very sportively. Everything was going smooth until literally the last minute… I was supposed to keep left once I took the exit 8C from 395 N as the right lane curves off and I missed it (for Fred and I were chatting away). If we had kept to the left and gone straight the metro station was less than a minute away.

I realized immediately that I had made a wrong turn and told Fred. Since all I knew was the exact route any deviation meant instant disaster and it was. As our mind raced thinking of what to do we had passed the exit to 395 N… it came up so quickly that we missed it. We spent the next hour talking to my wife on the phone and driving what seemed like all over the planet, trying to get on 395 S. At one time we were on the road to Reagon International and then another time we were on the road to Mt. Vernon… then we seemed to head towards Route 66. Some desperate direction changes later we were crossing the Rosslyn bridge and were in Rosslyn. Around Lee Highway, Fred and I switched places at my suggestion for I was overwhelmed. U-Turns out here did not work like in India… driving and trying to navigate at the same time squished my noggin. I was very glad that Fred was there with me in the car.

We stopped and asked directions from a couple that were crossing the street… they were hesitant initially but decided to help us. In the end we had to go over the Memorial bridge before we made it to 395 S. After that it was quite simple for I knew the route. We drove for a while and then switched back to 395 N. And this time we made sure that we were in the left lane as we were coming off the exit 8C. A minute later we were at the Pentagon City Metro and picked up the flustered squirrel, my wife . We laughed about it later and I am sure we will talk about this for a long time.

The weekend threw in a couple more interesting experiences. You can go over to my wife’s blog to read about the altercation with a bus driver that ended with us having to call the cops.

PS: Two of my friends entered fatherhood recently - Gopinath three weeks ago and Rajesh last week. Congratulations guys!!! I am very happy for you both .