My America Tour -16
Telugu Original : Avula Gopala Krishna Murty (AGK)
English Translation: Komala Venigalla
Places of Scenic beauty
America is a country with many places of scenic beauty. Those beautiful places give immense pleasure to the people going on seeing sight then, fill the hearts and minds with the memories of the wonderful places visited.
Every country has its places of scenic beauty . Those who visit India and enjoy the sights like great Himalayas, Kashmir valley, Kerala, Waterfalls, Ajanata-Ellora and Elephanta caves, and exclaim in adoration `What a beautiful country`. For example, you see some place -may not be Taj Mahal-feel very happy and content and share your pleasure with others too.
During my tour in America I went round certain places, seen historical , natural , beautiful areas and tourist sites for people`s education as well as entertainment.
I like to tell our people ,what I had seen and how elated I felt seeing them. It felt like enjoying a feast along with our friends.That is the purpose of this chapter.
Niagara Falls in America is famously known throughout the world. When you see it you appreciate how they made it a wonderful tourist spot. The river is flowing between USA and Canada. I flew to Buffalo from New York and reached Niagara by bus. Stayed in a hotel nearer to Niagara falls, walked to a peak on the east side of Niagara enjoyed the sight of long stretched lawns and beautiful flowers. Getting on to the top of the peak we saw Niagara Falls on one side and falls which look like shoe horn on the other side . We could see Canada border from there. Down below the Falls the boats were carrying tourists from the middle of the river to the border. We enjoyed the trip very much. The boat ride below the Falls will make you wonder at the height of the great Falls. Then we got into a small train going through the garden we reached the falls. We walked into caves like spaces . We were made to change our dresses and wear rubber dresses covering our heads , and reached the actual scene of the falls. Some of us started singing, some drenched their heads under the rolling water. We forgot ourselves totally, immersed into the beauty of the Falls.
We read about Sivaganga , saw it in paintings. Here the beauty of Falls made us feel as though we have actually seen Sivaganga.
Water is pure, can even drink it. We remembered the Telugu poetry written by poets who never saw Niagara and the English poems written by poets who saw the falls. The cool weather and the vapors falling on us like garlands beyond description.
Some called the falls Maid of the Mist, some named it the queen of beauty and some said it is Mist Maiden.
We spent the pleasant evening watching the falls from American side.After dinner in the University club we crossed Niagara river and entered into Canada.
If you have to see Niagara in the night you have to do it from Canada side. Immesurable electric lights from Canada are reflected at the bottom of the Falls. Moon light adds amazing sight to the scenic beauty of the Falls. We spent the night happily watching the Falls beautified by the reflections of the lights below and the moonlight dancing on the waters above.
There is a building in Canada by the side of Niagara. It is a hotel as well as guest house for the tourists. Watching the beautiful Falls from the top of that building is a memorable experience. I thought about good places in India and how they are not maintained beautifully to attract tourists. If you stand here for a while your head gets wet . The cars below shine as though they are just washed. This is all because of the vapors from the Falls which fly up to 2 furlongs distance.
By midnight we returned to our hotel. Niagara made me feel that it is ours and we belong to it. Niagara belongs to everybody who visits it. But it is in fact the common property of America and Canada.
Disney land
In our Puranas the sage Viswamitra got credit or discredit for his power of creation. Hence Viswamitra`s counter creation got established as a saying. Nobody knows whether that creation is of heaven or hell or space in between. If Viswamitra really existed he must be powerful , be must be related somehow to our Vemana and Tripuraneni Ramaswami Kaviraju.
Disney is a visible story. It is all created by humans. There is a little counter creation too.
Disney land creator may not be related to Viswamitra. He is Walt Disney. He has creative brain, he is rich. He imagined Disney land as a world by itself and his wealth created it.
Disney land reflects mans` capacity . It is the yardstick for human talent.
Disney land is the reflection of human ability in the past and the present time. We have many historical and religious buildings in India. In the Disney land the constructions of buildings took place with scientific knowledge. This is a center of scientific innovation.
For children Disney is a center for education, entertainment. It is a tourist place and resting place for them, For grown ups it is a land worth visiting. Those who visit America will not leave the country without visiting Disney land as far as possible. It is like paying our homage to Disney.
What is Disney land about? Let us hear about what Mr Disney himself says. ` It is a magic world. We provided a place for knowing fairy tales, history, scientific knowledge through entertainment. It enables the grownups to reminisce and entertain the children , at the same time enabling them to face boldly the present as well as future challenges of life.`
Disney land is built 35 miles away from the city Los Angeles in California State. Every day countless cars and buses endlessly transport visitors from Los Angeles to the Disney Land. Let me talk about at least some of its special features which entertain and educate to children as well as grown ups . I write about it to let it be known to people who did not see it or could not see it.
Disney land is on a huge area. A train goes round it on a railroad laid on cement pillars. It looks like a walking whale or an airplane transporting the visitors. It looks like a mixture of tram, motor and air plane. If you ride the train to start with you will get a rough idea of what you are going to see in Disney land.
There is another train. It resembles a small train initially innovated. It has five -six stations. It is like riding a cycle which enables us to see each and every corner of disney land. This is meant for children but grown ups too get in. We have to buy ticket to see Disney land . With that ticket we can go through Disney land and also watch four shows we select. For other shows we have to buy tickets separately. We need to spend a little more than Rs 100 to see all the shows and activities in Disney land.
There are many shows purely for the purpose of entertainment. I could see only a few. Musicians play music for dances and play actors, pure music sessions are there. Painters and cartoonists are there. Mickey Mouse cartoons make you laugh heartily. Even if you are a serious person not laughing, you cannot but laugh happily looking at the children enjoying and laughing, giggling contentedly . There are giant wheels and merry go rounds. Some carousels have cups and saucers to sit in . Electric motors run the carousel very speedily cups and saucers hit each other with a bang, scaring you to death. But nothing dangerous happens. You ride safely and get down safely. We rode zebra like animals,and passed mountains, valleys , caves and forests ,and crossing streams. It took an hour. We enjoyed like little kids who were sharing laughing joking and expressing fear too.
During that trip we saw one Indian house. We saw the Red Indians, some were cooking, some were singing and some were guarding the area. We were happy to see the Red Indians, Aboriginals-the real Red Indians- the real owners of America. But when we were told that we were not seeing real people there , -they were all plastic figures-our mouths were agape wondering how well the Disney fooled us!
On this trip we saw various kinds of snakes, squirrels, mongooses, sheep, goats, tigers, lions, elephants, camels, giraffes, whales, birds, foxes, dogs- all were moving . they looked real, but in reality they were made of plastic. It has all illusion–SANKARA MAYA-philosophy of myth is defeated here by the illusions.
Finally we got down those zebra like animals and reached the seashore.
It is all water but not the sea. We got into a submarine . It was like a boat in whale`s shape on the surface of water. Its sides were mostly built of glass. After we all settled down it dipped under the water- 40 or 50 yards deep. We were safe in the boat. We only knew earlier that there are diamonds, fish, whales in the sea. But we saw many more species in the sea. One big whale came attacking the boat with wide open mouth as though it was going to swallow the boat. Kids were scared , horrified, cried and screamed . We men though scared pretended to be bold.But the whale did not swallow us. We were thankfully safe.
Even that whale was a plastic toy, the trees, the fishes, animals that we saw in the sea were the plastic replicas.
The submarine trip I enjoyed thoroughly. Next we walked into a room which was full of birds. There were many parrots. It was not India and they were not RAMA CHILAKAlu -It was a 3 dimension movie. Its technical name is -Audio-Animetranics-. Sound replacing silent movies, colors invading T.V.-great technical evolution. This Anglo-America tronics brought a revolutionary change in the field of motion pictures. Like in our puranas, trees , birds, flowers and animals speak and sing but the human voices were heard. Their movements synchronized with the words. In our puranas all these species spoke in human voices only. Sound and music were made to synchronize with the movements of those species.
It rains- birds and flowers jump joyously, drenching, singing and dancing in the rain. This technology adds a special feature to the entertainment.
Science made all these technology possible. The techniques used in space rackets are being used here to amuse and entertain the tourists.
To make trees sing is not magic or jugglery. But we are made to feel that it is all magical. We can call it ` musical fantasy`. We find here the co- mingling of the voices of 200 people. We directly hear German, Spanish, French, Irish and English languages.
When a song is started 60 birds sing it from all directions. Words, songs and sounds are all amalgamated in such a way that you feel the birds were really singing.
This total show takes place in 25 minutes. They have 3 shows an hour entertaining the visitors.
Let us see how the tubs connected to metal rope function. There are two mountains a furlong apart. They arranged a heavy metal rope connecting both the mountains and six hanging tubs were fixed to it. One person fits in a tub. With the help of electricity the tube move from one side to the other. We feel as though we are travelling in the air. We can see the land below.
They have an arrangement to show how racket is launched to the moon. There is a house built in round shape with seating arrangement for the visitors. They can see the moon. When the house is full they launch a racket . We can see how much scientific knowledge is used in this show. It is real education to the visitors.
Next we went to wax museum. They exhibited 60,70 wax figures of internationally famous actors. They looked real people. Here you can have the satisfaction of seeing world renowned actors and actresses by spending a rupee from your pocket to buy a ticket. There is lots of skill and artistic efficiency exhibited in making these wax figures. Moonlight like happiness touches you . Softer than the wax is used for making these figures.
There are many strange and wonderful things here in Disney. There is a building in crescent moon shape with the name plate ` See America`. In side we see a 3 dimensional movie showing the resources of America and their social advancement in the past 30 years commencing with the presidency of Roosevelt.
There are many geography and science centers which educate people through entertainment.
I will to talk about one or two centers in Disney before bidding good bye to it.
In the art gallery there you can get your picture drawn just for 2 to 3 $.The artists draw the figures with pencils, paint brushes and colors. Many young men and women were getting their figures drawn individually or in pairs. They were joking whether they were beautiful or their figures. I enjoyed their jokes.
Walt Disney is an expert in the field of animation. He spent his enormous wealth and introduced that technique in art and created beautiful pictures. This technique is used in pencil sketches of animals, birds, fish, trees and people. There are many colorful pictures,representing beauty in nature. These pictures can stand in competition with the pictures in the London art gallery in Trafalgar square. These are many pictures which are superior to the pictures in Chicago art gallery. There are the fine art divisions of Disney land. I better take leave of Disney Land and move on to Grand Canyon.
*****
(to be continued…)
Komala Venigalla, wife of Sri Inniah Narisetty is a retired Assistant Professor of English from Ambedkar Open University, Hyderabad. Written on Modern Women covering various aspects of their lives in contemporary world. Traslated M.N.Roy’s Memoirs of Cat into Telugu. Contributed articles to Misimi Telugu monthly.