Across America: East to West

The year was 1997, mid August. Things had been going quite well until then. I was on H1B and was working as a consultant for Fidelity Investment in their Headquarter located in Marlboro, a Boston suburb. Still single and bundled with other single Indian dudes I lived almost a bohemian life. Money wasn’t very good but life went on.

 

Marlboro, a small town in Massachusetts [a Boston suburb]

Then, one day something drastic happened. Owing to a disagreement with the management my contract was terminated with two weeks notice. My sponsor company gave me two contract choices - go to Spokane, Washington all the way in the west or join a local company in another Boston suburb. Jobs were plentiful. It took me two seconds to decide. I picked Spokane. I needed a change. I needed to get out of there, start over.

I wasn’t due to join in my new job in another week. I decided to skip flying and take a road trip, across America, east to west, Boston to Spokane, just about 300 miles short of Seattle, the west end. Spokane, a city surrounded by low mountains is located at the junction of Washington and Idaho and not too far from Canada and Oregon. Boston to Spokane was slightly less than 3000 miles. I had several days in hand to reach Spokane. My sponsor company agreed to cover the cost of gas, shelter and food – it was probably still cheaper than the flight. I dipped into the maps and tour books, called ahead to book motels as usual, estimating my progress every day. It was summer and I didn’t want to be caught in a situation where I could not find any shelter to crash for the night.    

It took me a fraction of a morning to pack up my ridiculously few stuff and take care of a few loose ends like transferring apartment lease. I had two roommates from India, in their mid twenties, several years younger than I was. I went along with them quite well but didn’t have much of a connection. We shook hands, said good bye and I hopped into my used milk white Toyota Corolla 1996 who I named ‘Nilee’ after my first literary bonanza and zoomed into the road little after noon. The excitement was immense, tension quite pleasing, was truly looking forward to the trip.

 My planned route

My route plan was simple, drive to New Jersey and catch freeway 80, keep driving until it hits expressway 90 somewhere in Ohio. Continue on 90 which actually cut America east to west. However, there was one planned diversion. I would be steering away toward Minneapolis, Minnesota for a coveted meeting with a prospective bride who was an undergrad in the University of Minnesota. My thoughtful parents had arranged for this as soon as they heard I was going to drive by within several hundred miles.  

On my first day I drove relatively less, only covering about 350 miles or so and stopping in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. I hadn’t been in a truly long road trip until then and wanted to take things easy – careful not to get myself overtaxed.

 

Pennsylvania (Amish land)

  

I had a long drive the day after, all the way to Minneapolis, almost 1200 miles. I didn’t even bother to check out the town – something very unlike me - and ate a quick dinner, watched some TV and went to bed. I needed the sleep. At roughly 80 miles per hour on average I was looking at 15 hours of driving. I hadn’t driven anywhere that long before. I was anxious to start. Obviously!

  Minneapolis, Minnesota

Next day I avoided the temptation to stop at road side attractions as I was so used to doing and drove diligently stopping only to refuel and get food. When I checked in the motel in Minneapolis it was already night. My meeting was scheduled next morning. I wanted to look fresh and cute. After a quick supper I crashed into the bed. I slept like a baby.

Next morning I was greeted by a beautiful sunny day. I brushed, shaved, bought a bouquet of flower and drove to Minneapolis University Campus. St. Paul and Minneapolis are two large cities located almost next to each other hence they are often shortly called twin city. The university has a good reputation in the area.

 University of Minnesota

Challenged with direction it took me a little bit to find the university housing where I was to meet the girl. As I parked into the parking lot I regretfully glanced inside my car – the only place where there was enough room for anybody to fit in was the driver’s seat. The back seat and the passenger seat both were packed to the point where even a needle would have trouble finding room. I wondered whether I should have unloaded some stuff back in the motel. However, that would have meant renting it for an additional night as the check out time was 11 Am. Uncertain on how things would turn out I tried to shrug all worries off and walked to the student housing and rang the bell to the apartment, as per the information my father had given me.

The door opened promptly and I was greeted by a young girl, in her mid twenties or early twenties. A man was accompanying him who seemed to be slightly older than her. Not sure who was who I gently introduced myself and took a seat in the small living room. Minutes later another girl who looked even younger, definitely in her early twenties joined us. She introduced herself and I knew I had come there to meet her. She was a pretty girl with a pleasant personality though I felt she was a bit younger than I was expecting.

We were expected to go out for lunch together. I had to shyly bring up the point of my packed car and request the other two who I knew by now were married to each other to join us for the lunch and give us a ride in the process. They agreed gracefully. We ended up going into a pizzeria in the nearest strip mall. After lunch we went to a park, walked along the river while all of us chatted as if we had known each other for most part of our lives. Hours later I had to excuse myself from their company and get back on the road. Things here had gone exceptionally well but not good enough to create a connection. We all understood that. Nevertheless the experience and the wonderful little time that was spent were something that was quite valuable by its own merit.  

 Rapid City, South Dakota (a tourist hub)

When I finally hopped back in the expressway it was already later in the afternoon.  My next planned destination was Rapid City in South Dakota, a tourist hub. It was almost 600 miles away. I felt I wouldn’t be able to cover that much distance before dark – my cut off time for driving - regardless of the fact that by now I was making 100 miles or more per hour consistently. I called ahead to the motel in Rapid City and changed my booking to the following day. As for that night I would have to drive as far as I could before dark and look for a motel in the small towns next to the expressway. I assumed being a well traveled route there would be plenty of motels and finding a suitable one on a short notice wouldn’t be too difficult.

Wrong. It was already nightfall and my hunt returned nothing in two towns 40 miles apart. Another 30-40 miles and I exited in the next nearest town, seriously worried. The expressway was already barren and I wasn’t looking forward to be the only car heading nowhere. After couple of more failures finally I hit target - a vacancy in a motel that looked lonely, dark and beaten up – almost like one of those places from scary movies. Worried that I might meet some nuts in this sparsely populated part of the country I quietly rented a room and holed up inside it before the drunken patrons of the small bar located in the motel office had a chance to notice me. Later I heard somebody spitting up remarks like – “go back home”. This was usually directed to the blacks. I wondered if this cowboy knew the difference between African Americans and East Indians. Either way, I wasn’t about to educate him about it. I was awake a good part of the night.

I started for Rapid City as soon as dawn broke. I was to stay there for one night only, however there were too many things to see and do. I wasn’t sure if I would have enough time.

 

    Images of Black Hills

South Dakota is famous for many things; black hills are only one of them. The badland national park is a very scenic part of the landscape. Dotted with beautiful hills, meandering roads and occasional native Indian souvenir stores – the area enjoyed a healthy traffic of summer tourists. Reluctant to spend too much but yet quite taken by the display of wonderful Indian crafts I was tempted to buy two souvenirs from one of the stores – an Indian knife and a lonely native Indian boater, both of which are still in my possession.

Rapid City and vicinity has many world famous attractions. Namely: Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Crazy Horse National Monument, Dinosaur Park, the Devil’s Tower National Monument (located in Wyoming but not too far from Rapid City).  I wasted literally no time and tried to cover as much as I could.  

Mount Rushmore National Monument

Crazy Horse  National Monument

Dinosaur Park

I hadn’t checked in the motel in Rapid City until late in the evening. It was a quiet and pleasant place with a small indoor pool – quite different than my experience the night before. I had the pool all to myself until they shut the facility down around 9 PM.

Bikers heading for Sturgis Motorcycle Rally

Next morning as I drove out of Rapid City I noticed thousands of bikers on the road, all heading west on expressway 90. Curious I kept close to a large group and followed them to Sturgis, a town not too far from Rapid City and found out that the town was having its Bikers rally for 1997.

Bikers Motorcycle Rally in Sturgis, South Dakota

 
With no prior knowledge on how popular this rally was I was astonished to see a sea of bikes – all kinds and makes – and the swarming bikers both male and female in their fanciful biker’s clothing. Later I read that this particular rally usually attracts over half a million bikers and their families.  Interestingly most were Caucasian with a handful of Blacks. I was definitely the only Brown guy around as far as I could tell and that was also in a car. I noticed a helicopter was offering 15 minute rides for $50 to provide an aerial view of the rally, which was more than I was willing to pay. Fortunately a TV crew had just arrived and I was allowed to hop in along with the crew for half the price. No wonder all I saw from up in the air was more bikes. This was a true extravaganza for all bike enthusiasts by all means. I was anything but one. Once back on the ground I climbed into my four wheeler, pulled it out back in the expressway and headed for Devil’s Tower – close to 80 miles away.  

Devil’s Tower turned out to be quite interesting. With its summit over 5000 feet above sea level this naturally beautiful rock formation has a dramatic effect in the otherwise plain surroundings rising ~1,200 feet above the ground. It is the first of all National Monuments in USA and a very popular spot for tourists and rock climbers scaling the almost vertical surface using traditional climbing techniques.  

I found many families visiting the spot with kids who were having a blast climbing up the large boulders that were scattered at the base.  

My next destination was Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming with the plan to stay the night in a small town called West Yellowstone in Montana right off the border of Wyoming and in the midst of the Rockies. This was about 550 miles from Devil’s Tower. With the sun being around past 8 PM I knew I could reach there comfortably before nightfall.  

I drove on 90 West through Montana until I hit 89 near Livingston. Running South into Wyoming this road led me into the famous Yellowstone national park – a place that can easily mesmerize any traveler with its natural beauty, flora and fauna and diverse wildlife.  However, the primary reason why this park was established as the first National park of America in 1872 was for the geysers – Old faithful (located over a mile above sea level is called one of the most predictable geographical feature on earth erupting on average almost every 91 minutes with eruption height up to 185 feet) and majority of the world’s geysers are preserved here. As I drove through the park I was fortunate to see herd of Bison and elk and even a grizzly bear. I had to wait almost an hour to see the Old faithful go but the wait was totally worth it. However there’s one thing I learned that didn’t completely match what we learned in school – geysers do not erupt in a fixed frequency. Instead they have a range. Old faithful have a range from 45 to 125 minutes.

Old Faithful Geyser

Hot Spring in Yellowstone park

  

After roaming through the Yellowstone Park until late in the afternoon I drove to West Yellowstone – a small town in the Rockies about 7000 feet above sea level. I had a motel room booked in advance. This was actually a good idea as most motels looked pretty full. 

West Yellowstone town

I called Bangladesh from a pay phone here to inform my parents about my whereabouts who were eagerly following my progress. My father had purchased a map of USA and seemed to know more about the landscape than I did.   

Coeur d' Alen

The following day I drove about 500 miles through the Rockies in Montana and Idaho reaching Coeur d’ Alene around late afternoon – a beautiful little city and a tourist hub in Idaho located next to lake by the same name. Spokane is only a short distance away from here. I was so impressed by the natural beauty of the city that later I wrote a story based on the location.
[Free electronic copy (a great read) http://www.shujarasheed.com/Freestuff/Novel_EI_Jatra.htm ]

Spokane, Washington

Later that evening I drove to Spokane and checked into a hotel. Located by the Spokane River it is considered the most productive mining district in North America. It is also known for the birth place of Father’s day. The metropolitan area has close to half a million people.

In the next couple of days I roamed around to rent an apartment and finally settled in one next to a farm house that had several Emus and a wonderful view of the Selkirk mountain far behind. Mount Spokane was the highest peak of this mountain rising almost 6000 feet above sea level and had a road suitable for driving all the way up.

Six months later I went back to Bangladesh and were married to a beautiful girl. We returned to Spokane together. Two month later I quit the contract and arranged for a new job in Massachusetts. Interestingly enough, we drove back to Boston, bouncing off Toronto to see couple of my friends who lived here.

Two and half years later we moved to Toronto.


[Read the author's current book - Kicking in Toronto. Get it from Amazon.com]

A look at the enemy (An apology from Pakistan?)

A particular time of the year is never a prerequisite to write about ones motherland, people and sovereignty. Yet, there are some events, historical and immensely significant, brings back such deluge of emotions that it feels almost imperative to come up with words to match the overwhelming thoughts.  26th day of March without any doubt is such a day for any informed Bangladeshi who has a decent idea about the history of the birth of Bangladesh. In the year 1971, on this particular night the Pakistani soldiers had attacked unsuspecting Bangladeshis in their own land with deadly force. Obviously the long term outcome of that ruthless action had only worked in our favour as in only 9 months an independent and sovereign Bangladesh was born. The thick headed military leaders of West Pakistan had concocted a heinous plan to suppress the Bengalis with genocide and carnage, little they knew how such ineffective strategy would bounce back to hound them shortly.  However, it wouldn't be fair not to admit that such quick outcome was possible due to timely intervention of India. Without their participation in this war it would be difficult to assume, realistically, that the independence of Bangladesh would happen so soon after a formal war started.

Anyway, I have no plan to write about our independence war today. Rather I plan to focus on the other side of that war - the side that consisted of the Pakistani soldiers and general population who all together carry the burden of the guilt for that totally wrong war often knowing very little of the actual facts.

I was six during the war. My dad was an army doctor. We along with many others got stuck in West Pakistan. We returned home after couple of years of independence once the prisoner exchange program brokered by India went through. Anyway, during our stay in Pakistan we were moved from one place to another, met many locals, often becoming friends. I can not remember any situation where they had treated us in a way that may be considered rude or insulting. *

Since returning to Bangladesh I did not have much opportunity to see a truly Pakistani citizen beside the Bihari refugees who had been eager to move to Pakistan since independence. To be honest, over the years I have read, written and spoken quite a bit about our independence war but never before had I thought of looking at it from a completely different perspective - how does it look at the other side of this coin? The Pakistanis who are blamed generally for all the war time brutalities, murders, rapes, destructions - how do they feel about it? When I lived back in Bangladesh there seemed to be very little need for such investigation. What’s the use? However, once I moved to America and later to Canada, and had the opportunity to get to know many Pakistanis my mindset has changed. I want to share a few of these encounters.

During my studies in the Oakland University located in Michigan eight of us bachelors were sharing a two bedroom apartment. Beside me there was a Pakistani guy and the rest were Indians. Pakistani Usuf who I believe was a Punjabi and I was having issues from the very beginning, practically on all matters. One time during an intense argument he suddenly blurted out, "What happened to all the kids who were fathered by the Pakistani soldiers in your country during the war?" 

It is not too hard to realize that his intentions to bring it up were not very nice. I had found myself terribly angry, was at the brink of getting into a physical fight, when my Indian friends intervened. During the independence war of Bangladesh an estimated two hundred thousand females of all ages were violated in Bangladesh and it is quite difficult to believe that anybody in his sane mind can poke fun at that. Not sure exactly what had prompted Usuf to say something so out of line and sickening. He wasn't generally a bad person and such remarks were totally unexpected, even from him. It was clear to me that either he did not have a good understanding of our independence war or he had been fed incorrect information. The answer became clear later. 

In the year 2002 when we immigrated to Canada from USA, we came to Toronto first. Like most folks who are from the Indian subcontinent we made our way to Scarborough, rented an apartment in a high rise building. There was nothing to eat at home, so we walked to the nearest strip mall just across the road and stepped into a Subway restaurant. The owner and the only attendant of the store, a middle-aged Indian looking man, greeted us smilingly and said to me something in Hindi or Urdu. Thanks to all the Bollywood movies I had some understanding of Hindi but that was not enough to know the difference between Hindi and Urdu.

I smiled back apologetically and responded, "Sorry brother, I don't understand Hindi very well."

"I didn't speak in Hindi.” The man smilingly responded. “It was Urdu. You must be from Bangladesh. I find many from Bangladesh are quite fluent in Urdu."

I smiled back. "Personally I have no fascination for Urdu. Where in Pakistan are you from?"

"Karachi." As he fixed our sandwiches he looked at me through his heavy glasses and almost shyly said," Who had even imagined that after all the massacres that my country did in Bangladesh during 1971 war we could stand here today and speak like friends?"

I was pleasantly surprised. Yet once more I learned not to judge everybody in the same stereotyped way. Since then, over the years, I have met many others from Pakistan; a few had even become close friends. I have learned how the educational system in Pakistan have been actively trying to establish a theory of conspiracy for the separation of the two Pakistan by catering false and historically incorrect information to their young generation.

Some of the major theories concocted by them are: Hindu teachers were spreading anti-Pakistan teachings; India had instigated it to secure the interest of the 10% Hindus who lived in Bangladesh; Soviet Union took especial interest due to degradation of relationship with Pakistan after the later agreed to allow America to create a military base on its land; etc. The educational text do provide some description of the war, but skilfully avoids mentioning the massacres that were carried on by the Pakistani army with the collaboration of the anti-independence forces residing in Bangladesh like Rajakar, Al-badar etc. However, the good thing is that the ordinary Pakistanis are eager to break out of the lies. A few days back the ex-cricketer turned politician Imran khan had demanded a state sponsored apology to Bangladesh for all the atrocities carried on during the 1971 war. Such apology definitely won’t have any role in wiping off all the scars that were created but would start a timely procedure of healing the wound that still exists between the millions of people of both the countries.   

*I have a published book named Damama describing my experiences as a boy during the independence war of Bangladesh. The book was published by Anannya prokashoni. An English version is on the way. This book can be the first read for many kids of Bangladeshi descent to get a simple but factual history of the birth of Bangladesh from the perspective of a little boy.

Housing Bubble Burst: American Style

The real estate market had been going through ups and downs in various parts of the world for a while however it probably wasn’t very noticeable until things started to spiral downward in America around the year 2005. Many had guessed correctly even during the dot com upheaval that there was a bubble forming in the real estate market. Things were being written and discussed in small scale, but nobody seemed to pay much attention. I guess when time is good why would anybody listen to such warnings? It is only then when the goliath comes crushing down people takes notice. If you are one of them who cannot make sense of the circumstances that caused the once glorious real estate market to crash down practically to dust in some parts of the country almost overnight you are not alone. Even today I doubt the so called experts can clearly explain the phenomena. Yes, it is possible to identify several primary reasons but narrowing them down can become a matter of individual perspective.

I am not an economist, my relationship with economics has been only on printed papers as I  read various columns often contributed by reputed economists to get some in depth analysis. Unfortunately time has changed, my confidence in them have waned away. As a result I have started to do my own analysis to see if I can come up with a layman proof solution to explain the mystery of the housing market fallout. One thing that had always baffled me is the situation where a house sells more than the seller asking for! Of course such anomaly happens when several buyers bid for the property – a very common observation during the peak time of real estate in America. I was living in the Boston area during that time working on a visa and thankfully stayed away from the temptation of being a home owner primarily because I did not yet have residency. However, that did not prove to be enough deterrent for some of my acquantances who had bought houses and later found them at the wrong end of the economy after losing their jobs. Many ended up forced out of the country leaving behind everything they had – house, car, furniture etc.

Anyway, lets get back to the curious point of a house selling more than the market price. It is not very dificult to figure out that the buyers were convinced that the ultimate value of the property they were about to purchase would eventually grow to such a height that their investment would return with a hefty profit. It didn’t happen, in most part of America, as we know now. Let alone profit, many homeowners either lost their homes to foreclosure or saw their equity evaporate with some even having to start their life all over again.

Now, lets try to identify the primary reasons that led up to one of the biggest man made economic disasters in American history despite being overcrowded with all kind of financial experts. 

Here are the events in chronologial order:

• Due to the prosperity of dot com there were too much wealth floating in the market. Even though the wealth did not get equally distributed but still it trickled down to all level, more or less. As a result the overall standard of life increased, people had more buying power, there was a sense of life in the economy – one might wish for such good times to stay forever.
• As the buying power of the general population increases so does the price of the essentials and especially the land which evidently brings up the house prices. 
• On and after 1997 when dot com burst had started some prosperous areas took a huge beatings as a result many jobs were lost. Many had to declare bankruptcy. Many others lost a fortune in the share market. As a whole the prosperous market suddenly turned into a dead field, the so called wealth had turned into dirt.
• In this kind of situation government is required to take some measures to help recovery of the economy. As a result they are always prone to reduce the prime lending rate as this rate can pump in new life into the economy by encouraging people to take advantage of the low rates. With the rates low the borrowers are required to pay less as monthly repayment installations and are left with some extra money in hand which they can spend on other items in the market, increasing consumer spending. Starting from the year 2000 American government continued to reduce the lending rate from 9% and went down to 4% by the end of 2003.  
• At this point two things happened
• People who had borrowed for higher rate refinanced their properties and received substantial amount back. As a result they now had quite a bit of disposable income which streamed into the market.
• Another group of people who had reasonably safer jobs or wealth from other sources used their equity to buy even bigger houses. As a result demand for houses increased considerably pulling the price up as expected.
• At this point started a new chapter in the epic story which many believe caused the actual havoc in the end.
• As the interest rate went down many people became interested in purchasing houses, many of them neither had a good credit history nor the necessary money to deposit as a down payment. However, after the dot com burst as the market was down the businesses especially banks and investment companies were eager to pick up just about anything to bring back life into the market and rip off some profit. They eventually started to lend money to these high risk clients for zero down payments often allowing their representatives to resort to questionable means to show this potential clientele as eligible borrowers.
• Many people who only had a modest earning took this advantage and became owner of large houses and expensive cars. As a result they started to spend practically all their earnings as living cost, about 80% of which went to the mortgage payment and other house related costs like taxes, utilities, maintenance etc. Some even went on to expensive vacations into the cherished destinations. They were basically living on the edge of a sword.
• What happened next is not very difficult to understand. To describe in plain words
• Anything that goes up must come down – accounting for gravity. Same happened in real estate. When the prices started to reach ridiculously high level the land pricing became target of revaluation immediately causing house price adjustments and resulted into drastic devaluation of many high priced properties.
• At the same time to reduce inflation government had to increase the lending interest rate which went up to 7% around the end of 2007. This created another issue. As the interest rate increased the monthly mortgage payment went up too, in many cases this amount became too much for the homeowners to pay who already lived on the edge. As a result they simply walked out from their houses knowing that they risked very little to lose as they had practically no money invested in the house. Banks and investment companies now got stuck with many foreclosed houses with market filled with mostly sellers and few buyers. It eventually became so devastating that many companies could not even continue to operate while others required substantial government assistance to exist. Example – Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac.
• From there on things continued to go down. The executives powering the banks and mortgage companies might have thought they had created a good herd of cash cows who would continue to pay interests on their long term mortgages keeping the cash flow in the market going forever but in reality their lack of sincerity, appropriate understanding of the market and possibly sheer greed had thrown the whole balance into a complete chaos causing the market to crash.  

To summarize, one might simply state that if it wasn’t for the greedy banking and investment sectors things might have not turn so bleak in such short time. Clearly the executives of the failed companies appeared to conspire against the general population showing total disregard for appropriate financial practice. As a result house market in America still going through a slow and painful recovery process with no guarantee on its eventual success.  

The Dot Com Bubble Burst

I doubt if there are too many people out there who doesn’t already know quite a bit about the Occupy Wall Street movement that took place around the end of last year. It was labeled as America’s own movement compared to that of Tahirir square in Egypt that saw the end of Hosni Mubarak’s long hold, for good or for bad that’s yet to be determined.  The question is – why? What might have caused this sudden change of events in the great land of opportunity – the sole superpower?  The answer to this question is not a simple one. Whether an individual decided to participate in the Occupy movement or not, there’s little doubt that there is a general concession among ordinary people that the disparity among classes – primarily focusing on wealth – is getting bigger and bigger, with rich getting richer and poor getting poorer. 

The answer to that question is neither simple nor straight forward. However, it is not difficult to figure out that in the corporate world a relatively small group of people controls majority of the cash flow and manages most of the tangible wealth while the rest have little choice but to become the cards of their hands – being played as they wish.  When things look good they take credit for the success and are rewarded with hefty bonuses, when things look bad they get to truncate workforce in their quest to make things look profitable to the investors and again receive hefty bonuses for making it look good. Talk about a fair deal!

Anyway, before discussing the occupy wall street it is important to look a little back to cover two major events in the recent history in the economy of America.  In this article I’ll briefly visit the circumstances of the two market falls – the dot com burst starting around 1998 and the real state bubble burst starting around 2007.

In the year 2000 when dot com bubble burst was going on in full swing I was right in the middle of it all, scared, affected, driven, suffered and finally jabbed right into the face, eventually made my way out of the burst into my new country Canada. At that time I wasn’t fully sure what had hit us but later as things settled down and everybody had time to think the truth started to become very apparent. Too many companies had mushroomed with similar ideas and started their journey with the money borrowed from venture capitalists and failed to bring any reasonably good product in the market before the funding wasted away.  Even the ones that did release some working products they faced stiff competition with other similar products. In such a situation only the best survives and most others perish, with all its ship load of contributors, investors and workers. With that coupled with high compensation for the high ups, offering public shares even before any tangible product was created, and irrational expectation of earnings – everything chipped into the downfall. At the end thousands were out of work, many companies closed.

At this point I must elaborate on the two occasions where I had lost my jobs. The first company was working on to create a new kind of search engine, the novelty of which I was unable to figure out even after working for six months. Everything looked about the same as other ones already in the market with majority quickly disappearing in the oblivion.  I wondered if an insignificant IT professional like me could see it then why couldn’t all the talented venture capitalists.  I guessed they had taken a chance, just in case some miracle had happened.  None did. Eventually the investors figured out they weren’t about to experience any miracle and quickly backed off and I was out looking for work – along with everybody else, must have been a few hundred. That made it even difficult, because too many people were looking for work in an already terrified market.

I ended up getting another position with yet another dot com running with venture capitalist money. This one looked more prospective.  I even heard they were about to get a buyer – a really good thing, sure sign of success. Not sure how things would have gone if not for the terrorist’s attack on the world trade center on September 11 2001 but after that already shaky market turned shakier and worst of all, our potential buyer backed off. So much for success! The company went belly up as they could not find anybody else to finance. The good – I bought a laptop for fraction of the price it was selling in the market from the now defunct company.  The bad – I was out looking for a job again and so were hundreds of others from my previous company. This time things became really personal. Anyway, had I not been working as a foreign worker and getting squeezed by the parent company that sponsored me and only provide a mere percent of the gain for my services I probably wouldn’t be too sour. The loot was all gone and I got barely any share of that. Some did get rich, bilking the cash cows to the max.

 Me and my misfortune!

I’ll continue this article to talk about the real state bubble.

Journey to the Kingdom of Florida (Final part)

We stayed in another Holiday Inn in Miami. 

This hotel was not as good as the Orlando one but it was descent for the price that we paid. The Miami that I had imagined from watching all the Miami vices(TV series) was nothing like that. It actually looked quite nice, green with all kind of tropical trees including large mango trees, something that I saw first time since entering Florida. This gave me immense joy as I have very fond memories of my grandparents mango garden from my childhood years.

We went to visit Marco island next day. This was sort of off the way but considering the day was in

the colder side there wasn't much we could do in Miami. It wouldn’t be a great day to be outdoor.

However, in Marco Island, an island city about 200 miles away from Miami was slightly warmer. It had

one of the finest beaches in Florida famous for its shells. My kids had always wanted to collect

shells from a sea beach. This was their opportunity to do so. Even though it was sort of windy and

perhaps a little uncomfortable temperature wise we still spent hours collecting all kind of shells.

It was a gorgeous day with sun shining over our head. We wished the wind was weaker, so that it

wouldn't feel so cold.

 

 The one reason why trip to Marco Island was so memorable is that we happened

to see real and live alligators lying down by the canals that went along the road in some areas.

There were wooden barriers in some parts of the road and many warning signs to warn the visitors not

to go too close. There were several occasion when many visitors had stopped by the road and

photographed those amazingly peaceful looking animals. Honestly, as far as I am concerned, that was

the high point of my Florida trip. 

 

Next day we went to see the coral reef close to the Keys. This is the only continuous coral reef in

the continental USA that is located so close to the main land. We went to Key Largo to take a glass

bottom boat. I had called them up from Canada and reserved our places. Weather is always a concern

for these type of trips. During bad weather the boat authority usually have to cancel such trips.

Fortunately, the weather was great on this day and we were quite eagerly looking forward to this

trip. The boat filled out rather quickly with mostly families with kids. The center of the bottom of

the medium sized boat was built of thick clear glass allowing onlookers a relatively good glimpse at

the bottom below.

It took us about 40 minutes to reach the shallow points where the coral reef ws

located. Even though the wind was slightly stronger than we expected making the water relatively

murky we still had a reasonable view of the reef. In summer people come here for snorkeling (scuba

diving). Whatever we were getting in December was more than one could expect. The best part was the

kids really enjoyed it. They actually took sincere effort to see the corals and the fishes that hung

out there. 

On our way back from there I thought of driving all the way to Key West- the southernmost point of

Florida Key where the famous writer Ernest Hemingway had lived several years. However, the traffic

was horrible and I turned around going only few kilometers. I did not want to waste several hours on

the road, not when the kids were tired and wanted to go back to the hotel.

                                                          Hemingway's House in Key West

On our way back to the hotel we stopped at Crandon beach. This was a wonderful beach with white sand

and coconut trees. There weren’t a whole lot of people but the view was absolutely beautiful. The day

was quite warm and the kids played with the sand for a little while. Mili was feeling a little cold

and stayed mostly in the car while I and the kids spent considerable amount of time playing on the

beach and collecting fallen immature coconuts.

We returned to our hotel in the late afternoon. Washed up and had dinner in the near by Cuban

restaurant. Miami is the home of many Cubans and it seemed like the right thing to do. The dinner was

very good. With it our Florida trip concluded.

Next morning we checked out and started back. We had a long way to go. We stayed overnight in two places including Washington DC before reaching New Haven, Connecticut to see my parents and sister's family.

Overall a great trip! I wanted to do this for a while and it was every bit of what I hoped it would

be.

Next? - Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, San Francisco. When? No clue. Whenever it is I'll keep my readers

posted.


[Read the author's current book - Kicking in Toronto. Get it from Amazon.com]