Mental Excursions

Food & war in New Orleans! Contd. from last week’s https://anupamaexcursions.blogspot.com/2024/06/music-is-new-orleans-soul.html There is such a lot one can do and experience in New Orleans that I am unable to decide what to share and what to leave. Anyway, we started our second day with a hearty Southern-style breakfast at Willa Jean (photo above) with Ross, a member of our extended family, and his girl-friend Reagan Garvin, a pleasant, cheerful young lady.   A visit to the World War II Museum, earlier called D-Day Museum, was the second activity on our agenda. As the name suggests, it is a museum of military history. With the help of a huge workforce of 30,000 Louisiana workers from Higgins Industries, Andrew Jackson Higgins designed and built 20,000 Higgins boats during WWII. These carriers transported US soldiers for and back from land and water attacks. The boat is in New Orleans and thus the museum is situated here. A plaque put up there read ‘The National WWII Muse

  Last week I told you that while in the US we had made a weekend trip to New Orleans (nicknamed NOLA). Why not share about that with you, I thought and so… We took a very early morning flight from NYC on Friday to reach New Orleans before breakfast. The hotel allowed early check-in, a wise business decision because I was told weekends are their busiest time. By the way, during the week days when business is dull, some of them offer inexpensive staycations;  the hospitality industry would do well to welcome tourists-domestic or international. We took a couple of hours unpacking and freshening up and chose to do brunch instead of two meals so that we could make the most of our time in the city. At a small place known for crepes, we chose savoury ones with spinach, cheese and chicken fillings to kickstart the day. It was already noon when we stepped out to follow our plan for the day. When we visit a new city in Europe or the US, I prefer taking the ‘hop on, hop off’ bus, if avai

Big Apple visit is vacation time! Mural by Eduardo Kobra at Chelsea Square Market, New York City A very dear friend replaced her profile photo on Whatsapp with another in which she is wearing a cardigan. For a few minutes, I was the one sweating, merely seeing her in the cardigan, and then I remembered my vacation early this year. Do not have proper jars? No issue, mason jars are perfect for mixed winter veg pickle and kanji* Most of us humans long for what is not. In winter we think of hot summers when the AC running at 21 degrees C brings comfort and one can enjoy endless mangoes/water melons/ chhachh (buttermilk)/ lassi /iced lemonade .  These days when the mercury is banging its head between 40 and 48 degrees C in the column of the thermometer, we long for the cold when one sweats only on chewing on sharp green chillies, can bury themselves under the quilt and surface only to gorge guiltfree on masala chai (tea with spices)/roasted peanuts/stuffed parathas / pakoras (griddle fr

Election not on my plate! The mercury has been hovering between 44 and 49 deg C (111 and 120 deg F) at different places in the past few days. The whole of north, west and south-western regions of the country feel like a huge grill sizzling to roast flesh. And with that there is something else heating up the minds and tongues of people everywhere - the election results. Fiery speeches of candidates during their campaigns, their charges and counter-charges stewed the atmosphere (although in their election rallies, speeches and interviews, none talked about what they wanted to do for climate). I am not reporting about elections here. What causes me concern is that thousands of people, a big percentage of whom have not even voted, are spending (wasting?) their precious time, and energy in calculating or predicting whether the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is going to win, on how may seats, in which state, come back to power on its own/with allies and to what end. The maharajas of the