Friday, May 29, 2020


Rolling Thunder, the Vietnam War, and Memorial Day

This year, for the first time ever on a Memorial Day weekend, I didn’t hear the “vroom vroom vroom” of Rolling Thunder motor bikes, the sight and sound of them rippling across Constituion Avenue like shockwaves!

It’s a Washington, D.C. annual gathering that started more than 30 years ago, organized by Vietnam War veterans to raise awareness and demand accountability for prisoners of war (POWs) and soldiers missing in action (MIAs) in the Vietnam War. 

Riders Rally

Riders from around the nation (and the world) would rally at the Pentagon and ride a designated route through the capital city’s distinctive Mall area. It was a venue for veterans to meet, pay their respects at the war memorials, and participate in Memorial Day events to honor and mourn the dead. 

If you’ve never heard or seen these bikers, it’s quite an experience to drive alongside them on the Beltway or in the city. They are mostly seniors with long gray “hippie” hair, flowing beards and scarves, often wearing camouflage gear with faces and arms covered in tats! 

Some riders are, surprisingly, women although women usually ride pillion. The unspoken protocol is for car drivers to respectfully get out of the way and let them ride past. It’s also an opportunity to admire their decorated bikes up close: Harley-Davidsons, Royal Enfields, Triumphs, Yamahas, Kawasakis, BMWs, and more. 

I used to hear them from inside my flat despite the soundproofed windows and had the best views from my balcony. Residents on my street would wave and cheer and sometimes salute, rather awkwardly!

POW/MIA Cause

In 1987, Marine Corporal Ray Manzo, a Vietnam veteran, visited D.C. to meet and enlist fellow vets. The goal was to organize a motorcycle demonstration to bring attention to the POW/MIA issue. Choosing Memorial Day weekend for the event, they figured that the arrival of bikes driving across Memorial Bridge would sound like rolling thunder, hence the name. 

The first run in 1988 had about 2,500 bikes and pillion riders. It continued to grow every year, becoming the world’s largest single-day motorcycle event. With over a million riders and spectators last year, Rolling Thunder had evolved into a patriotic display for all who served, with Iraq and Afghan veterans joining in. Until this year! 

Say it ain’t so!

The tradition ended, according to press reports, because of “escalating costs and a lack of cooperation” from the Pentagon and metropolitan police departments. Organizers announced that 2019 would be the final D.C. ride, citing the $200K price tag, conflicts with Pentagon management over logistics and fees, and their own “advancing ages” as the main reasons for ending the tradition. A pity! Really! It was one of the more colorful and entertaining traditions! Say it ain’t so!  

Not a Parade, not a Party!

I was writing a newspaper feature some years ago and asked a biker vet if he enjoyed cruising down D.C. avenues sans traffic! His stern response was “It’s not a parade. It’s not a party... it’s  a protest of our failings; as a country, we must own those failings.” (Quotes are from my interview). Besides troops still missing in action from overseas conflicts, the focus, he added sadly, was now on the mental health/suicide crisis which claims 20 veteran lives a day and disproportionately seems to affect returnees from Vietnam.   

The annual ride used to draw ever-larger crowds to the D.C. streets and with it a host of security and planning headaches. A more abbreviated event called “Rolling to Remember” was supposed to be held this year at the Lincoln Memorial. With the ongoing coronavirus crisis, I’m not sure if it took place. 

And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda 

MSNBC TV host Lawrence O’Donnell ended his May 25 (Memorial Day) broadcast with an emotional look back at members of his own family who’d died in wars and played a video of Vietnam War vet, amputee, and Medal of Honor recipient, Bob Kerrey (also former senator, Nebraska governor, and 1992 presidential candidate) who sang “And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda” about the futility and horrors of war. The video is from 1988 when Kerrey was elected to the U.S. Senate. (I circulated it earlier but worth a second look. See below).

Written in the 1970s by Eric Bogle, an Australian folk musician, this anti-war song describes a young Aussie who lost both legs at the Battle of Gallipolli (1915, World War I) after the ANZACs (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) were outnumbered and crushed by the far better prepared “Johnny Turks” (Ottoman/Turkish soldiers). The song also describes the apathy of young bystanders back home who wondered why these old soldiers were marching with their medals. 

Yes, military bands sang it better than Kerrey (as some of you pointed out; there are many versions on YouTube!) but those are usually trained or professional singers. It resonates more, in my view, when a decorated war hero amputee (from Vietnam) sings rather unexpectedly at a political gathering about a faraway and mostly forgotten war (Gallipolli). 

The Draft (Conscription) 

Rolling Thunder was also the name of the longest sustained aerial bombing campaign in U.S. history that was pursued during the Vietnam War. It was eventually deemed a failure because it failed to destroy the North Vietnamese or their ability to keep fighting in South Vietnam.

Despite the passage of time, the costly and divisive Vietnam War remains a raw wound in the minds of many Americans for several reasons: the compulsory enlistment, the deaths, and because the U.S. lost. In the 60s and 70s, a federal draft compelled young men to join the armed forces. As a result, they often lost their lives and limbs (and sometimes their minds) for what was viewed as an unjust cause on the other side of the world! Many more unjust wars may have been fought by the U.S. after Vietnam - but without the draft; it’s now an all volunteer army. 

Interestingly, some leaders have called for the reinstatement of the draft because poor Whites, minorities and immigrants make up the bulk of those who join the armed forces, both in the present and during the Vietnam era when wealthy parents got deferments for their sons or sent them to Canada. Racial and economic inequality in opportunity, wages, housing, healthcare, and education (socioeconomic restratification) has meant that few well-off Americans serve, even now! 

Blood and Treasure

A personal note and the reason for my interest: I worked as an information officer at the New Zealand High Commission in New Delhi many years ago. I began in the library which had dozens of books on the ANZAC campaign and the Battle of Gallipolli which I read avidly! More recently, I visited ANZAC memorials at Gallipolli in Turkey and, to bring this discussion full circle, the site of the former U.S. Embassy in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City). As a student of history, I find battlefields evocative but Gallipolli was especially moving. 

On this Memorial Day weekend, it is sobering to reflect on the cost of war in terms of loss: “blood and treasure” (lives and money). 

Ludi Joseph
Washington, D.C.
May 26, 2020

NB: Except for the last two, the other pictures below are mine. 

Rolling Thunder, DC
Rolling Thunder, DC

Vietnam War Memorial, DC


World War II Memorial, DC

Korean War Memorial, DC
Gallipolli Memorial, Turkey 

Gallipolli Memorial, Turkey

Gallipolli Memorial, Turkey
AP pic: scaling US Embassy walls, Saigon, April 1975

Bob Kerrey sings

Sunday, May 10, 2020

Covid Diary

Life under Covid is surreal, yes! But strange and awesome things also happen - you just have to look out for them!

Charging Ducks!

For instance, I got chased by a flock of ducks when I recently walked in the Washington Mall at the Lincoln Memorial. I unthinkingly threw a piece of my Kind bar to a duckling in the pond - then the others charged! It was a bit scary to be fleeing in broad daylight from greedy ducks - yes, geese are more aggressive - but it kind of made my week! 

Birthday Treats!

I had to drive to Ram’s place to pick up Costco provisions, so Bhuvana made me cheese dosas (as a birthday treat, upon request!) with milagai podi (a spicy powder made with lentils and red chillies and eaten with South Indian food, such as idlis and dosas) - so yum! 

The girls are good. Sham is still mulling over transferring to an instate school. I had to bully the younger one, Harini, into letting me edit her essay on the novel, “Purple Hibiscus.” The things one does for a little intellectual stimulation! I still haven’t forgiven Sham’s teacher for not returning the essay on “Women in Homer” after spending so many hours making it perfect!  

India Gate

Thanks to Covid, I’m exploring my neighborhood and recently discovered a restaurant, India Gate, owned by Mr. Rehman from Bangladesh. He usually makes me a takeaway order of tadka daal, chawal, bhindi and baingan barta (for the uninitiated, that’s lentils, rice, okra and puréed eggplant)! Hands down, the mussalmaans make the best tadka daal!  

The restaurant is empty but we have our masks on and socially distance while chatting about Dhaka which I remember well from visits for the European Union. He’s actually from Tangail in Mymensingh District and does a “first class” (such a desi term!) masala chai (no sugar, just a hint of nutmeg, mostly cardamom)!  

Streaming During Lockdown! 

If you haven’t tried streaming before, this is the time! You can use any platform: Roku, Apple TV, Xfinity, your PC, but you still need to subscribe individually to providers of content, such as, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Sundance, Acorn, Britbox, Masterpiece Theatre, FX, CBS, etc.  

I can recommend “The Bureau” - an addictive, captivating series with smarts and style. I have never seen a spy show this real and can only think of “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” which matches its complexity.  “The Bureau” is about the inner workings of French Intelligence, extremely well acted with very authentic spy technology. The pace starts slow and builds intensity in ways that make you want to watch all four seasons in one sitting (which I nearly did)!  Check it out on Sundance,  available on Prime Video. 

Another prestige mini series I really liked is “The Plot Against America” on HBO based on a Philip Roth novel that imagines a populist demagogue whipping the U.S. into a fascist dystopia. The show picks up in June 1940, diverging from the historical record with the political ascendancy and presidential election of aviator and war hero Charles Lindbergh, notorious for his anti-Semitism and anti-interventionist stance toward Nazism. The show is a chilling illustration of how easily xenophobia flourishes, complete with internment camps for dissidents and paramilitary goon squads. The parallels between the alternative history of this show and the real events of present day Trump America are mind boggling.

Roots Showing!  

I had to cancel all my regular activities: visits to restaurants, movies, the hairdressers, mani-pedis, and so on!  The bonus is that one is saving money - which I’m now forced to spend on Amazon and Wholefood deliveries! Bummer! But I also scored some paper towels (kitchen rolls), TP, and face tissues, a huge achievement!  In March-April, all paper products had vanished from store shelves; now they’re making a comeback!  

But the hairdresser is what I miss most! I think it was Kishore Singh writing in Business Standard who said that, when he met his friends, he couldn’t help noticing (despite the mandatory physical distancing) that the wife’s (hair) roots were showing and that she looked like a black and white beaver or was it a raccoon! That’s how I feel! Although not enough to do something about it, so far at least!

Clean Air!

One of the few benefits of people staying indoors is that the public parks and trails are empty!  I’ve been walking in Rock Creek Park and along the Potomac below the Kennedy Center. You see a few joggers, people walking their dogs, the odd homeless person, but very little traffic. It’s not the huge contrast that you have in India where the pollution suddenly lifted and you can see the Himalayas (Mt. Dhaulagiri and Nandadevi), or even whales popping out of the Arabian Sea near Bombay! Washington, D.C., in contrast, is a comparatively clean city with multiple parks - but now you can actually breathe in huge lungfuls of squeaky clean air!   

What’s App Chats!

Our weekly Joseph family What’s App chats have been working quite well after a few hiccups: Mum kept “rejecting” instead of “accepting” the calls at first! Lorna likes to multitask so all we see is one eye and three or four teeth, like a Picasso painting! We’re planning to transition to Zoom, a more updated technology so that other family members (Kathy, Lori, Mati) can join. 

Community Connections 

I also think of how lucky many of us are to get that paycheck or pension or social security check, or brokerage dividends - or any other kind of regular income - when so many thousands are dying, hurting, and going hungry. Feeling useless and inadequate is an unfortunate byproduct of this crisis but we can channel that; we can all do something, like donating to a relief organization or neighborhood food bank or simply writing a check! 

I’m so glad that, through the World Bank’s Community Connections campaign, one can contribute both globally (to UNICEF, the Red Cross, Médecins sans Frontières, etc.) as well as locally to food banks. Most importantly, the World Bank matches one’s contribution, thereby doubling it. 

When this whole thing started, I was glued to the news - but wall-to-wall 24 hour coverage can be repetitive and depressing. One needs to be informed but there are limits to how much relentlessly negative information one can imbibe! Take a break! Go for a walk! Stretch! Jump in place! Unglue yourself from that bloomin’ sofa! Until next time then! On se parle bientôt!

Ludi Joseph
Washington, D.C.
May 10, 2020


Lincoln Memorial, April 2020

Washington Monument, April 2020

Happier times: my cousin Lianne, Mum, Lorna, Mati, Moi; Miami, April 2018


Happier times: Mum, Leslie, Kathy; NY, April 2018
Happier times: Sham & Hari at Graduation, June 2019

Bhuvana’s Tulips, Arlington, VA, May 2020



Masked Gang: Me with Bonnie & Clyde (Bhuv & Ram), April 2020


Solo Birthday Celeb! Chez Moi! May 2020
Oil painting, India Gate restaurant, May 2020