| Part I | ||
| Love at second sight | ||
| My parents had told me that they�d taken me to New York when I was eight. Other than a JFK stamp in my passport there was no memory whatsoever, of that trip in my mind. As far as I was concerned, this was my very first trip. At twenty-seven I was traveling onsite for a company project based out of Connecticut, but I�d be going to and fro from New York and that in itself I found terribly exciting. I�d seen enough of NYC in movies, but was unsure of what to expect. It was a sixteen-hour Lufthansa flight with a stop over in Frankfurt Flughafen and upon my arrival at JFK at 3 pm in the afternoon local time; I felt nothing for the city of New York. It seemed like an ordinary airport, an ordinary cab and an ordinary six-lane highway that took me straight to Stamford where I was putting up. | ||
| I passed my first week there uneventfully. Met a few people, made a few acquaintances but nothing significant. On Friday evening, as I was about to step out of the office, I happened to stop and talk to a couple of Indian colleagues who also putting up at the same hotel. Everyone was discussing weekend plans. They�d been there for over a month and had tons of ideas on how to spend the two intermediate days before we got back to work again. | ||
| Nimit was a thin quiet fellow standing in the corner on the periphery of the group intently listening to the conversation. I noticed he didn�t know what the hell was being discussed either, so I asked him what his plans were. �Well I wanted to go to New York,� he said tentatively, �but they all seem to have gone already so there�s no one to go with.� | ||
| �Hey, I want to go too�, I said instantly cheering up. �Let�s go together�. | ||
| I saw him look me up and down and consider for a second whether it was a good idea to go with an elder married woman who he�d known for just a couple of days. But I guess the lure of the city was too much for him to resist. | ||
| �Ok�, he said finally and the two of us proceeded to take directions on how to get to Grand Central Station from the hotel. | ||
| It was a purposeful business like trip for two people who had nothing more than a common agenda to bind them together. Not only were Nimit and I completely disinterested in getting to know one another, but also our only aim was to see Manhattan. It took over an hour for the New Haven Metro-North service (it stopped at almost every small station in between) to get to Grand Central. | ||
| My first impression of Grand Central was of a bustling railway station like I�d seen all over Europe. The Bahnhof in each European city is automatically the center of the town and that was what I expected from Grand Central. We got out and instinctively took a left turn with not much idea where to go from there. �This doesn�t look like the center of the city.� I thought to myself. Nevertheless, it was a clear August day, the weather was perfect for sightseeing and our spirits were high. | ||
| I�m not exactly sure if I expected to get out and see the Statue of Liberty smiling at me, but in a sense I felt disappointment at only seeing some buildings which reminded me very much of Hong Kong. The speed at which people were walking to and fro from some surely important meeting to another made me feel as if I was standing still as time rushed on. After ten minutes of surveying the office going type of crowd around me (yes, even on a Saturday morning) I felt ridiculously underdressed in my blue jeans, sneakers and green round neck Benetton T-shirt. Everywhere I looked, I could see only business suits, high heels and a predominant affection for black. People were extremely well dressed. | ||
| We walked on. Nimit had a huge cumbersome map that he kept fiddling with as he doled out instructions. I walked leisurely, looking around. �We need to get to 42nd street�, he kept repeating and I kept looking around for signs. We had no idea where Seventh Avenue was and it was only much later that I was educated on the streets and avenues concept. | ||
| After having a bagel each and walking down a couple more blocks we finally saw a sign that said 42nd Street. We promptly took a right and I stopped abruptly, catching my breath at the sight that lay on the other side. It looked almost as if a thin lane (one way) had been overrun by what seemed like millions of billboards on buildings huddled close together and all of a sudden hundreds and thousands of people seemed to have emerged out of nowhere, all walking from somewhere to somewhere. The first thing I saw was a Warner Bros. store on the left and then on the right, as my gaze moved upwards a NASDAQ electronic sign which was printing out ticker stock prices at the speed of mice deserting a sinking ship. We walked quietly and slowly, in awe taking in the sights until we finally reached the true center of the Universe � Times Square. This is where it all happens, I thought to myself, New Year celebrations, innumerable concerts; even Godzilla attacked here. The tall building that stood on a triangular corner in front of us displayed huge billboards and a screen that seemed to be showing people�s faces on various cars and animals as they said Hi. I felt a strange warm feeling of connection, as if I knew that place, as if I�d seen it a million times before. The famed Coca Cola sign that they�ve had at Times Square for decades, and on the back side behind us, the cup o� noodles sign that seemed to be fuming smoke, reminding everyone of a hot meal. | ||
| Nimit and I looked at one another, with only one thing on our mind. �Camera!� we both said in unison as we rushed to a van-stall that housed magazines, candies and disposable cameras. We bought our own and proceeded to click each other�s snap at each and every angle imaginable. After a while, a passer by who�d noticed us doing this came up and asked us helpfully �Do you want me to take one of yours together?� We looked at each other, neither wanting to sacrifice a snap and said �Nah. Thanks�. | ||
| And so it continued. Shops and shoppers, eateries and eaters, advertisements and wonder struck tourists and photographs being clicked by everyone everywhere. There was even a cowboy standing at the intersection in his white underwear with only a guitar and knee length boots to assist him while he doled out some country music. We were mesmerized. I had never seen anything so vibrant, so bright and cheerful and certainly never any place so full of action and excitement. It took my breath away and I felt as if I could sit there all day just admiring it. | ||
| The word �tkts� painted in bold red stood proudly over a small flat building, which was thronged by people. �I�ve heard about this place�, Nimit said excitedly. �They�re all buying tickets for Broadway plays.� And we both hoped we�d be standing in that line, some day. | ||
| The most interesting part was that the entire chunk of people were centralized in the very center of Times Square and any attempt to move onto another street or another side lane or even further down 42nd street just resulted in a thinning out of shops as well as people. | ||
| The whole day we walked around went into almost all the shops (especially the tourist shops and bought a �I love NY� T-shirt each) and ate of course at McDonalds, which had a model of Manhattan on its upper floor that held most of our attention through lunch. | ||
| It was almost six when we finally decided to take the train back home prompted by the fact that all thirty-six photographs of the camera had been clicked. Exhausted and awe-stuck by what we�d just seen, we sat quietly on the journey back broken only by Nimit�s question �So what did you think?� he asked politely. | ||
| �I didn�t have time to think�, I replied. �I�m in love with the city and all I have on my mind is when I can see it again.� | ||
| �By the way�, I added as an afterthought, �what�s your surname?� | ||
| Part II | ||
| Forging a relationship | ||
| �New York is divided into five boroughs�, my father educated me on the way home from JFK where he had just picked my husband and me up. It was six months after my last trip to New York that my father had been posted to the city as Regional Director for his company. Needless to say, I was thrilled and gave my parents only a month to settle down before turning up at their doorstep on vacation. | ||
| �Really?� I asked attentively. �What are they?� | ||
| �Manhattan, Queens, The Bronx, Brooklyn and Staten Island� he answered, the five names on his tips. | ||
| It seemed incredulous that there was more to New York City than Manhattan. �But I hope we�re staying in Manhattan�, I wished desperately. | ||
| �Of course. Park and 61st� my father replied, smiling and went on to explain that Manhattan was divided into Avenues and Streets with the latter crisscrossing the former. �Its all actually very simple� he explained. �Its First, Second and Third avenue, then Lexington where my office is located then Park and Madison and then Fifth, Sixth and Seventh, and all the streets go right across the avenues.� | ||
| We drove over the Queensboro Bridge, alongside the Metlife building, around the Grand Central station and after several one ways stopped in front of 530 Park Avenue. The doorman, dressed impeccably in his uniform and white gloves, rushed to open our door and help unload the luggage as I stared first, at the buildings around me then at the protruding green canapy at the door entrance that proudly showed off the numbers �530�. | ||
| Our apartment was huge, with a drawing and dining designed solely for high-class parties, but the guest room was rather small. �I guess its because kids really don�t stay with their parents out here, so they don�t need the second room to be too large�, my mother reasoned. We didn�t mind, it was beautifully carpeted; completely air conditioned and overlooked Park Avenue. �There�s only one thing missing�, my husband said, reading my thoughts instantly, �A balcony�. | ||
| Our fortnight in NYC was a whirlwind of activity during which we ensured we never spent more than the sleeping hours at 530 Park Avenue. Our first visit was to Bloomindale�s. Just got out of the building walked to 60th street then one block down to Madison Avenue and there it was. A thoroughly enjoyable experience as was Macy�s on Seventh Avenue � apparently the largest Macy�s in the world. | ||
| We spent an entire day in downtown Greenwich Village, home to artists and writers and students studying at NYU, the place was littered with authentic specialty restaurants (we had Italian) and bars with very young and happening crowd. At the center of Greenwich Village is the Washington Square Park where the Washington Arch is an immediately identifiable sight. | ||
| Then there�s the Flatiron building, prominently displayed in the hit show �Veronica�s Closet�, supposedly the headquarters on many a fashion mogul. Beautifully triangular and rather pointed too at one end, and I wondered how amazing it would be to have that corner office overlooking the hustle and bustle of the street below. | ||
| We went to Rockefeller center and saw the central area converted into a gigantic ice skating rink (it was March) and just stood there for hours watching people skating like professionals as well as learning like hopefuls but everyone was enjoying themselves thoroughly. We went to The Metropolitan Museum affectionately called �The Met� by local New Yorkers and were held spellbound by the collection of paintings, statues and artifacts that they had and the elegance with which they were displayed. | ||
| We did get to stand in the tkts line on Times Square and bought tickets for �Cabaret� at Studio 54. It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience as we watched the actors give splendid performances of a pre World War II era while sitting on bar like stools amongst the hundred odd audience, sipping our drinks. We even sat in on a live recording of the Conan O�Brien show at NBC studios. | ||
| We had breakfast at The Plaza hotel, coffee at Waldorf Astoria and dinner at the caf� atop the Empire State building. �Its just like in Sleepless in Seattle�, I sighed, overwhelmed and felt that I truly could not love Manhattan any more. | ||
| Until I saw Central Park. At seven in the morning on a working day there were three types of people walking through central park. The first was people on their way to work. Many with jogging shoes on under the formal clothes (no doubt intending to change into a spare formal pair that they keep at their office) but all with a goal-to-achieve kind of look. The second were the hard-core exercisers. Complete in jogging attire from socks and shoes to tracksuit and headband, and even some women with all of the above and also a stroller with jogging wheels as they pushed their little babies around the park. The third were people such as myself. Tourists, wanderers, loafers or just plain relaxed people enjoying the slightly cold breeze running through the green trees over the perfectly manicured lawns of the sheep meadow section of the park as they walked around leisurely breathing the cool fresh air. Central Park itself is huge (843 acres) and I must say with a touch of shame that I am regretful that I probably never saw the whole area. But I did see the Fountain under the bridge where people let their dogs jump in and splash around in the water. I did see the conservatory and the lily pond and also the ravine. I saw enough to make me look at the buildings surrounding the park with a touch of envy at all those on the top floor with the unmistakable privilege of having a penthouse overlooking central park. Ah that may be my one true wish. | ||
| As my husband and I sat under one of the benches outside the Grand Army Plaza entrance to Central Park, he looked solemnly at me and said seriously �So are you thinking what I�m thinking� he replied indicating that he�d caught me grazing longingly at the buildings that stood towering over us. | ||
| �Yes, a life long commitment is what I have in mind.� I said, dreamily. | ||
| �You do realize it�ll be many years before we can afford it�, he said apprehensively. | ||
| �You know the saying right�, I replied, confidence filled in each word, �The best things in life are worth waiting for�. | ||
| Part III | ||
| Till death do us part | ||
| To be continued, someday ..... | ||
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