New York contd.....

A city in celebration

Despite its colossal reputation, NY reminds me of a shy teenager, who upon realizing that she is actually a person in her own right goes berserk and wild! The sky high buildings co exist with old Gothic architecture with equal elan...its many parks dot the city, its old fashioned subways - now cleaned up of their not so pretty image - run the city only as a lifeline could. I certainly got addicted to the Metro and would take rides just for the sheer fun of it!!

belief, faith, trust....

True to its cosmopolitan nature, the city is home to many cultures and cuisines. One's ears get attuned to listening in many tongues..from the accented southern American drawl to the far eastern Asian, from the rapid static German to the vastly curvaceous Spanish..and of course not to forget the variety of cuisine on offer...they are all here... stamping the place with their very own character that culminates into this exciting, inviting juxtapose called New York City!

I secretly find myself imagining how it will be to live here as a citizen and comparing it to my relatively sedate life back home..the comparison excites me - as always I get motivated into action by the sheer possibilities :))

Manhattan on a winter afternoon

I click like there is no tomorrow..forgetting to think, to plan my shots, I just click knowing that my time here is finite. Smarting as the cold winds bite into my fingers..my nose a frozen dot on my face.. Later I regret not planning some shots better - some have turned out better than I imagined but others..my hopeful ones..are too simplistic just because I didn't think of taking a step to the right or left - or basically didn't use my one and a half moment that could have made the difference!! Lessons learnt, mistakes acknowledged..I move on.

The city as I see it

Frozen in time

Talking about moving on..I am realizing that is my biggest strength or maybe my one nemesis ..depending upon the way you look at it!

I am grateful for the life that I lead - so much more fulfilled than many others.

Here's hoping this New Year -begun a little differently than others, would teach me to stay grounded and humble, bring in the love of family and friends and above all make me a better person than I am today.

New York



Visitors at Times Sqaure



A city that calls out to you… vibrant and thriving on the massive energy of its people…. designed to make the most adamant of your inhibitions disappear..even if for a little while....its little towns and Burroughs..streets and avenues are a little confusing to a first time traveler to the city but then it gets easily familiar as you feel the city inviting you in with open arms..!

 

I happen to arrive on the last day of December into this city as 2010 was ticking to a close and another New Year waiting in the wings. Like most things in my life, this was not by design. I had planned on being here a couple of days earlier to drink in the sights and get myself organized before deciding upon the most appropriate manner to spend new years’ eve in the city everyone refers to as The Big Apple and of course THE place to be on a night like this. But like most of my other best laid plans, this too had its own mind and so here I am - playing along to the whims of a higher force….

....to be contd...

Adieu 2010

Another year comes to an end - bringing closure to a year of fulfilled dreams and answered prayers. Some lost hopes as well - only to be seen as blessings in hindsight - yet leaving an empty taste of nothingness and an equally strong desire to be satiated. A year of new found passions, opportunities for new journeys both within and without...!

Here's to Life...!!!!

Tomorrow is another day, another month, another year! Wishing you all a very happy New Year 2011!!!

One Life to Love

...and I am talking about the love of food here :P

As Mark Twain said -

"Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside." 


..and that is the diktat we follow..shoving aside guilt and remorse that will always come back later to haunt us..the ever agonizing thought of having to at least hit a road if not the treadmill sometime soon...the promises we make each other to support in our cause of collective weight loss...and the inevitable show of solidarity from the others when one of the gang skips her diet plan or gives in to temptation :))

....we ponder over elaborate menus..agonize over whether the chinese place twenty kilometeres away is a better choice than the new pizzeria much closer home..amazingly we never have the need to toss a coin! Somehow our stomachs are in sync with whichever gastronomic adventure they want to salivate on that day!



Sabine-Verde

 In this instant my friend and I decided to settle for a new Pizzeria nestled in a small corner of our favorite hangout and order a half and half Pizza - a compromise reached between us for her carnivorous instincts (Sabine - spicy salami, onions, jalapenos and chilly flakes) and mine honourably vegetarian morals (Verde - Pesto sauce, pine nuts, onion and rocket)- she believes that meat..red, orange, white can never be bad for you...although she might make a concession for the blue and green variety....(!!) and I refuse to eat anything that may end up in a grave someday.

This was clearly one of the best meals we have had...as shakepeare taught us to misquote..a loaf of bread, a bottle of wine and like (gastronomically) minded friends...is all one needs....

...there was nothing left to click once we had both done justice to our respective side of the pizza...except for long sighs ..an amazing feeling of being completely satiated......and something oddly resembling a guiltpang that continued to gnaw at us despite our attempts to pretend otherwise!!

Memories

"When you come to me unbidden

Beckoning me

To long-ago rooms

Where memories lie

Offering me, as to a child, an attic

Gatherings of days too few

Baubles of stolen kisses

Trinkets of borrowed loves

Trunks of secret words,

I Cry."

Words mean different things to different people. This poem of Maya Angelou is one of my favorites - always bringing the imminent hint of long misplaced memories. Though it talks of forgotten loves and secret rendezvous, for me for some reason this poem is reminiscent of forgotten scents and fragrances :)) 

Lodi Garden on a foggy morning

- fragrance of forgotten smells from a childhood home...morning walks in the park - of couples - young and old - walking hand in hand..and early morning joggers breaking into impromptu runs, of foggy smoky winter mornings and of blowing smokes in the air as a child waiting for the school bus...

- memories of childhood games of hide and seek and lost and found..scent of secret whispers on a misty night reading Enid Blyton, Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys.. playing at secret societies with whispered passwords and girlish games of playing house...

- memories of a kitchen after a  day's baking...steam from the nth cup of tea hitting the nostrils on a winter-y pre-exam night...of late night distress calls to friends to discuss that last chapter in the syllabus that one always thought to be unimportant but of course was not anymore..

- and later more recent fragrant memories of long evenings with friends and early morning lie ins......, playing at being grown up as a confused teenager..., the first taste of wine..., the first experimental smoke...and the guilty smell of a sudden thrill that comes from finally breaking the barriers.....

I rejoice as I recall some of those sweet forgotten smells and sounds...but there are still scores of those tiny little incidents - so brazenly important at that time but now forgotten and lost ......like the words of a much loved song that was once known to heart.......