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November 23 NiagaraPerhaps I forgot to type out a blog about one of the most memorable trips of my life - a visit to the Niagara Falls. Well, to be perfectly honest, before this trip I used to go, "So, What? It's just another waterfall...". Perhaps it stemmed from the frustration of having lived in New York City for over a year and still not visiting the great falls, when everyone who even passed by the east coast 'dropped' by Buffalo to see it! But, when a couple of my friends asked me join them for the trip, I more than jumped. And I realized that Niagara would never be 'just another fall'. She is THE QUEEN. We reached the falls on one rainy afternoon and were pretty diappointed by the rains, winds and cold. We couldn't gain any solace even from the spectacular light show at night or the awesome Dhaba food. All we could think of was getting back to warmth of the hotel room. It was with the same gloom that we woke up next morning and peeked outside and heaved a huge sigh of relief. A nice sunny day awaited us and after a quick coffee and Cheetos, we stepped out, hoping to the get the best of the weather. Man! The Niagara is simply breathtaking! My throat went dry when I saw the whole scene - Niagara and the Horse-Shoe! It was one of those weightless, timeless moments when you forget everything but the present. Still entranced we walked around to the Terrapin-point, at an incredibly slow pace, savoring every rapid and every scene and taking a tonne of photographs. Well, the mist completely obscured the stupendous cascade that was crashing down from the Canadian side that we really couldn't see a damn thing. We were getting completely drenched in the steady mist and we could only hear the falls. It took quite a bit of time for our eyes to adjust to the mist and actually 'see' the falls. I was spellbound for a good ten minutes and to think that this was only ten per cent of the total flow rate (the rest being tapped for power). Awesome! After cooling our heels in Terrapin Point, we decided to try the 'Maid of the Mist' ride. I was terribly excited when we actually got under the falls although a wee bit disappointed as I couldn't take any pictures. It, anyway, was a fun ride and worth the wait in the incredibly long line. Tired now after all the travel and adventure, we started back home with memories that would remain etched forever on our minds. November 12 My day out!Having seen only bits and pieces of Chinatown and having read so much about it, I decided to dedicate a trip entirely to explore it. And today being the auspicious mid-autumn festival of the Chinese, I decided was a fine day to go. The first thing that hits u Bang! in the face is the complete disparity between the worlds outside and inside Chinatown. Chinatown is a world by itself. I started walking along Mulberry street... Well, I shouldn't say walking 'along' as I was walking right in the middle of the street as the sidewalks were essentially 'sit-outs' for the restaurants....The jam-packed streets slowly give way to the relatively empty ones which are mostly gift-shops, chinese art shops, feng-shui etc.... It seems like most shops carry almost the same stuff but when you look closer, differences do surface... One particular art store caught my attention and I decided to explore it. The store had a huge collection of Chinese paintings, sculptures, pottery, incense sticks and Buddha figurines - big ones, small ones, bronze, earth, glass, jade... I even found a dancing Ganesha figurine in bronze!!! I haven't seen such a beautiful figurine even in India where you can see a Ganesha temple almost every block. The goods are real cheap..... Chinese fans seemed to be the hot sellers as they were seen everywhere....I ended up buying one for myself. ;) After a short stop in Columbus park, which appeared to be a meeting ground for the retired folks, I continued along Park Row towards Chatham Square. The place was quite in chaos, with tiny streets merging into each other and non-functional traffic lights and it was a welcome relief to arrive at the Mahayana Buddhist temple at Bowery. This was my first visit to a Buddhist temple and I was really excited upon seeing the 16ft tall, meditating golden Buddha. We were told by the preacher that this Buddha was brought in from India and the paintings that adorn the walls of this beautiful temple are from Japan. At the end of the prayer, we were asked to pick our fortune cards from the feet of the Buddha. Having not been into any temple in more than a year, this was a truly relaxing experience. As I was considering a walk towards Manhattan bridge, the name Mott street suddenly popped up in my head and as it sounded awfully familiar, I decided to take a sneak-peek at it and.......Voila! I realized my adventure wasn't over yet. Like I mentioned earlier, today is the mid-autumn festival, a festival that is celebrated in China in the same scale as Diwali in India. The sound of drums and banjos immediately drew my attention towards Mott Street. There was a festive celebration underway and I was right on time. I saw some street performances like the dragon dance, some Chinese music accompanied by a lot of excitement. Standing there, among the many children trying to draw the attention of the 'dragon', I felt myself transformed into someone many years younger. The mild drizzle, the soothing music and the agog crowd pumped a ton of energy into my system and after a quick and yummy almond-cookie ice-cream at Chinatown Icecream Factory, I departed homewards, content and happy, just like the two buddhas in my bag. July 08 The lesser-known NYC!Mention New York City and images of sky-scrapers, glitz, glamor, Times Square, 9/11, the Empire State Building, the statue of Liberty, Wall Street etc etc etc swim in your head. But, that's just the NYC the world sees! To shed some light on some very obscure and very non-NYC places in NYC, here's my blog. I had the misfortune of travelling to this place called Jamaica yesterday. The very mention of Jamaica provoked visions of beaches (Well, I saw on the map that there was no beach nearby, but I was hoping to see atleast some bubbly, energetic landscape), colors and excitement. After a series of transfers from the 2 to the A and E trains, I finally landed near Jamaica Avenue. I kinda knew where I had to go (after all the hours of intense research on Google and Yahoo maps), so I promptly stepped out, all suave and seemingly acquainted with the place and I realized in a microsecond that the place did not match my 'dream Jamaica' even remotely. It was full of dust and grime, and my first wave of disappointment was washed over by the second when I realized that the path (which I had so carefully drawn out from Yahoo! maps) wouldn't work due to some major construction work on the bridge.... So, had to walk a couple of more blocks down before I somehow arrived at Hillside avenue. Now, this avenue rekindled some completely old mental images of Khavda, Najab, Allaharakha and The Rann of Kutch! Those of you who have read the story "Love across the salt desert"by K.N. Daruwala, would get my picture right away.... For those who haven't, here's a gist: "Love across the salt desert" is a love story set in a remote village named Khavda in Gujarat, India and another just across the Indo-Pak border in Pakistan. The Thar desert separates the two villages and the images that form in your mind are of sand dunes, camels, dryness, famine...........well! in short, grim and bleak. So, why did I jump to India from Jamaica, NYC? This is why! Hillside avenue bore a stark resemblance to my mental images of Khavda. Well, I didn't see sand-dunes and camels (though I wouldn't have been so completely surprised!), but the dull, boring, hot, dusty picture I saw was so completely like the old village from the story. There were no clear-cut directions anywhere and somehow I magically landed on the street I was looking for. Now, something really strange occured. The street didn't have the building I came looking for travelling for nearly three hours! I was pissed and the desperate phone call to the company wasn't answered. Swearing big-time now, I started walking further down this completely cheerless avenue with no real destination in mind, when I literally bumped into the address, not on the street listed, but two blocks up!! There was no door-number, no name, nothing.... Would you believe this? Anyways, the only good thing out of this ordeal was that my job was done in less than ten minutes and I scooted to the nearest subway, to the peace of the Bronx.... June 24 On top of the world!To kill boredom, Xuanling and I decided to go to the 86th floor
observatory of the Empire State Building last weekend... After ensuring
that the weather was good and our cells wouldn't die in our absence, we
finally managed to escape the confines of the Bronx and reached the
ESB... Curious about the Sky-Ride, we decided to check it out first and Yo! It was simply superb! This ride is a flight-simulator and it is assumed that you are aboard a space-ship and taken on a tour of NYC. I must say it was very entertaining, especially the part when the spaceship crashes and we all go berserk on the crowded streets and finally underwater... It ended too soon though! After nearly an hour-long wait, we finally managed to reach the 86th floor... The visibilty wasn't too great but even then the view was spectacular... It took me quite a bit of time to orient myself to the place as initially every view looked similar to the earlier one. Never seen such mercurial change in conditions within a span of a few meters - in one zone the wind literally would knock you off your feet and it gets scorching on the other end..... Learnt quite a bit of titbits from this visit. First, looks like the Chrysler and the Empire State Building were built at roughly the same time and were tough contenders for the "tallest building in the world".. (We now know who finally won! I detected quite a significant bit of pride when the guy says "ESB became the tallest building in the world and the Chrysler building became...... Well! The Chrysler Building!"......) And before this visit, I thought that the Rockefeller Center was taller than ESB! (!@#@$$) Tried as I might, I couldn't see my school from there (though I could swear that I could see the nearby Bay Plaza!) and I attributed it to the fog!  And I also
found out that just because the weather forecast tells you that the sun sets at
8:29pm, it doesn't really mean that it would get dark at 8:30! We
were waiting and waiting and waiting for the sun to go down and for the
lights to turn on, but neither did it get dark at 8:30 (not even at
9:30!) nor did the lights come up till close to 9! (Some long-forgotten
memories of the excruiciatingly long and chilly wait during the New Years' eve at
Times Square popped up in my head, but I promptly stamped them down...)
Anyways, the scene that awaited us was worth every microsecond of the wait and after a couple
of walks around the place, some ESB shopping and a good Pizza, we
departed homeward around midnight..
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