Visited in 2009…
There you are, at last at the O’Hare International Airport, Chicago, our destination in the United States. As it was known as the second busiest airport in the world we were tense; how long it might take for the immigration formalities. As several flights have landed the queue were long, specially those demarcated for Non US Citizens. In snails pace we are moving in the zig_zag route, when an officer comes and makes the route straight and directs us towards the counters marked only for US Citizens. A bit of confusion and after some discussions between themselves we were in front of a counter marked only for US Citizens. Passports please; then photography, fingerprints and then came a volley of questions; most of which seemed non relevant. Maybe the guy there was felting others anger on us; a la more work load. Finally after exactly 35 minutes of questioning he stamped our passport and we made it to the United States of America.
Our place of stay was in a hotel at Downtown Chicago and we the group of seven adults and two kids got into an Airport Shuttle for starting our maiden journey in Chicago. As we reached the hotel and got down we felt what awaited us in Chicago. It was impossible to stay outdoors due to the chilling wind coming from the Lake Michigan, only 150 meters away. Maybe this is why they nicknamed Chicago as ‘Windy City’. Only the warm interiors of the hotel made us realize that it was June not December. Make a mixture of the chill of December with the wind of February-March in Assam and you can create the weather.
A brief about Chicago, one of the largest cities in USA.
Incorporated as Town of Chicago in 12 August, 1833 it is in the southwestern shores of Lake Michigan in the state of Illinois with over 2.8. Around 50 million people visits Chicago annually and is one of the world’s top ten Global Financial Centers.
Chicago is known by different nicknames, ‘The Windy City’ – due to Chicago politicians and residents boasting about their city, ‘Second City’ -due to the city generally being the second most prestigious in the nation in terms of transportation, culture, and finance, ‘The City of the Big Shoulders’ – for its numerous skyscrapers, which were invented in Chicago, and described as being husky and brawling.
Devastated by the 1871 Great Chicago Fire today’s Chicago is an architect’s delight. Due to the soft, swampy ground near the lake it was not suitable for tall masonry buildings. To overcome this constraint steel frames were tried and the invention of the skyscraper made it a leader in architecture and set the model for achieving vertical city densities worldwide.
May Day is also believed to be a result of strike by workers lobbying for an eight-hour work day on 4th may, 1886 at Haymarket, Chicago.
For us it is the place from where Swami Vivekananda marveled the world with his inspiring speech on Hinduism at the Parliament of the World’s Religions at Chicago in 1893.
Jet lag took toll of us and we had to call it a day.
to be concluded….