Its all about the money, honey

US Treasury Building
Washington, DC

Is there something about Washington, DC and crises? After giving me a health crisis to grapple with last week, it's now plunged the American economy, and might I say the entire world into dealing with a debt crisis that can apparently snowball to cripple the world economy.  

I find it a little uncanny that I happened to be at DC, right outside the US treasury building only a week before the drama unfolded. Im known to have a pretty crazy imagination. So when the building was pointed out to me as the treasury, I envisioned huge halls stashed away with piles and piles of dollar upon dollar. Naive? Well maybe, but then that's what made Alice, Alice right? 

Now as I hear the jargon fly around me- #creditrating #downgrading #stocks #buylowsellhigh -on TV, in the news, on twitter, on facebook even, I can't help but wonder if some colossal meeting was taking place inside the structure at the same time as I was staring at its walls, taking pictures; if the decisions being now thrown at bewildered Americans, were being analyzed right then, if somebody at that minute said to Obama, "hey boy, easy, don't bite off more than you can chew or the vultures will come out to get you."

If only I could have stepped in to know what really goes on in the coffers of the treasury of the (so far) greatest economy on earth and what will be its fate. 

Sigh! I guess I have to be content with the picture I got then; pretty impressive structure though, what say? 

PS. I found these posts to be pretty useful in understanding the debt crisis issue - 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathanmiller/debt-ceiling-for-dummies-_b_907847.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathanmiller/credit-downgrade-for-dummies_b_920116.html

Of travel and sprains

"For still, the more he works, the more 

Do his weak ankles swell"

~ William Wordsworth

I am blogging after 10 days. On 07/31/2011, what was supposed to be the fabulous end of a weekend trip to Washington, DC turned out to be a little bit of a disaster. Unwittingly, I let me foot slip off the kerb, resulting in an ankle sprain that only got aggravated by the long-ish bus ride back to New York.

Now there isn't much to speak of a sprain, or any injury for that matter, but in this case something positive came out of it that just makes sense to put up on the blog. I started blogging only about a fortnight ago with the only intention of documenting my experience in a new country through the medium I enjoy the most - photography. I passed along word to a few friends who I though would enjoy sharing my journey through my blog. While secretly hoping that the site really catches on, I didn't really think that it would get enough attention in such a short span of time as to have people write to me to ask why I hadn't updated the blog in over a week. Okay, so only a handful have asked me about it but the point lies not in the numbers but the fact that some (if only a few) have definitely taken back something from my posts that made them want to see more.

That to me is a huge vote of confidence that encourages me to update my blog a lot more. It tells me someone is reading my posts with a smile. I thank you for that.

While I'm still not fully recovered, I'm almost there, already planning our next getaway from the city. In all probability, New Hampshire, the place with its sleepy little towns and a vast countryside (atleast in my imagination). While I clean my lenses to get back some rose tinted memories, I share with you my visuals from the trip to Obama-land.

Oh and I have no idea what William's quote means or why it is at the top of this post.