A view of Manhattan from the Empire State Building
I loved those Concrete buildings - so tall that you have to bend your neck as far back as probably possible to be able to see their peaks. They looked so beautiful when the sun reflected from them. If the busy roads at 2 AM in the morning, the road side food joints bustling with people from all ethnicities, the beautiful bridges thickly dotted with yellow cabs, the brilliant billboards and the colourful China Town boggle your mind down, don’t worry; just take a walk to the East River Side Port. The serene calmness of the vast water is sure to calm you down. And if you want more, something that will take you out of breath, then take a subway down to Exchange Place in New Jersey and stand at the dock by the Hudson River. This was how the city had looked when we had gone down there:
The city sure is enchanting. It casts its spell on anyone and
everyone and I was not an exception. I fell in love with the city as soon as I
had had the first glimpse of its skyline. But this post is not yet another
travelogue of the city which has it all. I roamed the city, visited all its attractions, was amazed by most of them but what fascinated me most was its people, so varied, so versatile.
One day, at the subway station, I saw an elderly lady who had
rainbow coloured hair, yet was dressed in a plain black suit. Nobody looked at
her, as if this was the most normal thing: to wear a formal suit with rainbow
hair. But uncouth as I was, I couldn’t help gaping. Then suddenly but slowly, a
deep admiration grew inside me – not for the woman but for the city.
I noticed two men, holding hands and kissing each other standing in
a queue to enter the 9/11 memorial at the World Trade Center.
I found an elderly man soundly asleep on a corner table in the
Starbucks on the 42nd street and the 5th avenue. Gluey
strings of snots came steadily out of his nose. Everyone walked past him,
including the table cleaners without even looking. Probably he came there every
day.
People ran around with a maddening speed, people sat back over a
glass of beer. People rode skating boards, skating wheels, unicycles, bicycles,
tri-cycles, rickshaws, taxis, cars, limousines, buses, trains, ferries and what
not – in business suits, skirts, jeans, shorts, rags and gowns. People got
married on the road making the whole traffic to come to a stop. People came out
from posh looking residential buildings and then bought an ice cream cone from
the vendor on the road and walked away happily with their cute dogs.
So many people, each one so unique, each one with a purpose. We were
told that every day on an average New York employ around 10,000,000 people.
Among that only 2,000,000 actually live in the city while the rest travel in
from around the city. It is indeed, a city of dreams, where so many found their
footholds.
This is the city where you can do just about everything and be just
who you are without having to think about others. Anything and everything is
acceptable. Anything and everything is doable. This is the place where you could
experience the ultimate meaning of independence.
This is the place where you could just walk all day long and never
feel tired. Because this city had, long
back, decoded the formula of pure energy and scattered it in its air for its
people to breathe in. Once you are in the city, you feel it too. You feel the
young heart of the city beating excitedly resonating with your own, telling you
that it is happy to see you, infecting you with its highly infectious happiness
and making you feel obligated to say, by the time you leave, the cliched -
Love,
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Riot of Random
