New York

I feel guilty of not being able to blog in the past 2 years... :(.. but here I am trying to be a regular blogger.

And when I thought of blogging, I got reminded of the blog I wanted to post 2 years back after my first week in new york and it is about new york and my experiences in NY.

"Rang birangi duniya saari..
Bhaant bhaant ke log..
Milke bichhadna, bichhadke milna
Saara hai sanjog"

A colorful world with different kinds of people. Meeting and going apart is all a matter of coincidence; goes a Hindi song.
This was the first thing that came to my mind when I came out of the train at the World Trade Center station during rush hour. People of different nations/colors/races/religions going together in a mad rush towards their offices in Manhattan. I could not find such a mix even in Frankfurt airport which is one of the largest hubs for international air transport.

Step out and you see these fine huge tall buildings all around and hordes of people getting into them through small doors at the bottom. In a way it looks like a bunch a black holes(those buildings) sucking all the little asteroids(people getting into those buildings) walking around those buildings.

I am not sure if paradox is the word, but close to all these is a church. Same is the case with Wall St. We have all these financial institutions in these huge buildings and at the start of the street is Trinity Church.

The reason why people know NY or want to visit NY is to see the skyline, but the place where many new yorkers want to hang out is actually called the Village where in most of the houses/structures are not more than 3 to 4 floors tall.

The most often heard business phrase in NY is "conflict of interest". whether it be buy side/sell side. some bank selling mortgages which they themselves know are worth crap. Whether it be employees of financial firms who want to make some money for themselves or whether it be some restaurant selling food which the owner itself would find tasteless and the list goes on :P.

How do you distinguish a tourist from a new yorker going to office in the train? of course new yorkers going to office are dressed up in formals. Exception are those few programmers working for companies like mine who can dress at freedom in casuals :). Tourists have maps in hand, new yorkers have books.. ohh these days kindles/ipads. And not to miss those, who manage to wrap their hand around the pole in a busy train to hold themselves and the mirror tight, to take care of the mascara and the gloss :P

It's in NY that i see so many people in bars/pubs on Thursday/Friday evenings again dressed up in formals. I guess this is because people want to rush directly from office to pubs to gulp down those drinks to kick start the end of the week... hmm whose paying for those drinks?
Late into the night.. starts the colorful new york nightlife.

Food Food and Food... I told you earlier that new york has a huge diverse mix of people. New york also has a huge number of restaurants serving various cuisines... I am not sure if there is a cuisine in the world which a restaurant in NY is not serving. And not to forget all those fusion restaurants.

Everyone here wants to reach office early. Many reach by 8 AM. Now here is the problem. I am not a morning guy, but my office wants me to be in by 9 AM. Every morning I wake up late and feel like the Running-back with the ball in a football game, trying to touchdown in the last seconds of the game and the entire universe acting in defense, trying to stop me. If I manage to badge in by 9, my feeling is no lesser than that of the running-back who wins the game for his team.

Thank you NY for all these experiences and thanks for getting me back to blogging :)