Bond with Boston
Preeti Verma Lal

This vibrant, thriving city in New England is one of America's oldest cities. It is often referred to as the cradle of liberty

The Commonwealth Avenue was once described by Queen Elizabeth II as the ‘world’s most beautiful street’

In Boston, beginnings can be baffling. You do not know where to begin. Or, who to begin with in Boston. With the early European settlers who christened it Trimountaine after the three mountains (no mountain stands now!)? Or, the Puritans who renamed it after the town of Boston in England? If you like your prose, you might begin with Charles Dickens. His first rendition of A Christmas Carol took place here. Perhaps a Louisa May Alcott, the Little Women author, who had several homes in the city. If you are a star-gazer, head to the Omni Parker Hotel, where John F Kennedy delivered his first speech — he was barely 7 then! Step down the red-carpet staircase, take the corner seat in Parker restaurant and imagine a Camelot proposing to a beautiful girl. The dapper Kennedy did that in Parker. He went down on his knees and proposed to Jacqueline Bouvier. If history is your cup of tea, who’d forget that bunch of boisterous rebels who poured crates of tea in the sea? That Boston Tea Party of December 16, 1773, jumpstarted the American Revolution for independence. If you like watching the world on 70 mm in a multiplex, Boston Commons could be the perfect beginning — you’d find Good Will Hunting there. Take a train to Harvard University to get nostalgic about Oliver Barrett IV and Jenny Cavalleri from 1970 Love Story, the film that redefined romance and left every cinegoer teary-eyed.

You really do not know where to begin that beginning in Boston. Once you do, maybe you should look at the Boston firsts before exploring the city that sprawls over 89.6 square miles, of which 41.2 square miles are water. The first windmill was set up in 1632; Boston Commons became America’s first public park in 1634; the nation’s first mail route got going in 1672; America’s first chocolate factory, Walter Baker Company, was set up in 1765. That’s not all the firsts, though — first school for blind; first swimming school; the first city to have its own police department. Phew! Think of this. In 1632, Boston had a public anti-smoking law — in 1632.

For most, Boston begins in its history. In the famous 2.5 mile Freedom Trail that runs you through the city that is often touted as the Cradle of Liberty. No one does this trail better than Sam Jones, Creative Director, Freedom Trail Foundation. Jones knows his history and can throw in jokes to make that long walk easy on cobblestone pathways through 16 sites — churches, monuments, landmarks and their stories. A beautiful beginning is the Commonwealth Avenue which was once described by Queen Elizabeth II as the ‘world’s most beautiful street’. You can question the Queen’s aesthetics, but remember it was here that John Travolta, the petty thief in black hooded coat, blue jeans, his hair moussed back, runs down in his latest film The Forger. Abutting it is the Boston Commons where stand statues of generals, political leaders (George Washington, obviously, takes a place in the heart of it), slave abolitionists in a park that was originally a pasture for cows.

If you have picked up the Freedom Trail map and doing it on your own, just follow the red bricks on the pavements. That’s the train. Get distracted. Bring in piety as well as prose with history. Stop at landmarks that are not purely historical. There’s Paul Revere’s House (it is Boston’s oldest house still in existence) that seems stuck in the 1770-Boston; the Old North Church that has two lanterns that warned Revere that British were coming by sea. There’s Trinity Church, the 1773-church famous for its choirs. Bang opposite is Boston Public Library where famous authors like Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Holmes, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry James must have poured over millions of books that line the book shelves.

In Copley Square, between Trinity Church and Boston Public Library, lies the bronze bas relief of Kahlil Gibran, the poet as a young man. Sculpted by his namesake and godson Kahlil Gibran, the plaque sits on a pink granite slab on which are etched these lines: It was in my heart to help a little because I was helped much.

I wanted to go on a Barefoot Boston literary tour; I could have walked past the homes of Hawthorne and Alcott; could have seen the keys and mirror of Dickens that is still housed in Omni Parker Hotel, America’s oldest continuously run hotel. It was in this hotel that Ho Chi Min baked dinner rolls before rewriting the history of Vietnam. There was so much more to do in Boston. Such little time. The cold was biting and the knee wobbly. I was beginning to miss home. I found one in Taj Boston. Winston Churchill, Elizabeth Taylor, Shirley Temple – and Ratan Tata – have tiptoed up the marble steps and curled up in its fluffy bed. The sound of Rajasthani music brings ‘home’ into the room. The Café is redolent with the aroma of aloo parantha with pickles, chicken tikka masala, methi murgh and Aleppey fish. Dickens and Longfellow could wait. In Boston, some stories can begin with food. Scrumptious Indian food.

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