Planes, Trains And Automobiles - From Bangalore To The Big Apple by Harish Parthasarathy (From the Edition of Newsletter published in February 2005)

I left Bangalore on the evening of 14th November 2004 to go to the United States after a rather hectic week. We got our air tickets and foreign exchange on the last working day before we traveled i.e. Friday, the 11th November. I made a quick trip to Chennai and was back to Bangalore on Sunday morning. This trip had its share of drama too. We (Appa and I) got stuck in a traffic jam near the Bangalore railway station and almost missed our train to Chennai. Sunday was spent at a friend's place. It was diwali for them and after a long time I actually burst firecrackers. Monday was spent in trying to fit all the things to carry in 3 small bags. I somehow managed this and the taxi arrived to take me to the airport. I lifted the biggest bag and it immediately broke spilling all the stuff that I had somehow packed into it. The next 10 minutes were spent in somehow fitting everything in a substitute bag. I had to jettison a lot of stuff as I could not risk this bag breaking too. It was the last bag that I had. I joined my colleagues at Bangalore airport and left for Bombay where we had a 4 hour wait for our next flight to Paris. The journey to Paris was comfortable and we reached Charles de Gaulle airport at 7:30 A.M local time. Once again, we had to wait for 5 hours for our next flight to New York. The Delta terminal in the airport was horrible. There were no showers or lounges available for transit passengers. The toilets were jammed with passengers. I was reminded of the Tom Hanks movie, 'The terminal' when I saw people brushing their teeth and shaving in ice cold water at the few wash basins available. All announcements were in French and I was the only one in the group who could at least pretend to understand a few words of French. Our departure gate was not on the display system and we had to rely on the announcements for some time. We got to the departure gate and verified that we were indeed at the correct place. The journey to New York was uneventful and the most shocking thing for me was getting past customs in around 30 seconds. I had been given dire warnings by friends and colleagues about how ruthless the people at the U.S customs were and how they would simply throw stuff away from your bags. I was relieved at not being hassled and we went to the next terminal for yet another 5-hour wait for our flight to Boston. We reached Boston on time on Sunday and got into the Limousine to go to Lowell, Massachusetts where we were put up initially. There was a lot of snow around as it had snowed on the Friday and Saturday before we came. We were half asleep by the time we reached the apartment and as soon as I got out of the limo, I slipped and fell. The pathway was solid ice and very slippery. Over the next 3 days each and every one of my colleagues slipped and fell at least once. We had a quick dinner at our manager's apartment that night and crashed out. We had a project kick-off lunch the next day at an Indian restaurant and the work formally began after that. The jet-lag lasted for 4 days and we were in tune after the first week-end.

The next weekend was a long week-end because of thanksgiving and so we (me and another office colleague) planned a trip to New York. There were no direct buses or trains from Lowell to New York and so we had to go to New York via Boston. We took a taxi from Lowell to Boston and went to New York on a bus service run by a Chinese agency called 'Lucky Star'. The bus dropped us at China town in New York. We then took the subway train to grand central station and reached the hotel in Manhattan.

We got a corner room on the 13 floor and had a very good view of the Manhattan Skyline from both the windows in the room. New York reminded me of Bombay and I felt at home right away. New York is a set of islands with the main one being Manhattan. This is another attribute that it shares with Bombay. The first day was spent in roaming around Manhattan. We went to Times Square and Rockefeller center. Times Square absolutely took my breath away. It is a spectacular sight in the evening with all the neon signs lit up. Rockefeller center was also very nice and we browsed through the various stores there. We also went to Saks on the fifth avenue which is a very posh designer apparel store. We hit the sack after an early dinner as the next day was going to be very busy.

We started early on the second day and after a quick breakfast; we caught the subway train to go to the south ferry station. This is the place from where the ferries to Satue of Liberty and Ellis Island leave. There were long queues at both the ticket counter and the boarding point. There were a lot of street entertainers while we were waiting to board the ferry and we thoroughly enjoyed the experience. There was this guy playing the violin and as we neared he started playing Jana Gana Mana. Out came the dollar and flew in his hat. There was another guy with a guitar who was very entertaining. He finished playing one piece and saw a lot of people frowning. He promptly said ,' I can still see a few unhappy people. We want smiling happy people. We do not want anti-social people. We have enough of those in New York already.' We got on the ferry after a very thorough security check. This was even more thorough than the ones done in various airports. The ferry was jam packed and we reached Liberty Island in 15 minutes. We could not go inside the statue as all tickets to go inside were sold out. We looked at the statue from various angles and took photographs. The view of downtown New York was also very good.We then got on the ferry and went to Ellis Island which is historic for being the entry point for all immigrants - There were these family trees and photos and display of trunks and baskets that belonged to travelers from that time. We came back from Ellis Island and went to Wall Street. We took some photographs near the famous bull and also saw the New York Stock Exchange and the American Stock Exchange. We then went to the World Ttrade Center ground zero. The enormity of 9/11 really struck me when I saw the large area where the twin towers were present. One can still see the damage done to the adjacent buildings. There was a lot of construction work going on at ground zero. We went to Brooklyn Bridge from there. Brooklyn Bridge was opened on May 24, 1883 and it was the first suspension bridge to use steel for its cable wire. We went to 34th street Penn Station from there and went to the empire state building. It seemed to be closed and we could not get any information about when it would open again. I came to know later in the evening from Mukund that there was a suicide attempt there and it had been closed to visitors for a few hours. (Incidentally I read that one of the laws in New York says that 'The penalty for jumping off a building is death'. )

We had lunch and went to Macy's which claims to be'The World's Largest Store'. We spent a couple of hours in Macy's and went back to empire state building to try our luck. This time it was open but there was a big queue. We waited for an hour in the queue and finally got the ticket.

We also saw the Sky Ride,, a virtual-reality movie on New York City and its various tourist attractions. It was like taking a helicopter tour of New York. The seats actually turned and twisted just like it would be inside a helicopter. The view from top of the empire state building was fantastic. The building has 102 floors and the main observatory is on the 86th floor. You could see New York in all directions and at one point we actually counted 30 helicopters in the air at the same time. We then went to Madison square garden which is a very famous venue for sporting events, rock concerts etc. We once again went back to Times Square and visited the various stores there. We also saw a huge toy store called 'FAO Schwarz'. The third day in New York was reserved for Central Park which is a huge park that spans across a good portion of Manhattan. The most beautiful thing in central park was the skating rink. Locations in central Park have been used in over 200 Hollywood movies including An affair to remember, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Kramer Vs. Kramer, Wall Street, Three men and a baby, You've got mail etc. Another charming thing about central park is the horse carriages with formally dressed coachmen. We returned to the hotel and checked out. We had lunch and went to Chinatown to catch the bus to Boston. We caught a train from Boston to Lowell and reached home in the night.

New York was great fun and I would definitely like to visit it again.

Harish Parthasarathy
February 2005