New York Times

The day starts with the same speed as it used to be in Mumbai - getting up from the bed, mouth-wash, body-wash and I am all set to start the day – with more or less the same enthusiasm as the yesterdays - winding up things and running hard to catch the last bus in the morning from my place, Secaucus, to the New York City - the bus at 9.08 am. The bus takes her route through the Meadowlands Parkway, picking the Harmon cove residents, then through the Panasonic, it has a big office on the way, and then through the NJ Turnpike route towards the New York City (NYC). These Turnpikes are similar to the motorways - the M4 and M5 in London. Back home we have similar ones and one of those is the Mumbai - Pune expressway. As we approach the Hudson River, separating the two states New Jersey and New York, a spectacular view of the Manhattan high rises makes me stare at it. The different shades of light on those extravagantly high-rises always pumps excitement in me and it feels great to get the sight of such a pleasing landscape to start the day. I keep on thinking about the Chrysler, the Empire State buildings and the bus enters a tunnel - the Lincoln tunnel. Build under the river Hudson; it takes us all the way from NJ to the NYC. Exactly when you travel half-way through it you see vertical markings on the side walls - this is the border separating the two states. It takes forty minutes from my place for the bus to arrive at the Port Authority Bus Terminal, a four storey bus terminal located at 42nd street, Times Square - right in the heart of the NYC. There are more than 400 bus terminals and it is the busiest bus terminal I have ever seen – the multi-ethnic human traffic here reminds me of the Waterloo rail station, London.





The subway from the terminal leads to the underground metro rail service also called as ‘subway’. Again it’s a long walk, getting down three floors and walking all the way through the crowded subway, not to forget the market that has evolved in the building. From the Flourist to Halmark and Radioshack(electronics store), the building encompasses a variety of shops. Alongside the subway are the musicians coming from different corners of the world, with an amicable smile, singing and playing instruments, sometimes tooled with speakers, trying to make the morning melodious and peaceful. At times the music is so soothing, believe me, that I tend to pause for a moment and listen to that melody. If you note their expressions you will see the content in their smile when they perform - they enjoy every bit of that moment – and so do I. It makes me think, “how frequent do we have the pleasure of having such a contented smile on our face?”. And how can I make a mistake by missing to take a note of our dear fellows, as are on our Mumbai local railway trains and platforms, trying to persuade the perfect strangers to bear the burden of their maintenance with that optimistic vim that makes all the difference.

The whole drama is alike the one in other metros, the cosmopolitan metros, but with a difference of volume!

The italic line is an extract from the P G Wodehouse’s Life at Blandings.