VISITING FRIENDS AND FAMILY
ADVENTURE:
VISITING
FRIENDS AND FAMILY ON
MEMORIAL
DAY WEEKEND
Sachi
G. Dastidar
My older sister Didi, i.e., Pratima Roy Chowdhury, was visiting her daughter Neela, i.e., Anindita Ghosh Dastidar, living near Ontario, Canada, and we have been thinking of visiting her. Unfortunately, U.S. visitor service is making people to wait for over two to 3 years to get a visitor visa. Didi and her husband visited us in New York over two decades ago, but that that didn’t influence U.S. consulate to give her a tourist visa. So, on Memorial Day weekend, we decided to visit her in Canada, but that included several stops that we wanted to make way back. Our stops included Christian preacher Arlene whom our kids call in traditional way Arlene-Mashi or Aunt Arlene, in Upstate New York near Poughkeepsie, new baby of Chapol and his wife near Syracuse in northcentral New York, MayaDi, Older Sister Maya, my oldest sister Didi’s classmate in Kolkata, India living in Buffalo, New York, then Niagara Falls attraction, finally heading to Mississauga, southwest of Toronto. For Bangladeshi refugees like us, Chapol’s home in Dhaka became our substitute home when we visited our homeland. I stayed in Dhaka for two nights just in last September of 2022. Our family of three generations was excited to make the trip, Shriya-Lakshmi’s parents Sumedha and Shuvo, and grandparents Shefali and Sachi. We decided to leave on Friday, May 12, as soon as Lakshmi finished her school, returning on Monday15th evening, a school holiday, for her to join school on 16th.
Reverend
Arlene’s Home near Poughkeepsie
Most enjoyable part of our brief stop was her cat,
Sunshine. Shriya-Lakshmi found a good friend to play with. Arlene entertained
us with nice home-cooked food.
Our stop at Buffalo at MayaDi or Older Sister Maya’s home
was a fantastic lunch break. As usual, we were running a bit late, thus we
called her asking if we can postpone the visit, to which she said that she has
cooked our Bengali/Indian lunch and is waiting at the front porch for us. Seeing
Sachi she asked, “Am I seeing you after 60 years at your home on Fern Road in
Kolkata?” We realized that she has a great memory for an octogenarian. She was
a college classmate of our older sister Didi whom we were heading to meet.
On way to her home, we stopped at a park on the highway
that was a ferry station for the Erie Canal boats.
From MayaDi’s home we headed to Niagara Falls. I visited
Niagara many times since 1972 but was the first visit for Shriya-Lakshmi. We
were like other tourists visiting the falls, taking pictures, then joining for ice-cream and
snacks, before we headed to Mississauga.
In two hours from Niagara Falls we reached my older
sister, and her daughter Neela and her husband Sumit, their two kids, Jit and
Joey. Our chatting and catching up with stories took us to late night before we
could hit our bed. Here too, Shriya-Lakshmi found a new play mate, their dog
who welcomed us by barking. Next day we had an outdoor lunch celebration,
followed by tour of the green cultivated area of Ontario Province.
Tour
of Green Agricultural Ontario
On our return home we took a slightly longer route via the eastern end of Lake Ontario, and home of several recreational and tourist areas on the lake islands and lakeshore, including a site where Swami Vivekananda came over a century ago to meditate and meet New Yorkers.
Check Empire's Last Casualty:
2021 (empireslastcasualty.blogspot.com) for more blogs.
Comments via social media:
Sachi, I really enjoyed looking at all your pictures and reading the comments from your trip to visit your sister. I am so happy that you were able to stop here on the way.
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