What started as a hate and solely hate relationship is turning over a new leaf with each day.
They say if you make it here, you can make it anywhere. That's true, really true to the core. New York city is tough. It demands a lot from you especially if you don't belong here. It really doesn't matter if you are in love with this place. It's all the more important that this place loves you too.
My brief stint with the city showed me its true side. It moves at a distinctly fast pace that overwhelms you, often leaving you with the feeling, why are you here in first place?
The city is full of people soaring with ambition to match huge skyscrapers, weirdos that can take your breath away , or may be not as compared to city cabs and needless to say, unparalleled cup of coffee in the world.
As a bystander, I have figured out nothing is normal in New York. Whether it's the fight in the middle of the road, travellers applauding a weird passenger in local or unspoken cool rule of apathetic behaviour towards others, there is no standard for anything. Everyone has a world of their own and their own standards. No one judges anyone, as if others would have cared if they did.
Yet, there's a lot to this city that draw you close, closer enough to feel the warm snuggly side of it. As I walked through the streets of towering skyscrapers in Midtown Manhattan, my feet raced up to match the others, keen on knowing what was the hurry. By the time I figured out the speed is the keyword, I was in Fifth avenue, best known as an unrivaled shopping street. Louis Vuitton, Prada,Gucci, Versace,Ferragamo, you name it, they have it here.
Did I mention how blue the sky is in New York, even when it's bone chilling cold in the end of January. New York city can be brutal in winters but there's usually a cheerfulness in the air. Or perhaps I had set off with that mood. What could have been a better idea to rekindle this love with a Bagel and Hot coffee on my way.
Though NY is home to myriad iconic halts for a first time visitor like me , to name a few Empire State Building, The Top of the Rock at Rockfellar Centre, Central Park, Ground Zero, Battery Park, never fail to dazzle you whilst strolling down on a cool windy evening. But what captured my eyes and my soul the most was The Times Square.Whatever the season , it is sure to be full of slow moving tourists gazing at brightly illuminated hub of Broadway, miserable Elmos happy to photographed for some bucks and many loose screw loudmouthed people wandering in the milieu of what seems like a long pedestrian zone.But it is the recipe for a stupendous exothermic reaction , giving out Colour, Light and above all Life.It is a sin to come to NY and not visit Times Square.If the energy here cannot spark the fire inside you, you are already dead.
Visually, the city keeps you on your toes. But not as much as below as above. The NY subways have been used and abused. Not only they look ugly but employ an archiac train system with just enough gap at the doorways for a baby to slide in incase you are not cautious enough. And it is just an epic feeling when you decode the MTA map and catch the train you were supposed to just in time.
9/11 memorial is one of the places in NY which will set your heart beat a skip. Not only, the two water pools are remembrance of one of the tallest structures that stood distinctly touching the sky but also a tribute to thousand of lives lost forever. Ground zero transcends a feeling of tranquility amid brutality and terror.
Just a walking distance from Ground zero is a historic park in the southern Manhattan, the Battery park. It provides scenic views of waterfront and a great relaxing environment in the center of Financial district. I clearly remember cutting across strong spine trembling winds on my way through the Park just to get a view of Statue of Liberty. It seemed more like some sort of an Antarctic expedition rather than pleasure trip.
In the city that never sleeps yet can give you sleepless nights, a city swarming with people yet you can feel so lonely here, I would keep my memory lane alive remembering so much I got to see and do in this city.
On buttered white bread, with a cup of very good steaming-hot tomato soup alongside, and a view of yellow taxis circling Columbus Circle around the Central park, it’s hard not to fall hard for Big Apple, again and again and all over again.
