Visit to Table Mountain

     Today was the delightful visit to Table Mountain. And what better way to do it than with this wonderful delegation from the United States of America headed by the even more delightful Dr. Fosl. She herself referred to herself as a “fake” doctor, someone like Dr. Jeykill. Anyway, the day set off to a wonderful start and all of us, barring me almost made it on time to meet Seepho. Jyler and Lauren were extremely gracious in always waiting for me and putting up with my sometimes slow ways. My heart goes out to them and to all the others on this trip like Brittany Mary and Josie Timmons who introduced me to the delights and charms of “hanging out.” The first stop was at Seapoint, which was extremely charming and pleasant. The blue sea stretching away to eternity seemed like a universe in itself. It was exquisitely delightful to behold and the more sporty among us like Lauren and Brittany took the opportunity to walk down the hill, atop of which the viewing place, Sea Point was located.

     Our greatest time was to come thereafter, with the visit to the wonderful Table Mountain. Cape Town is renowned all over the world for its famous and charming hill peak known as Table Mountain. It was one of the unique attractions of the town and a must-see for tourists, even those claiming to be conducting oral interviews. It had a charming cable-car which took us right to the top of the mountain. The trip was punctuated by intermittent explanations by Dr. Fosl on the beauty of it all at the top. We could actually see Robben Island from the car, and I waited in excited anticipation for our trip to that next Sunday. The car wound its way to the to. It was a ‘revolving’ care and offered us a view in totality of the scenery leading up to the top. Needless to say, sometimes it felt nauseatic and strange and my mind kept throwing up foreboding thoughts of someone falling down this abyss and meeting the cold and cruel fate that was inevitable. But finally, when we reached the top of the mountain, it was almost as if we had entered paradise. Dr. Fosl made a solemn pact with all of us that we would meet back at 1.30 pm with a fake stern look at me. Since I was the one always called on for time, I was determined to make it on time this one time. Dr. Fosl, throughout our trip always kept her patience and never lost it with anybody, which was indeed admirable. So was it with Jyler and Lauren. Cheers to all of you. By the way I am not singling out these people. Brittany was amazing in her interaction with me and introduced me to a lot of delightful intellectual ideas. Josie was this warm, kind and sweet-hearted person, who could always render sound advice to me on ertain life and eath questions. Alisha was her usual sweet and charming self, ever willing to lend a helping hand to anyone in need and she cooked this amazing breakfast at Ivy Dene one day for Ingrid, Cate and myself. (Needless to say, I was quick in devouring it!). Amina was sweet too, helping me with my make up. Jesse was always my nighttime companion who kept her cool though a lot of things were not going as expected. She was sweet and charming and made an awesome roommate. All in all, I was extremely fortunate to be with such an amazing group of people. Anyway, back to the story, all of us had our heart’s content of Table Mountain. Thereafter we proceeded to the Green market. This market reminded me a lot of the streets of India, a very touristy market, where a lot of local artifacts were sold. It was totally charming. Amina met some traders from Somalia and she was soon deep in conversation with them. She did not seem to share my fascination for old men though. She preferred young men, or rather, they sought her out, with her charming looks and ruffian like ways, she endeared herself to one and all of the local people.

     Our final stop for the day was a cafe that had this wonderful display of the liberation struggle. It very imminently reminded me of the freedom archives at display in New Delhi, the capital city of India. Another thought that struck me was the freedom archives in India were always so old and seemed generations away, while the liberation struggle seemed so new in South Africa. The struggle was still fresh in the minds of the people. Everybody, we were to meet, including our driver Sipho, and our guide of the District Sic Museum remembered the experiences of the struggle very keenly.  It was very heartening to see protest marches so close in time. It was almost as if they were imparting some lesson to me. It infused the notion that protest marches against imperialism were a true factor of history and not some distant memory to be invoked, like it is in India, only during Independence. The coalescing of various segments of society, unified in their commitment to one cause, and the various pathways in which this commitment manifested itself like the ANC and UDF seemed fascinating. Perhaps we could take a leaf of the page of these struggles and apply them to the contemporary movements challenging Western Imperialism. Undoubtedly, the liberal democratic ideals of the liberal West had been instrumental in fostering the intellectual currents in the struggle towards Independence. I was looking forward to uncovering the other intellectual currents that formed the nuclei of this historic struggle.