The New York Trip - Friday, Dec 30, 2005

I landed in New Ark International airport at 11 AM. Changed a couple of trains to reach Penn Station, New York. Stepped out to the cold streets of New York (not literally). Right alongside was Madison Square garden. Then, walked along 7th avenue across streets. I started off on the 23rd street, walked right upto the 43rd street - which has Times Square. Before I talk about Times Square, a quick review of how Manhattan is set. It has avenues and streets. Avenues are the ones parallel to the coastline, while streets run perpendicular to the avenues. These coordinates can define any point in Manhattan.

The streets of NY were crowded, and still cold. First thing I did was to cover myself with whatever warm stuff I had. Believe me, even with 5 layers, I was just about surviving. The thing about New York is that it takes everything to the next level. The streets are similar to what you would see in CP, Delhi – just that everything is grand. The buildings are higher, and sleeker (NY is a concrete jungle. There are so many high rise buildings – not a single tree!); the billboards are bigger, and sleazier; and the people… I could see so many different faces, and hear so many languages – there were Chinese, Europeans, Indians, Africans, Australians, you name the country and I am sure you would find someone from that place. And everyone seemed so much friendlier, and relaxed. Partly because most of them were tourists, and this was New Year's time. Also, walking down the streets of NY, you get a feel of why the GDP of NY is almost twice that of India (yep it is over a trillion). Every shop is filled with people; every counter in a shop is lined with people out with their credit cards (ok, the high GDP is due to the financial industry here)!!

Times Square is (7,43). It took me 5 minutes to figure I was at Times Square. It seemed like any normal intersection. Except that it was heavily crowded. And there were preparations on for the New Year ball. Lots of police folks. Then there were these bunch of cops on horsebacks. Lots of people were going up to them for photographs, and they obliged each one of them. It was here that I decided to take my gloves off, and soon enough I was rubbing my hands together. This pretty looking girl that was passing by stops over and says, ‘why don’t you spend two dollars and get yourself a pair of gloves’; ‘I have one in the bag’, I replied. ‘Then go ahead and wear them’, was her response, with a huge smile! Followed it up with a ‘Happy New Year’. I liked the friendliness in the air!!

Went over to Starbucks at Times Square to catch a coffee. While I was waiting for my coffee, this gentleman comes up to me and says, ‘you work for Trilogy’?, 'Sure I do'. We got talking for a while, and I got to exchange greetings with the three pretty girls he was with. New York, I tell you, is a very friendly place :-).

I walked the streets for around 2 hours before Jose came over. Let me tell you a little about Jose. JJ (we call him all sorts of names, from jj, to j, to hosay– as in San Jose, to mean ones based on the color of the skin) was with me at Evalueserve (somehow, EVS has this knack of attracting some very bright people to its ranks ;-)). He holds the highest ethical standards, is exceptionally brilliant, has one sense of humor (try beating him at words), and a guy you would definitely want to have as a friend – with you in thick and thin. He spent hours on the phone from NY (and he was the one who called) to help me prepare for interviews while at ISB, besides ofcourse reviewing my resume – so now you know how I managed to land Trilogy.

Anyways, we walked the streets of NY, looking for a place to have lunch. Walked quite a bit! Finally settled on some Indian place, and had some chicken roll or something. Soon Varma and Bodha joined us. Varma was my junior at IITK (same wing, same dept), as well as at EVS. Another very bright guy – very simple, and so full of life – NY trip wouldn’t have been the same without him. Bodha I had met on my trip to IIMA while at ISB. First thing that I did was to get onto Varma’s coat – not because I wanted anything warmer, but because it looked really sleek. You should check out the pictures :-)

I dropped my bag at Varma’s place. Now Varma’s apartment is really cool. It reminded me of Abhishek Bachchan’s apartment in Bluff Master. On the 26th floor of a building overlooking the Hudson, the view is beautiful – you can see the Statue of Liberty from his window, as also the Jersey skyline – which is pretty by any standards. I am sure he pays a fortune to stay in such a place.

After spending hours figuring out where we must go for dinner, we decided on a place in Jersey. Picked up Shweta (jj’s wife), and Vinay (w/ wife) on the way.
We took a train to get to the place. Nothing in the US seems to be manned. The ticket vending machine was automatic – you need to swipe your credit card, and get your tickets. And trains seem to run for 24 hrs, at regular intervals. And they are spotlessly clean! Went to a Malaysian restaurant. It was the first time I was having Malaysian food. It is quite similar to Indian food, just as spicy. We had some strange dish – but it was good; must mention the litchi juice kindda thing (it called itself lichi as well – yes, hindi waala lichi), which had actual lichis!!

After dinner, we went over to the apartment where lots of Indian junta from Lehman stays. We decided to play Poker. This is one of the two games, that I’ve heard of a lot, but never really played (the other being Bridge). First 10 minutes, Jose, Vinay and I were taught the rules of the game. Poker is a very interesting game. It is gambling, just as in flush/teen patti, but a little shorter. Poker involves each player holding a couple of personal cards, and five community cards, i.e., five cards are open for everyone to see, and form part of her/his hand. After getting the hand cards, people get turns to bid. Each person can either raise the bid or stay equal to the current bid. A player can raise the bid only once in a round. So there is no random rising of stakes to keep ‘low-risk players’ out. Once everyone agrees on a bid (put the money where the mouth is), three cards are open… etc. hey this is not a blog on poker. Anyways, there are two versions of the game – Texas and Omaha. We played both. Initially Bodha made a killing – had Vinay bankrupt within the first couple of games. And you should see the way he would get deep into music after raising stakes – would freak out a normal person!! Poker went on till the wee hours in the morning. All the while, we had soothing Hindi music playing the background. Bodha has this really cool Bose system at his place. Imagine, listening to hindi music, thousands of miles away from home – I din’t mind.

Dozed off at around 4 in the morning.