King tut and kennedy!

It has been one of my most burning desires in life to visit Egypt. Two reasons - I am extremely fascinated by the Egyptian civilization and the other main reason being to see the treasures of king Tutankhamen.

When i was a kid i had this encyclopedia presented by my Dad which contained information about the egyptian civilzation,one section of it was the discovery of King Tutankhamen's tomb and the treasures found there and the mysterious deaths associated with people entering the tomb. This fascination was further augmented on my impressionable mind from the twin tintin comics of 'Seven crystal balls' and 'Cigars of the pharoah' which is very loosely based on the Tutankhamen happenings. What started as a fascination for curses and treasures soon moulded into an interest on one of the most fascinating civilizations of ancient history. I even had a go at learning the hieroglyphics and partially succeeded(though i have forgotten most of it now). The academic intensity of finding Tutankhamen's tomb drew upon me much later on as i grew older. I do not claim to be a egyptologist but my knowledge is pretty good on the more famous Egyptian Pharaohs and regions. Through my very small exposure to this civilization through books,Internet and National geographic society has grown this intense desire to view the remnants of this civilization in actual person. Of course,the childhood curiosity to see the treasures found in King tut's tomb still remains.

As providence would have had it, I sated a small part of my desire when I visited Dallas for Vinatha's graduation. The minute I got down from the plane and entered the lounge i saw this huge un-mistakable cut out - The death mask of Tutankhamen! Below it read - The treasures of the boy king at display at the Dallas Museum of Arts. Did my heart leap! My excitement grew! I desperately wanted to visit it but i was not sure if any of the others would be interested. Vinatha,being the sweetheart she is was more than obliging to go there as 'I' wanted to go there.She somehow even convinced her friends to go along who trudged along! Though the exhibit did not contain the actual sarcophagi and the famous death mask and the mummy itself,it did contain many of the important treasures like the dagger that was found laid on the mummy,the headwear which the mummy was wearing, the famous bracelets and necklaces and many more. This was my first exposure to any kind of egyptian artifact and the first encounter was a sort of bumper!! Lol! All i can say is I went around the entire gallery with a childlike enthusiasm jumping and savoring each of them and teleporting myself 3000 years back and imagining things.The treasures were exactly what they are - treasures! It was a fantastic feeling to be looking at such beautiful objects created by humans nearly 3000 years back.In fact I had this weird notion of stealing a couple of them and was imagining schemes to steal them.Lol!!

I guess my dallas trip was a huge blast for three reasons - Majorly because of seeing King tut's exhibition, secondly for having seen Vinatha and Kaushik after such a long time and thirdly - getting to see Kennedy's assassination site - yup,his assassination is another object of interest of mine! It was so fascinating to reconstruct the scene of his death. I have seen the Abraham Zapruder video of kenedy's assassination like umpteen number of times. To actually see that place live and reconstruct what happened nearly 45 years ago on that road sent a tingle down my spine.He is one of the most iconic president's of USA.
I felt a bit sad standing at the point where kennedy got hit by the second bullet which ripped open his brain. His famous words ringed 'Ask not what your country can do for you,ask what you can do for your country'.



The X marks the point where kennedy was shot.



I couldn't get vinatha clearly in view for a good snap,so i had to call her up and ask her to move a bit to her right so that i could take a shot! :)




I guess this is one of the most cliched shots but one of the most memorable and incredible moments to be doing it! Yay!!Way to go Minty!



In front of the dallas museum of Art!



With Kaushik!



Presents from thoughtful friends!