The picnic… arranged by the daughters
The full frontal view of the waterfall
I was absolutely ill equipped to go down a bunch of rocks. I had taken my motorbike to the trail. So, I had my jeans on and my shoes were not meant for hiking. Eventually negotiated all the way down to the bottom of the waterfall – but not before slipping on the algae on the rocks once. Missed the step and dropped my right leg about a foot in the water. It was worth it – just to be able to take a picture of the waterfall from the front.

The daughters were in a “Speak no Evil” mode today…
13 years in Milton… never knew we were within 20 minutes of a waterfall
Father’s Day and slavery
I do not believe the Roy daughters or the Mukherjee daughters realized this when they planned to celebrate Father’s Day for Mr. Mukherjee (that be Amitesh) and Mr. Roy (that be yours truly) at the Vickery Creek Trail by the Roswell Mill. This trail has one of the few remaining wooden covered bridges in the south (and in Georgia).
There is a fascinating history of an emancipated slave and covered bridges. The following is quoted from Caroline Eubanks – a Lowell Thomas award-winning travel writer, and the author of “This Is My South”
The existence of the bridges can mostly be traced back to Horace King. He was born into slavery in South Carolina in 1807 but was freed from contractor John Godwin. King would go on to design the spiral staircase for the Alabama State Capitol as well as covered bridges in Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. Known for his work using the Town Lattice Truss system, you can see this style in many of the state’s bridges.
We live in the middle of so much history in the south!! This is literally 20 minute ride from my house.
Lunch by the railway track
Caught up with John towards the end of our motorbike ride about his family. Over lunch at a restaurant by the railway track in Woodstock. John surprised me by how much he knew about the storm in Kolkata, Indian politics and the Indian prime minister Modi. We talked about the political situation in US, the likely outcomes of the virus, how he misses seeing his step grandson in Kenya growing up (he is stuck due to virus and cannot travel) and such. Really loved the conversation and the variety of topics John has wisdom around.
Should have known this guy long time back.
For that matter, should have started riding motorbike long time back too!

Friday evening winding down
First Sharmila and I showed up by the lake. Stayed inside the car waiting out the thunderstorm. And then settled down by the lake shore with a couple of gins. Guess who showed up after some time. Good old Parijat and Dipanjan – fully equipped with their foldable picnic tables!!
It was a good and enjoyable evening.
Very interestingly, while the thunderstorms went by, temperatures dipped down from 84 to 65 in about half an hour. And then went up from 65 to 77 in the next half an hour!!

By the time I am done with her, she will join the ranks of nerds with Nikita and me…
Sharmila had a full day yesterday. So, we went out to our favorite bar after dinner for a quick glass of wine (gin and tonic for her). We had the whole huge bar pretty much to ourselves. Guess what we did?
I introduced her to Kenken puzzles and started solving a few together! For a novice, she was surprisingly quick…

Have you ever wondered what morality is all about?
Great evening with Dipanjan, Parijat and Sharmila yesterday. We were at the Union restaurant – sitting outside and enjoying the evening.
Given all that is happening around us, of course a lot of the discussions were around BLM, the history of slavery and what our community (Bengalis in Atlanta) are doing or (more importantly) not doing for the cause.
From that discussion on why as a community, we do – or not do something, the topic veered to that of morality. That is where the evening got really interesting. I had not thought about this topic much. But some of the conversations were deeply intriguing and somewhat disturbing too! Sharmila took through a couple of examples. For example, if you could prevent a train from having a wreck and potentially save five lives in it – but know for sure, one person down the track is going to die, would you do it?
Do numbers trump in morality questions?
Now, what if that one person was your child? Does your answer change? Mine did!!
So, clearly morality is relative even for one individual!
Again, I found the overall discussion raising a lot of intellectual curiosity. I think I am going to line up a couple of books or literature to read up on… moment I have finished with my CSS and PHP classes though!




