Letter From Boston: Tidal Basin Raptures
Every year, in March, my heart aches to visit Washington, DC, to see the blossoming cherry trees and join the National Cherry Blossom Festival. The trees that surround the huge Washington Mall located in the center of the city start to show the first signs of spring in mid-March and by the end of the month, the cherry trees are in full bloom. For me, the month of March augurs not only spring and rejuvenation; it brings back sweet memories, and not just of the March Madness of past NCAA College Basketball Round of Eight, but also of times we spent in DC--initiated by our friends Raja and Shahinshah-- since Jimmy Carter was in the White House. The National Cherry Blossom Festival commemorates the 1912 gift to the city of Washington of 3,000 cherry trees from Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo in recognition of the growing friendship between the United States and Japan. On March 27, 1912, First Lady Helen Herron Taft wife of the-then President Taft, planted the first two trees from Japan on the north bank of the Tidal Basin in West Potomac Park. The first Festival was held in 1935, sponsored by civic groups in the Nation's Capital, and was expanded to two weeks in 1994 to accommodate a diverse activity schedule during the trees' blooming. Today, more than a million people visit Washington, DC each year to admire the blossoming cherry trees and attend events that herald the beginning of spring in the US capital. That brings me to the reason why I pine to visit the Festival every year. Once you've seen cherry blossom one season, you've seen them all, say some. Not for me. Washington, DC, and the early springtime in the Potomac area is part of the annual cleansing we undergo as we are just shaking off the winter blues and wake up from hibernation during winter. Early April in DC is for me and my wife a time to reconnect with nature, and family and friends. It is like what you experience every time you go back to your familiar places in India or Bangladesh. Kipling, put it best, when writing about Lahore, wrote: "I'm in love with this place. I find heat and smells of oil and spices, and puffs of temple incense, and sweat and darkness, and dirt, and lust and cruelty, and above all, things wonderful and fascinatingly innumerable." I have not been to DC for well over six months. The last time I was planning to go there was in January around Barack Obama's Inauguration Day. But then I gave up the idea after making a few calls to friends living in the DC area. In January, we were not only coping with a severe winter, but also trying to stay afloat as waves upon waves kept on hitting us, almost like a tsunami: the housing crisis, financial meltdown, layoffs, you name it. Since hotel accommodations were all taken, Rumi, my wife had started calling up a few of our friends in DC to find out what their plans were for Inauguration Day. One, who lives on the Metro Line, but about 20 miles away said, "Hey, come on down, the more the merrier!" It turned out that six other guests have signed up before us, and all the bedrooms are already spoken for. "But my living room is very spacious, and has thick carpeting", she proudly announced, hinting not-too-subtly that we will be flooring with six other strangers. My good friend Shakil coyly told me that he is leaving town because his two-bedroom apartment has been booked by four of his "close" friends and relatives. "I have a few days of vacation time, so I'm going to be in Florida watching all this on TV. But, please feel free to crash, and I have left enough toilet paper and bottled water in the apartment to last a few days." Great, I said to myself! What are friends for, after all. This time we found out that hotel rooms are still available. However, there are a few cons to the whole trip. In Washington, there will be close to a million people for the Festival. I've also read online and heard on the National Public Radio that roads will be closed to traffic, and the Metro will be overwhelmed. Walking would be the only alternative. If one is willing to walk about 5 to 10 miles from the outskirts, say Arlington or Bethesda, depending on where you stay, then the Tidal Basin area might be accessible on foot. A daunting task, but doable, I assure myself. Moreover, I've done that in my lifetime. I remember once we had to walk from Shelaidah to Kushtia town after a whole day of partying to celebrate Tagore's birthday. "But you were much younger then," a voice within cautioned me. In preparation for the trip, I started to go online to find out what President Obama's plans were for early April. We wanted to visit the White House if the President was in town, and might even be able to catch a glimpse of the First Family. We have not seen the White House since the barricades went up under George Bush, but with a friendlier President in residence, the 3-4 hours waiting in line to get in might be worth the trouble. At least, I will be able to brag to my grand children, "I visited the White House when Obama was the President."
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