New York, New York

New York city always fascinates me. It is, in my opinion, one of the world's three great cities, with London and Mumbai being the other two. All three have some open spaces in the middle of the city - Hyde Park and St Johns Park in London, Azad, Cross Maidans and Cooperage in Mumbai and of course the famous Central Park in New York. Of course, there are more things in common, and some things very very different from one another. Each time I visit NY, I walk away a bit more fascinated by the city and its people - the chaos of traffic and unruliness on the road, amidst the order of nice broad walkways, traffic lights that work, and pretty decent roads (their potholes thankfully are fewer and smaller). But NY is far safer than either London or Mumbai - certainly Mumbai. When I went to NY for the first time in the early nineties, apart from all the touristy things that I got to see, I found out about the infamous peep shows near Times Square. Of course, during the last part of Mayor Mario Cuomo's time in the '90s and later during Rudy Guliani's time as Mayor for a very long time, the city managed to rid itself largely of these adult shows right inside Midtown Manhattan. I am told some have managed to cling on, but in today's day and age, where porn is free on the web, why would anyone spend 40-50 bucks to just see some topless women gyrate or parade? Unless of course, there are those who go for 'old times sakes'. Anyway, that apart, Gotham City has over the years become much safer. There was a time when NY and mugging were synonymous, but not anymore. Of course it still happens here and there, you do see wailing ambulances, fire trucks, and police squad cars every now and then, but that is the bane of any big city. I walked up and down Upper West Side late night and felt perfectly safe.

I don't want my post to read like a NY tourist brochure, but NY's boroughs are quite unique. I have not explored many of them yet, but I have always been a great lover of the museums n Manhattan. Bronx borough has a large Indian population, but unlike their brothers and sisters across the Hudson river in New Jersey, these are largely working class crowd, from cabbies to store owners and workers to truckers to delivery boys to ….name it. The NJ Indians are of course the upper crust in comparison, with large homes in large plots, with nice jobs in IT, or working as professionals like docs and lawyers. Manhattan, between 97th and Columbus is I think the Upper West Side where I stayed, is pretty close to Harlem. Harlem (the original Dutch settlers had called it Haarlem) was a poor dinky neighbourhood which is now getting gentrified rapidly. 

Central Park is a stone's throw from where I stayed (my cousin's apartment where he has lived with his wife for well over 40 years) and our walk in that park with our old friend Ashwin was really stimulating. Joggers, walkers, strollers, walking vendors, geese, all find space in that nice wonderfully green corridor that is nearly 50 blocks long, all the way up to 59th street. A couple of years back, my friend Ratan went for a walk on Central Park and chanced upon a Beatles street band playing in the park (John Lennon lived pretty close by till his death). I believe he was squatting on a large rock, right next to a lady that seemed vaguely familiar. He probably made small talk with her at the end of the program and then walked away. A few minutes later, it dawned on him that he was sitting next to and speaking with Yoko Ono, Lennon's wife, who had also come down for a stroll and sat to listen to her husband's songs being played. This city truly provides anonymity I suppose.

Anyway, I could go on and on but let me not bore you. However I must tell you about my visit this time to a nice, large electronics store called B&H on or near the 34th, and just a few blocks from Empire State and Times Square. As I cantered up the steps of the subway past the jostling crowds and street vendors hawking umbrellas and cheap plastic imitations, I encountered a sea of humanity on a warm summer day, walking purposefully to their destinations. As I walked into B&H just a block away, I was transported to a different and weird world. Inside this humungous store that sells everything new age - 60 inch television sets to latest cameras and phones and tablets and what have you, the incongruity was stark - every one of the staff there - and there were hundreds of them - was a Hassidic Jew. Hassidic Jews, if my memory serves me right, are ultra-orthodox jews who migrated in droves from Eastern Europe to escape Hitler, and settled into their little conclaves in few parts of New York. I am told they are very insular, marry within, and don't send their children to public schools. This generation (probably third or fourth) which manned all the stations in the shop, continues to speak Yiddish amongst themselves, is extremely orthodox, speak English with a strong Eastern European

accent, wear those traditional, curly locks that drop on the sides of their ears, keep long beards, wear the yarmulke (the skull cap) and the tzitzit (a prayer shawl-shirt with knotted fringes) hanging under their green sleeveless uniformed shirt (see pic I found on the web). They are very helpful guys (yes I did not see a single female on the shop floor as helpers - they were only at the payment aisle helping the line or as security assistants) and extremely knowledgeable in their department. It was funny to see 21st century technology being sold by people who cling on to their faith exactly the same way their forefathers practiced it during Moses's time. If there is a phrase called "stuck in time", this was it!

New York - you are unique indeed.