18th - 20th July 2008
We are getting used to waking up at 5 and 6 AM to find a vibrant city doing its paces. Our first day at our New Jersey office, everyone was dressed in their best or the best they could gather. We started off as an army of some 50 odd desis dressed in our best walking down the roads of New York obviously making our presence felt as we discussed ways to reach New Jersey with everyone having collected a bit of info of how to get to office from various sources. As luck should have it, we had another army of local NAPAs headed the same way so there were no issues reaching home base. The rest of the day was an orientation to the company and I shalnt go too much into detail about that except we had four Shahs in a row by sheer coincidence. Poonam and Daniel from the London office, while me and Mayank were from the Bangalore office. The day went off really quick because I had fun company in the form of Raagini as we blabbered on and on about lot of stuff that I fail to recollect now. We did miss out on the funny dude that everyone was pretty impressed with. Post the orientation was a cocktail party that adventurous Patil, Shravani, Radha and me in quest to get beautiful pictures of the New York skyline missed out on as we pushed our luck and reached the highest floor in the building. The question still dogs me, with a view like this, how do people manage to work ? Having satisfied the photographer in us, we headed down for a session of group pictures with the entire batch. Once again confusion reigned as Radha and me were the only ones who made it to the ferry that would take us across to New York from New Jersey. The journey was short and breezy, and then we were officially lost as we searched for the closest subway that would take us home. One thing of prime importance, carry those free subway maps you get in most hotels, it has been a major lifeline for us. With the confidence that we can’t get lost, we finally found a green line subway having bypassed many building of federal importance. Today would be my turn at being tourist guide as Ruby, Patil, Raagini, Shravani, Sowmya and I (Selective Six) headed off to visit Times Square. Being in our backyard, Times Square is going to feature a number of times in this trip and its worth it every single time even if you don’t do anything but aimlessly loiter around there. NASDAQ, Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers where the buildings we spotted this time and spent time in Hard Rock Cafe just chilling out to good music and testing their out rightly weird and different collection of sofas and armchairs. This was followed by a visit to the Virgin Megastore and its foray of mentionable and unmentionable items for sale. It was about 2 AM when we decided to head back and our decision gained more weight as we noticed a potential gang war right in front of our eyes as police swarmed in to stop an untowardly incident. The rest of the night was a scene out of “That 70s show” without the pot and the smoke as we shared stories of college and earlier. Also marked my first of the many night outs I would make in New York. The mantra was plain and simple: We didn’t have time to waste in NYC over sleep. Its 4 in the morning and we decided to head out for a morning walk along the riverside near First Avenue. Following this up was my first and last visit to the gym, which I realised, was a waste of time as we walked enough as a tourist to burn the unnecessary calories. On reaching back to the hotel, Ruby doo had planned a cycling trip in Central Park while Shravani was feeling ill and had decided to chuck the day. Highly disappointed that someone should go against the mantra, I decided to head out to a less strenuous sight seeing trip and headed out to United Nations which is just a block away from our hotel. The home of the organisation that I have always dreamt of working for right there, a stone throw away and a building I could see everyday morning when I got up. A wonderful experience indeed to be in it and though we couldn’t head into the General Assembly, I had checked off another bullet on my bucket list. We then decided to have dinner at Hotel Saravanaa, the branch of the famous Hotel Saravana Bhavan (HSB) – a brand name in Tamil Nadu. Exorbitant prices like its parent in India but the food is equally good. Located on Lexington 28th, it is surrounded by lot of Indian shops and restaurants and is the Little India of Midtown Manhattan. Meanwhile Ruby doo had managed to crash her cycle onto a tree at Central park and this would mark the start of her love affair with cycles and crashing. A pretty long day earning me the moniker of 24x7 enthu cutlet (PSG branded). Rise and shine on Sunday morning and as a major group we headed out to Fifth avenue en route to Central Park. Fifth Avenue has the whos who of brands lined up neat and bright with price tags that blow us off our feet. The famous Tiffanys & Co. , Prada, Gucci, Swarovski, Rolex, NBA, World of Disney, Benetton, Bulce Vuigi, and numerous other stores that I haven’t even heard of. Princess Jasmine had come down for a visit to Disney following Hannah Montana’s visit the weekend before that. Much to my chagrin, Jon Bon Jovi had been down to NYC for a free concert the day before I left for New York. Towards the lower end of this stretch close to Central Park is a glass cube with the trademark bitten apple. This marks the entrance to the famous Fifth Avenue store based in the basement filled with gadgets to play with to your satisfaction. The best part about this store is that its open 24 x7 so I’d suggest heading there late night or early morning where you can pretty much have the whole place to yourself rather than having to crowd over with other apple eyed customers. Also on this end is the hotel made famous by Macaulay Culkins in Home Alone 2, along with the pond near Central Park where he meets the bird lady. Our next stop was MoMA- Museum of Modern Art, which I enjoyed but would have probably appreciated more if I had a fine understanding of what those random strokes signified in most of the exhibits. Still standing strong with our adrenaline running, we decided to head over to Brooklyn bridge and walk over it and probably perform a “Kal Ho Na Ho” on the way. This is where we met an Afghani water seller who was really friendly with us and we started discussing the state of affairs in Afghanistan. He asked where Jagnoor was from. His answer Punjab was quickly interrupted with a “India wala ya Pakistan wala?” The same question popped up when i said Gujarat and then it struck us the commonalities in the states. Only if Kalyan had been with us, we’d have included Hyderabad in the loop. We refused his offer of free water and carried on our walk along Brookyln bridge. The bridge has a history behind it too. It was thought impossible to build this bridge but it was the sheer willpower of the architect and his son that the plan went through. The project was almost shelved when the father was bed ridden, but his son carried out his fathers commands and the bridge was finally completed. From Brooklyn bridge, you can also see the younger Manhattan bridge. Spiderman fans will be able to associate with this place along with Shah Rukh Khan fans. Probably Godzilla fans too but the point from where Godzilla enters New York City is down south, closer to my office near South Sea Port. On returning home, we finally decided that weekends would be for outside New York City while weekdays after training would be dedicated to New York City.
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