Travel || New York 02 - Layout of the city

Contrary to popular belief, New York City is NOT the capital of the state New York. Instead, its capital is Albany.

The state of New York is bordered by the US-Canadian border in the North. Popular cities in the state are Buffalo, Rochester, Syracruse, Utica, Albany (of course), Queensbury, Troy and New York City. Staten Island & Long Island are also a part of the state of New York.

Popular names that one gets to hear when one is in New York city - Long Island, Staten Island, Coney Island, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, Flushing, Long Island City, Bronx, Jersey city, Edison, etc. We'll talk about them all, one by one.

New York city is a combination of many small cities. The area of New York city which is famous for the tall buildings is Manhattan. Crossing the bridges on the lower side, there is Brooklyn. On taking a ferry from Manhattan, one reaches Staten Island. Travelling towards the Northern side, one reaches Bronx, while traveling in the East (after crossing East River), one lands up in Queens. One arrives in Jersey city once one crosses River Hudson.

All the cities in United States have an uptown (upper area of the town, higher in altitude), midtown and a downtown. The downtown area is the happening place, while uptown area is more peaceful. People staying in midtown, get to enjoy the best of both the worlds. Point to be noted - The downtown in Manhattan is different from the downtown in Brooklyn, which is further different from the downtown in Queens. Confused? Expected.

In this post, I'll be talking mostly about Manhattan coz for me that is the actual New York city! I know I'm being biased, plz bear with me for that one.

The entire New York city has areas represented by avenues and streets, i.e. if you wish to go to a place, you'll be told the street number and the avenue number, and that's how you find it. Initially, the avenues range from one to six. However, as you go up, with the variation in the land area, the number of avenues increase up to 12. When we look at the map, we observe, that the streets are horizontal, while the avenues are vertical roads.

Before I start talking about avenues, I should brief you about the streets.

Broadway: The most popular street of New York which, by the way, is like an avenue because it goes vertically up. Post 10th Street, Broadway goes on in an oblique shape and takes a turn near 204th Street. Broadway goes on till outside New York city and ends up mergining into Albany Post Road, after becoming a state highway en route. The street numbers become important if we go up in New York, primarily because numerous streets in downtown have names and in the big lot, the numbered ones get a little lost. However, 4th street is something unforgettable because near this street is the campus (open) of the famous New York University.

The avenues, midtown onwards (post Central Park), are not numbered. Instead, they are called by specific names:

6th Avenue - Lenox Avenue

9th Avenue - Columbus Avenue

10th Avenue - Amsterdam Avenue

11th Avenue - West End Avenue

If you look at the map of New York, you'll observe that both Broadway, and 4th Avenue are in an oblique shape, i.e. they are not straight. Post 14th Street, 4th Avenue becomes Park Avenue.

23rd Street onwards, two new avenues spring up adjacent to Park Avenue - Lexington Avenue, between 3rd and Park; Madison avenue, between Park and 5th. All these avenues, barring Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway, get terminated when they meet Harlem River Drive. Post 160th Street (approx), there is Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway. Post Cross Bronx Expressway, St Nicholas Avenue comes into existence, between Broadway and Amsterdam Av. (Av is commonly used for Avenue .. short form!)
This avenue business is never ending and I think I'll put a stop to this here.

Commonly heard areas in NYC are - Battery Park City, SoHo, NoHo, Tribeca, FiDi, Upper West Side, Lower East Side, Chinatown, Little Italy, East Village, Meat Packing District, Theatre District, Harlem, Morningside Heights, Washington Heights, etc. Of these areas, SoHo stands for South of Houston Street, NoHo stands for North of Houston Street, Tribeca is the name for the TRIangle BElow CAnal Street, and FiDi stands for Financial District. The other names genuinely represent areas (cities/counties) and have no short/long names.

Battery Park City, as the name suggests, houses Battery Park. If you wish to visit the Statue of Liberty or Governor's Island, Battery Park is the place you need to be.

NoHo and SoHo are near the East/West/ Greenwich Village and all these areas are popular hangouts. All these areas are a part of the downtown area. SoHo is a shopping destination and is quite expensive.

Chinatown, as the name suggests, houses a lot of people of Chinese origin along with fabulous Chinese restaurants. Little Italy has a story, similar to that of Chinatown, albeit the Italian version.

FiDi, i.e. Financial District, has the popular Wall Street and World Trade Center, along with the 9/11 Memorial.

The Meatpacking district/Chelsea area used to have lot of meatpacking factories earlier. These factories have now been closed down. But the name just stuck.

In the midst of talking about streets, avenues and areas, I forgot that I need to mention about all the tunnels and bridges.

So BMW - Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridge connect Manhattan and Brooklyn. For Liberty Island, Ellis Island and Governor's Island, a ferry needs to be taken from Battery Park City. Holland Tunnel and Lincoln Tunnel have been built below the Hudson river and are to be used if you wish to go from Manhattan to Jersey city. George Washington bridge too makes the same connection.

The roads, bridges and infrastructure of New York is endless and can't really be described. All this is something that is to be witnessed. So I guess, I'll end my post here. I hope you, my reader, got a teaser of the layout of the city.

Poetry || Dr Kumar Vishwas

I was always fond of poetry. I preferred Hindi poetry over English (though I know that many people would be surprised to hear this), because Hindi was my language and I could really feel the poetry every time. But as happens in our 'busy' life and race for success, Hindi poetry's charm faded off.

And then, suddenly one day, I heard "Koi Deewana Kehta Hai ... " by Dr Kumar Vishwas. Hearing it, I knew in an instant that my trigger for Hindi poetry will be back and my urge would be satisfied if I listen to this guy. And mind you, if I 'listen' and not just read. It is human psychology that we tend to remember those things more that we hear, in comparison to those that we read. Besides, Dr Vishwas, in my opinion, is a brilliant orator. 

Watching one of his videos on youtube, I couldn't resist but make a note of a couple of his proses:

Na paane ki khushi hai kuch, na khone ka hi kuch gham hai

Yeh daulat aur shohrat sirf kuch zakhmo ka marham hai

Ajab si kashmakash hai roz jeene, roz marne mein

Mukammal zindagi to hai, magar poori se kuch kam hai

Badalne ko to in aankhon ke manzar kam nahin badle

Tumhaari yaad ke mausam hamare gham nahin badle

Tum agle janam mein humse milogi tab to manogi

Zamane aur sadi ki is badal mein hum nahin badle

Koi khamosh hai itna, bahane bhool aaya hoon

Kisi ki ek tarannum mein taraane bhool aaya hoon

Meri ab raah mat takna kabhi ae aasmaan walon

Main ek chidiya ki aankhon mein udaane bhool aaya hoon

Pukare aankh mein chadhkar to khoon ko khoon samajhta hai

Andhera Kis ko kehte hain ye bas jugnu samajhta hai

Humein to chaand taaron mein bhi tera roop dikhta hai

Mohabbat mein numayish ko adayein tu samajhta hai

During his programme, he quoted Tanveer:

Meri aankhon mein mohabbat ki chamak aaj bhi hai

Halaki usko mere pyaar pe shak aaj bhi hai

Naav mein baithkar dhoye the haath usne kabhi

Poore talab mein mehendi ki mehak aaj bhi hai

(Full poem is here)

I also agree with what he said - 

Kisi ko dekhne ke liye ek pal kaafi hai

Use pasand karne ke liye ek din kaafi hai

Use janne ke liye ek saal kaafi hai

Par us ek chehre ko bhoolne ke liye ek zindagi chhoti hai

Travel || New York 01 - The Journey (Back & Forth)

While in line to check-in to my United Airlines flight (UA 083), I came across one of their officers who requested me to 'volunteer' to take the next UA flight as their flight was full (read overbooked). Initially, I was shocked to hear something as outrageous as that, but later, my shock turned into amusement. Anyway, since I was heading to New York due to ‘urgent’ client meetings, I couldn’t reschedule my flight and ended up boarding the same UA flight that I had booked.

I was flying on the night of a Sunday and my flight was scheduled to land at Newark airport in the morning of the following Monday at 4 am. The departure of the flight, due to reasons unknown to me, got delayed by about an hour and we ended up departing around midnight.

If you are a traveler who doesn’t get sleep while flying, same pinch! The longest flight that I had had, before NY, was the direct Air India flight to London which lasted around 10 nightmarish hours, primarily because I can’t even nap when I’m flying, forget about ‘sleeping’.

So here I was in the economy class of a flight, sitting between a punjabi girl, who had a US Green Card, and some guy who, like me, was on an official trip. Trying to catch sleep, I decided not to turn on my ‘in-flight entertainment’ albeit I ended up watching ‘Agent Vinod’ from the guy’s screen on my left and ‘Think Like a Man’ from the girl’s screen on my right. After a while, they both fell asleep, like most of the passengers on board, and I was awake like an owl. At this point of time, I decided to let go of my decency. I kicked off my shoes (No, my shoes/feet don’t smell!), turned on my iPhone on airplane mode and plugged in my earphones to listen to Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma’s Raag Hamsadhwani (An Indian Classical piece played on a 100-stringed instrument called ‘santoor’) on repeat. After my iPhone battery gave up, I searched the goddamn in-flight entertainment for soothing instrumental music and was lucky to find some album of Anoushka Shankar. This album, as expected, was played at a subtle volume, on repeat. Result – 6 hours of sleep! (with occasional washroom breaks, of course!)

What happens when you end up getting some sleep while you are flying? No jet-lag! :D

Tip for a flyer who doesn’t get sleep like me: Please make sure you are tired before boarding the flight. And by tired, I mean both, physically & mentally exhausted. This would help you get to sleep in the flight. So what did I do? I walked like an idiot at Terminal 3, IGI Airport with (heavy) a bag full of woolen clothes & documents stuck on my shoulders while talking to all the people I could on my cell phone (Recall the death of my phone’s battery). After 2-3 hours of walking & talking, I was tired. But me being me, I still couldn’t catch sleep. Hence, the music obliged.

Feedback on UA flights: Do fly United Airlines if you get a chance. Their flight is expensive but I loved it! My flight was supposed to last around 16 hours and as I mentioned, our departure got delayed by an hour. By the time the runway got cleared, we were 1.5 hours late. However, kudos to the pilot coz the flight arrived right on time! Yes! Ask an Indian who has been a passenger with Indian Airlines and he/she will really understand the feeling of being in such a flight.

Food: Anyway, about the food, UA makes you hog. We were served dinner at midnight, which to my surprise, had some local food coz we were served fried idli along grilled chicken! J We were served breakfast before our arrival, along with tea/coffee. We were also given a packet containing a vegetarian sandwich (an aloo tikki burger), a small pack of munchies (Taka-tak), a chocolate (Dairy Milk!), a pack of cookies and a bottle of water. Alcohol is available, but you have to pay for it using your card, i.e. no cash transactions!

In-flight entertainment: Honestly, I didn’t bother. I was interested in finding some instrumental music and/or a comedy movie, and I found them both – Anoushka Shankar and The Three Stooges. I’m happy.

Journey Back

I had to board Emirates flight no EK0202 from John F Kennedy airport and my friends were kind enough to drop me there. Since I had already ‘checked in’ via Internet, I was part of a small line where I was given an actual boarding pass. The funny thing that happened with me is that I thought that 23*2 means that I am allowed to have 2 baggages, weighing 23 kilos each, i.e. I thought that each of my baggage would be weighed individually and it would be checked if they both meet the criteria. However, both my baggages were put together and the total weight was checked. Facepalm! I had increased the weight in my hand baggage for the fear of exceeding the limit in individual baggage. Thank God they didn’t weigh my hand baggage though :P

There are times when people get offended without any reason. I experienced this on my flight to Dubai. When I was trying to stuff my back-pack in the overhead bin, I found that someone’s cardigan was spread across half the over head bin. When I pushed it aside and accommodated my bag, the lady got offended (:O), and that too so much that she asked me to return her the cardigan so that she can keep it safely with her (!!). That lady sat on a seat ahead of mine and was probably unaware of the fact that I had my Louis Vuitton never full (which was full that day) and my Nine West coat perched below her seat, adjacent to my Reebok shoes. The reason why I’ve mentioned these brands here is to show that even expensive things have to be sidelined when it comes to space management & traveling, and here someone was worried about a cardigan! Huh!

With a Telegu lady (who lived in Long Island, NY) on my left and a Malayali middle-aged couple on my right, I knew that there would be no room for any conversation and I’ll have to force myself to sleep, all over again! Sigh! So what did I do to sleep? Hehe … This time I found AR Rahman’s greatest hits on the entertainment and, as expected, put it on repeat and slept. Total sleep – 7 hours, I think.

Feedback: The Emirates staff is extremely courteous (and hot, yes). The flights are well-lit. The in-flight entertainment offers a crazy variety in everything. They also give you a brochure of purchases you wish to make using money/miles.

Food: Again, quite a bit to handle. They have proper menu cards printed and offer food according to the destination for which the flight is bound, i.e. the Dubai flight would have continental food and a larger variety of non-vegetarian food than vegetarian. On the other hand, the India bound flight would have Indian dishes in their menu. Alcohol is available, and you don’t have to pay for it. (Yes, free). And luckily, the staff doesn’t have any issues with your nationality, religion or gender, while serving you alcohol.

Stopover: The stopover was in Dubai and I think Dubai International Airport is the fanciest shopping mall I’ve ever seen. I’m sorry but I have no other words to describe it. I observed one thing … All the items that were offered by Emirates (and were mentioned in their brochure) were available at the airport’s duty free shops at the same price, neither more, nor less. I’m not saying whether this is good/bad/new, I’m just saying that I observed this.

Back in Delhi, I faced a bit of melodrama. My brother-in-law, who had to pick me up from the airport, as usual, got late. In the mean time, I picked up two bottles of his requested alcohol from the duty-free shop, while gathering all my baggage & immigration papers. Incidentally, I met my high school Science teacher at the airport. She was waiting for her daughter-in-law & grandson to arrive. After meeting Mom, post lots of hugs & kisses, it was time to head back home with “Dilli ki khushboo” (Delhi’s fragrance) in my nose!

Immigration

Everyone fears immigration officers & counters. Relax! They’re just ordinary people like you and me. It is just that they are in-charge of a serious business and have to be very serious, crisp & observant about the whole thing. This gives them an aura of “no-nonsense” but that doesn’t mean that you have to be scared of them. Greet your immigration officer with a smile and try to feel and try to feel something that has been tested many times off-late, humanity! Come on; try to be genuinely sweet, for a change!

Anyway, I’ll talk only about the immigration check in US because the checks in our home countries and relatively relaxed. So my immigration officer at Newark airport asked me why was I in USA and asked me if my company had made arrangements for my stay. That’s it! He was nice & polite and contrary to popular belief of immigration officers checking/scrutinizing everything, he was concerned about my stay in his country. That is why he wanted to ensure my safety & convenience by ensuring that my company has arranged my stay. People say that things were nice coz I’m a female … May be. I’m glad someone treated me with grace, unlike my own countrymen!

Airports:

Newark – Post immigration check, the passengers need to go down to the conveyor belts to get their luggage. The green/red channels are on the left. Crossing them, straight ahead was the exit to get a taxi, for parking you need to go left and on your right is a Starbucks! I waited here for my friend to pick me up, but that is another story. Oh and in case you require a payphone, you’ll see the arrow there.

JFK – Check-in areas are crowded but the rest of the airport is empty. The security check is a sight, especially if you have Indian passengers coz there are women who refuse to take off their gold ornaments. What’s better is that Indian men also refuse to take off their gold ornaments, and are requested to get in line to be checked using the full body scanner. The departure terminal had limited eating options and ultra-expensive souvenirs.

IGI – Terminal 3 is a fancy shopping area where people sleep on the couches while covering their faces & bodies with shawls & stoles. Immigration counters on arrival are full of confusion despite all the requisite pointers. The alcohol shops are thronged upon for reasons I don’t need to mention.

Dubai – I reiterate: Dubai International Airport is the fanciest shopping mall I have ever seen. It is clean and abuzz with lights & people. Some men of my ‘race’ got surprised to see a single woman walking confidently around but I chose to ignore them, just like I ignore such looks in my own country. The wifi is free and has good connectivity!

The story about UA’s “take the next flight” request:

From what I’ve heard is that United Airlines ends up over-booking their flights on a lot of occasions. In such circumstances, they request some passengers (like me) to ‘volunteer’ to take the next flight. At times, they provide incentives like upgrading to business class, or offering compensation in cash. In case the flight is on the next day, the airline pays for the hotel for the passengers. Since I didn’t volunteer to change my flight, I don’t know if they ever offer such incentives or not! All this about ‘incentives’ is something that I have heard from people and would like to experiment some day ;-)

Travel || New York

Well, initially, I had thought that I'll write a post on my trip to New York. But, now I realize that a trip of 3 months, with all the adventure, cannot be summarized in one blog post.

Hence, I'll be writing a series of blog posts on New York. These would cover the life & spirit of New York, do's & don'ts during a hurricane (Sandy), the New York subway, trip to Niagara Falls, trip to Philadelphia and of course, it'll be an "An Indian traveler's Guide to New York" :P

I hope I'll be able to do justice to the most charismatic city I've ever seen!

Philosophy || A conversation on love

This is a conversation between two friends. Let A be the girl and B be the guy. (I'm sorry, being a mathematician, this style of writing is now embedded in my head)

PS - I always wondered how can anyone get more wisdom by just talking to someone. I always thought that wisdom comes with age or by listening to learned people. But I was pleasantly surprised to see the give & take of wisdom during a simple conversation between two friends.

A: Ek baat bata (Tell me something) ... Do you know the difference between loving someone and being in love?

B: Well .. If in both cases 'love' means love for your romantic waala (ignore the word) partner .. Then for me, there is no difference.

So basically, if I love someone, then I am in love. Same thing for me.

A: Hahaha

No being in love is like sacrifice wala love (Being in love is like you are willing to sacrifice in that love).

Loving someone is like when you care for that person of course. But no magic, no sacrifice. And if there is sacrifice, it is because of responsibility or because the relationship demands it.

When you love, you're upset that the person is hurt.

When you're in love, tumhe dard hota hai jab use chot lage (You feel the pain when he/she is hurt).

Magic, of course, can vary ... Of being in love or of being in a relationship.

Are you getting what I'm trying to say? I mean, the kind of distinction I have in my mind?

I'm not asking you to agree with me. But can you, for some time, believe what I'm saying and try to understand it?

Being in love is ... Ishq wala love! :P ('Ishq' means love but there is a stupid Bollywood song called Ishq wala love, and the same has been used here)

B: Haha

Yes, I know what you are hinting at

A: I wanted to ask you something different from what you're thinking I'm thinking :P

If you're marrying someone you're not in love with, but you love her .. Is that wrong?

B: Basicallly ... Love is love ... For someone love means sacrificing everything for the happiness of other.

A: See, in an arranged marriage, you can't fall in love in a day. And I'm ruling out love at first sight fundas. So all that can happen in an arranged marriage is that you start liking the person, which, by the way, is infatuation. It is a situation when you get sort of attracted to that person, physically or mentally. And by the time you get married, you start caring for each other. So basically, in most of the cases of arranged marriage, couples start loving each other much before they fall in love, if they ever fall in love.

B: You complete first

A: I know I'm being technical here .. But I'm trying to analyze something. And that is that you are probably right ... Dating is when you get to know the person coz if you have to marry someone for whom you have a liking, then no harm in marrying someone whom you are dating.

B: Done?

A: Haha yes.

B: Talking about love, it's like dark, darker, darkest.

Basically, if the color is black then I might say it's dark or very dark, etc. It's how I feel about love that describes it for me.

I am someone who believes that if by letting go of my lover is the best thing for her, then I will do that even though I know I will cry my whole life after taking that decision.

May be someone else in love won't let go because 'he is in love' and can't live without her.

There is no right or wrong in this. It is how you feel about the extent and dynamics of attachment with someone will define 'love' for you.

A: I agree. But, everyone's dynamics are not under our control.

B: Love is so personal.

No one else should ever disclose their dynamics.

So did you find any solution of your question?

A: No

It is just that you can't impose yourself on someone ... So unless both are ok, any relationship would lead to unhappiness.

B: Yawn! Let's continue this some other time.