HAPA Diamond

As my DC stay is coming closer I decided to cover the places of interest.  I admit, this is the one place in US where I saw families walking on the streets visiting the city.  Most of the couples have more than 2 children.

My first stop over was Museum of Amrican Indian.  It is four story building and the theme is to showcase about the native Red Indian Culture of America.  There were photos, TV shows, 10 min movies etc to present the lifestyle of the tribes. These tribes exist along with modern society and preserve their own identity. The habitat of tribes is known as Reservation. This museum also covers some of the civilizations of  South America.  My mind invitable draws comparisions parallel to Indian culture and tradition. The Universal truth emerging out is People are happy living in tribes, identify with a land and most importantly living close to the nature.  Science and technology made human beings lonely.  Most of the museums in US are run by Smithsonian Institute. The name is dervied from Englishman who pioneered the museum concept diplaying his own collection.

My next stop was Art gallery.  I took a pamphlet in the lobby which gives the must see art peices if we wanted to cover in 1 hr.  I really liked this Idea.  The building had several rooms and the picture shows the room no that had the famous painting.  I completed the whole list. This is second art gallery I visited in US. Previous one was Getty museum in LA.  There is one painting by Da vinci which they say is done in USA. But almost all are collections from west Europe.  The only painter I knew is Vincent Vangauh and I saw six of his art works in both the museums.   There is this flower vase painting by him which is really good.  I must admit that for me all are really good. They are so real and excellent work of art.  But when there is plenty around, you can not pay attention and appreciate every painting. A glance and then next painting.  Its really a strain standing continuosly watching these museums.

From the Art gallery, I crossed the lawn (National Mall) and went into Smithsonian Castle. This is where Smithsonian lived. Externally it looks like any European Castle red in colour. The tomb is like the VT station in Mumbai.. There are two rooms open to public. One is used by canteen. The other had some interesting pieces like Olympic gold medals (not many 5) donated by Americans.

From Smithsonian I went to Museum of Natural History across the garden.  This is full of people as the name draws lot of them.  On the first floor there is a room dedicated for gems, stones and mines.  You see how gold, copper, platinum and silver look a like in mines. There are also many exhibits on mineral stones etc.  The major attraction of the Hall is “Hapa Diamond”  Located in a showcase in the center.  This is the world’s very old ( 3 billion years ..too much) diamond, very hard and the only blue diamond.  It looks like a sapphire with sparkles that tell it as a diamond.  The blue clour is becasue of the impurity may be boron atom in the diamond.  The diamond was put in the locket of a platinum diamond Necklace.  Yes… This diamond belongs to India.  The last known origin is Golconda, South India.  It reached Europe and from there to America.  There are some other diamond jewellary and boy really awesome.  There is the crown and Necklace of French Queen Louies XVii who I guess were thrown out in French revolution.  Most of the diamonds are from India ( admitted by the musuem that olden days India was the only known source of diamonds) and columbia. There are yellow diamonds. There are exhibits on emerald (biggest from India), saphires and rubies. I enjoyed watching these precious jewels and then took on not so interesting mines etc.

There are also skeletons of Dianosaraus (flesh eating and veggie one — denoted by teeth structure) and many lizards. I was wondering whether these are real.  Some where I read that it is constructed from remnants etc.  Some exhibits exlain the evaluation of life on Universe etc.  They go back to as good as 4500 million years (centuries).. The cycle is explained till the humans… Universe formed from gas.. … due to chemical reaction .. first living cell before 3500 million years etc.  I am not interested in science speculation of Universe creation..

Finally the day is over and it’s time to go home…..

But yes, Any of you if ever get a chance do visit this city with your families. You can really spend good time in visiting museums and other places of interest.  There are many Hotels. I would prefer Residence Inn which gives complementary breakfast with a full kitchen.