American Dreams - 5

IBM BTV celebrated its 50^th year anniversary in aug. It was a family event - celebration with family. There were lots of exhibition stalls, games for children, rides , free food and entertainment programs. A Fab tour in a small scale was also arranged for the guests. Fab is the place where the chips get manufactured ( not potato/banana chips –the real tiny electronic chips on silicon) – there was a stall conducted by the people from the fab where they explained the processes and all of us got chips as souvenir. I took three :D . The exhibition hall which featured the first computing machines, system servers, blue gene computer parts, etc was awesome. While I was looking at one of the first fab products of IBM which was a wire contact relay, an old guy who came n stood behind me, said that it was one of the parts made by his team back then. It was so touching - I could see the sparkles of pride in his eyes. :)

I had to start my small scale shopping for the family back in India –surely chocs in the list. I did buy some small things from Walmart when Prat was there. Jason took me to Downtown, where we just roamed around for a day- had lunch, witnessed some bike races ( it was fun) , visited the only other shopping mall in Vermont , went to the water creek- Downtown is like our MG Road, the hangout place for the youth there, full of restaurants and shops.I got chocs from the Champlain chocs store and some swiss Lyndtt chocs.

Alison called me about 2 weeks prior to my return and invited me for dinner at their place. I wondered at their kindness to call a person like me, whom they have met only once, and invite to their place. That weekend , Mike came to Hawthorns around 5.30 in the evening to pick me up. Belinda, an Indian girl from Tamil Nadu, who was doing her phd in the University of Vermont , was also there with him. She goes to the same church as theirs. Lee family is an excellent host, esp Alison. They have a beautiful house and Alison was too excited to take us both around their house, explaining the architecture of American Houses. We all had a discussion about the culture difference between east and west, how different the kids are in the two regions, the way of bringing up the children, the education system, administration, marriage customs and so on.It was such a refreshing change for me , that I was also talking very excitedly . My face was beaming all the time and I guess that made their day. :)

After the wonderful dinner , they dropped Belinda and myself back home.We first went to Carol Parker’s house, where Belinda stays as a paying guest. Parker is one of the ministers in their church and Parker family is involved in church activites. Their son is working for IBM Fab. I was invited for a lunch which Carol was hosting for the university students on Sunday. It was the best evening I had in BTV - imprinted in my memory forever.

On Sunday morning, Lee family came to take me to their church – Christ memorial Church in Willinston – it was the anniversary day of the church and some people were being baptized. It was totally a diff feeling to sit there, hear those grown ups confess their sins – most of them were really personal matters that no one would ever have the guts to tell in public. There was one pregnant lady who talked about her past – the bad ways she had trodden in the small span of her life – disobedience, drugs, unsafe sex , getting pregnant n losing her baby and what not - and how she had found , in the hardest way, the path back to Jesus – how she got back her life to spend it with a loving husband and how happy she is now - She did reveal a lot of things – while reading out her testimony, tears were rolling down her cheeks and all assembled in the hall were becoming emotional – for being the witnesses to her’s redemption. The mood was so intense that I felt very elated –that God gave me a chance to be a part of this wonderful occasion - I asked myself whether I would ever have the courage to confess my sins the way she had done – Hats off to you , my lady.. God Bless u and ur child…

Carol took me to her house for the Sunday lunch together with the UVM students. I got to meet some nice ppl there, from diff countries, sharing rooms under the same roof. Met The Christian Minister Dough Parker and their son Brad. It was interesting to hear Brad speak about the India he knows and his desire to come to India. Maybe, one day , the Parker family might come to my country. God knows.