A Grand Day Out

Ok, so this is going to be a really fact-filled, touristy posting.

The tallest building in the world - for quite some time - was the Sears Tower. It is one end of the Chicago skyline, if you just go back to the "July" photo in the "Summer" post. And at the other end (basically) is another building with tall antennae, that we see below.

But first - the second tallest building in Chicago - is the one that you can see in the next picture. It is the Aeon Center, and stands out in the background (and also in the "July" photo in "Summer"). This picture is shot along Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago; the building in the foreground is the place where Swami Vivekananda received a three-minute standing ovation for his immortal opening words - "Sisters and Brothers of America". (The stretch of road in front of it is called "Swami Vivekananda Way"!)


That building is the Art Institute of Chicago - it is world-famous for its many collections, most notably Impressionist paintings (I can remember having seen Monet's Haystacks and Water Lilies). A whole week might not suffice to see its entire collection of art!

The Art Institute is across the road from a wonderful place that is home to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. They have had some great concerts - and you can get student tickets for only $10!

Also south of the Chicago river - which shows up in a moment! - is the Public Library:
And then comes the river itself. The first photo below, contains many buildings that might seem familiar from Batman Begins. The middle photo shows the erstwhile home of the Chicago Sun-Times - I first heard of it because of Roger Ebert's movie reviews on imdb. It's demolished now (for a Trump Tower). The clock-tower beside it is of the Wrigley Building - chewing gum, anyone?








And now to move north of the river. Just on the other side are two buildings called the "Corncobs" - and it is not hard to see why! Note that the fifteen lowest floors are reserved almost entirely for parking!










The building on the right is the third tallest building in Chicago. Named after President John Hancock, it houses (a restaurant and) a bar on the ninety-sixth floor called the Signature Lounge (perhaps to do with JH's flamboyant signature on the Declaration of Independence?). Ah, the view from up there at night... Chicago is truly a city of lights! (But that's for the next post!)

But the best part of Chicago is the roaming around. The public transport is just wonderful - and the 'L' has been around for over a century!

The Sound of Music

sa-re-ga-ma-pa-dha-ni-Sa

Taken on my 24th birthday on the 32nd floor of Regent's Park ("next door")... This was the original Sapthak in the University of Chicago. (Replace Jayadev by Alpen, rather! As in the next picture.)

Do Ti La So Fa Mi Re Do

Three years of melodies and memories. Of attending concerts and giving them. Of practice, movie songs, a potluck, movies, and friends for life!


(11 May 2004, in Fulton Hall, U. of C.)

Do Mi Mi, Mi So So,

The venues changed:

Vivekananda Vedanta Center,
International House,
Ida Noyes,
Fulton Hall,
Barton-Judson Hall,
Mandel Hall,
Siddharth Shah's house!

Re Fa Fa, La Ti Ti

The styles changed:

Classical and Filmi

Carnatic and Hindustani
Tillana and Bhajan
Ghazal and Khayal
Solo and Jugalbandi
Dancing or Singing
Dancing to the Singing

The people changed - here's most of the new Sapthak, for my last two years in Chicago:
(15 May 2005, in Judson Hall, U. of C.)

But the music will always be as beautiful as ever.

When you know the notes to sing,
You can sing 'most anything!

The busiest Orchard in the world

Dorothy Gale had her magic slippers. Ordinary people have to use other means to go places.
As you must have figured out, this orchard doesn't deal in fruits - but birds can still prove to be a menace. (Check out 17 March 1987 and Sep-Oct 2004 in the link.)

But back to our fruit-garden. Orchard Place Airport (code: ORD) - now called Chicago O'Hare International Airport - was the busiest airport in the world until 2005. Chicago's location makes it a hub for major airlines; you can fly to dozens of countries from here; and if there is lightning, a plane cannot take off for some time.

And look who turned up for the first time in America!






O'Hare inside is not bad either - this is the view from the Duty Free Store just outside the International Terminal Security Checkpoint. Identify as many of the flags as you can!



And this picture gives an altogether new meaning to the word "flyover" :).
Interestingly, the same Blue Line (subway system) serves the airport today, that did when I first came here in 1987. In a city with such a wonderful public transport network, traveling is almost a triviality!






Yes, that's Aai!






But probably the best sentence that describes O'Hare and Chicago together, is the punchline of an advertisement I saw, on the day I left Chicago for good. It said -

"Isn't it ironic - an airport that can get you anywhere,
in a city you never want to leave."

I know what I did last summer!

And now to the fairest season of them all (at least in Chicago). Summer sees flowers. Lots of them. The City always puts plants and flowers on Michigan Avenue - near the home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, near the Art Institute of Chicago, near the river, all along the Magnificent Mile...













I see trees of green, red roses too,
I see them bloom, for me and you,
And I think to myself: "What a Wonderful World".
(Louis Armstrong)



July and August, though, are the best times to be in Chicago.
The quarter's over - so no teaching, it's summer break!
The weather's absolutely remarkable - so go roam around!
The summer blockbusters are all coming out - so plenty of "movie and a dinner" outings to downtown!

Downtown's coming up later - but let me end with two snapshots - taken in July and August - of the prettiest skyline in the world.











And I think to myself: "What a Wonderful World".

"Winter passes"

The year's at the spring

And day's at the morn;

Squirrels on the path;
The roadside's dew-pearled

The flowers bloom, they sing;
The leaves of trees re-born;
It's time to do some math -
All's right with the world!

(With a profusion of apologies to Robert Browning)

When it comes to spring, everyone comes out. The squirrels come out. The people come out. The flowers, the leaves, the construction, the...

The next two pictures are taken in front of the Regenstein Library. This is the place where Harry and Sally drive out of, just after they meet.













The picture in the middle of the top row was taken on the Main Quads - in front of the Administration Building. The one below shows you our very own Botany Pond - and you do not want to be "swimming with the fishes" in here, trust me.

The last picture is, once again, on the Main Quads. If you stood here, to your left would be where Harry met Sally. Oh, and by the way - they drive the wrong way in the movie - it's the other way to the Drake Hotel on Lake Shore Drive.

Snow-white and the seven months

That's how long the cold lasts. The other five months are Construction time - I lied, Chicago really only has two seasons :).

The Lake is really a sea, but it too can freeze over on the surface. The weather can get nasty - if the intensity of the snowfall isn't enough, the wind bites beyond anything. Once it settles down, the clearest days are the coldest.









And yet, it can be really pretty. The Queen of Narnia would approve.

And eventually, the Lake surface slowly melts.

For my last two acts, I give you - Hyde Park in January. These were taken from the 32nd floor of Regents' Park, on my birthday. The picture on the right expands the top left of the picture on the left - the Rockefeller and Bond Chapels on campus.









This was a warmer day (it's cloudy and gloomy)!

The Four Seasons - Fall

Unlike Vivaldi's best-known works, our life in Chicago starts in Autumn (quarter). Though we cannot boast of Fall colours like Arkansas or New York (or many others), we can boast of the most out-of-place pink-coloured building in the world:

The Max Palevsky dorm, next to the tennis courts. The unparallelled Regenstein Library (which is how every other building on campus is coloured) stands in the background.

And yet, the most significant monument on campus is the small, dark insignificant-looking one in between. That is the memorial for the first controlled, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction - carried out by Enrico Fermi's team on December 2, 1942. Right here on campus.

The University Hospitals face some magnificent expanses in between the Midway Plaisance. Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken is what I remembered when I first walked there - I had not taken that road for my first four years in Chicago!














Old Father Time gets older every fifteen minutes - and we are the ones for whom this bell tolls:

The Rockefeller Chapel, one of a few on campus. Across the road is the most fantastic student-run Film Society in existence. Doc Films screens at least two movies (or one movie twice) every day of every quarter, in a theater that seats maybe a thousand. They've shown films from Hitchcock to Kurosawa, Capra to (Satyajit) Ray. And those are just four of the molecules, on the tip of the iceberg.

So what do mathematicians do...

other than turning coffee into theorems, that is?

For example, they sing! (But, more on that later.)

They attend musical concerts (Ustad Rashid Khan here, but also - Ustad Shahid Pervez, Ashwini Bhide, Rajan-Sajan Mishra, Yesu Das, Anoushka Shankar...).


They feel the need to mess around with their computers!





Sometimes, they need to exchange rooms with their roommates. Some of these sometimes, one finds former (college) roommates around during the move. This may not be a bad thing - unless said former co-dormer prefers to read The Half-Blood Prince in the middle of all the mess :).



Oh yes - they make Italian food! Salmon with mashed potatoes; beans, sauteed mushrooms - and wine (and salad). To be concluded with fruits and cheese.
And Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake. Perhaps an episode of "Yes, Minister" on the side. Or "Agatha Christie's Poirot", if we're having Fifth Avenue Chocolatiere Truffles. After all, mon ami, Hercule Poirot would prefer them!




Mathematicians also make Indian Chinese food! (This one's after I left Chicago, but it still was very good Chilli Chicken.)









Of course, they grow older...

And the cakes get "healthier" :).