State of Miles

2 hrs 34 mins, GRU, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 0 Air Miles

That was nice. The lunch with friends but maybe I shouldn’t have pushed the time again. What if I didn’t get lucky with the traffic? The lady taxi driver did just fine though. “Voce e premiero mulher taxista” I told her in my broken Portugesh. Pleased her plenty I tell you!  Here I am staring blankly at another airport crowd.  Already missing Brazil. 45 more minutes to go before boarding. How am I going to deal with this multi continental journey?  The only book on me is Midnight’s Children and honestly I am not sure if I want to even start it. If the preface is any indicator, Rushdie is going to be about big words that make you wish there was a dictionary app in your head. Sleep. Need it. And Gatorade.

18 hrs 24 mins, JFK, New York, USA, 4760 Air Miles

Don’t remember how much I slept on the flight. Forgot to keep the watch in my pocket but I am sure it was decent.  Thank god I could just drop off my bag after customs and didn’t have to carry it around terminals till check in again.  Still good 8 hours to go.  The lounge is quite and nice. No bed though. The couch will do.  Rushdie is doing OK (I’ll say it for you..."Look at this little p@#$%...what credentials to judge Rushdie!!”). Lots of detail but I get the picture and that’s all that should count to the storyteller.

22hrs 15 mins, , JFK, New York, USA,

Oh that nap on the couch (leg up) felt good. May have come across as a ragged backpacker (or obnoxious Indian! or both!) to the few business travelers (trim and proper) who walked past but what the hell. Needed it.  Woke up dreaming about the Asian woman’s arrest I saw earlier today. Should check if Stoke did us a favour against Chelsea. That will be real cool.

25 hrs 58 mins, JFK, New York, USA

The best thing I have done this trip so far. Check into this lounge instead of going into the city and catch up with friends. I am not just talking about the cost saving but also the effort. Still have 24 more hours to go before I see a bed. The shower was fully equipped. Feel clean except my socks. Worst thing I have done on this trip so far. Forgot to pack one more clean pair of socks in my carry on luggage.  Not done. It ain’t stinking yet but I am conscious.

29 hrs 16 mins, JFK, New York, USA

What a great physical game of basketball!! Unbelievable 3^rd quarter against the Mavs by my fav team (only coz I saw them live once) San Antonio Spurs. Hope they can close out in style coz it might get really really close. Haven’t followed the playoffs this year.  Don’t even know which game this is. Got to hit nba.com once I get back home.

Found socks. Bought it. Hell now I can take my feet out during the flight without worrying too much!! Not that I smell …but 29 hours in the same pair can do it to anyone!! Better safe than sorry. 

I gave Rushdie a break. I think Midnight’s Children has to be another one of my projects like Fountainhead. Picked up Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. Couldn’t resist it when I saw it in Hudson News. I ‘discovered’ him following a link from gaurdain.co.uk. It was an article about how a weaker girls basketball team did well in some championship and the philosophy of ‘press’. David vs. Goliath kind of thing. Brilliant it was. Have in the past few months read a lot of his articles and find them extremely interesting. Love the simplicity of his writing and the ‘logicality’ of his thought process. Had to buy this. It’s holding good.

Hungry?  A little. Probably just wait for dinner once I board.  Might catch a movie as well.

31hrs 14 mins, JFK tarmac, York, USA

The rain is really coming down as the flight rolls out onto the runway. Managed a side aisle with no one next to me. English newspaper with all the football action from the weekend. Not bad huh?

31hrs 32 mins, JFK tarmac, York, USA

Perfect!! The flight’s f@#$%^g delayed due to bad weather. Do we really need to add any more minutes to this crazy trip??

41 hrs 19 mins, Mid Air (must be somewhere over Europe or closer to Middle East actually)

Don’t know when but at some point during the night my legs hurt. I think I just stood up, stretched my legs and then napped again with both my legs up. Helps that the flight is empty.

Watched Crazy Heart. Uncanny similarity to The Wrestler. One a wrestler…the other a country singer…but everything else is déjà vu! Btw the flight was delayed by ‘only’ 45 minutes. Not bad considering it was really pouring ‘cats and dogs’ in New York. As long as I and my bags can make it to the connecting flight I won’t complaint.

45 hrs 26 mins, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 11610 Air miles

Maybe an hour to go before boarding my last flight to Delhi.  If there was anymore delay at JFK probably would have missed this connection or at least my bags would not have made it. I still don’t know if it will make it. It should. Can’t afford that to happen. This time I did not see the magnificent blue dome of this airport that I saw last time. Really cool. Wish I could just step out for a bit. Never really seen Middle East. Oh if only I could step out and explore the country in between connecting flights I would have ended up seeing twice as many countries. Lost count of the number of European airports I have been to. Never stepped out.

Desktops with metal keyboards and free internet access. The keyboard feels weird but heck it works. 2 in 3 people were on Facebook.  It’s amazing how many people around the world are on Facebook. And half of them are addicted.  I updated my status too. “44 hrs on the road…and one more flight to catch to Nova Delhi…beat that CLOONEY”. Obvious reference to Up in the Air. Only difference is right now I don’t see the sultry seductress in sight!! Most are covered head to toe. One thing that was obvious, last time I was here, was the dependence of these Middle Eastern cities/ airports on immigrants.  Pretty much everybody working here (except security) is either from the Sub continent (Indian, Pakistani) or South East Asian (Pilipino, Malay). Looking forward to Delhi and some unhealthy but spicy food!! Hopefully my roomie shows up at the airport. He doesn’t have the best track record to be honest. Need to buy daru for him at duty free.

51 hrs 22 mins, New Delhi, India, 13030 Air miles

Bed.

Lunch anyone???

So we come back after an early lunch and the office is like a ghost town…not a single person in sight ...I am not kidding…not one…and its 12:50 pm on a Thursday afternoon. My hung over ‘New York’ mind is thinking “what the hell is going on?”. We find out that apparently the whole office takes lunch at sharp 12:30! Every single one …for an hour…and they all go out…no lunch boxes and no fricking 'working lunch' business. As unusual as it is to see, the culture is easy to explain. The street below has great reasonably priced restaurants, incredible food, the weather is around 30 degree centigrade (back on metric units..YAY!!) and I can’t even describe the eye candy. Got to be a fool to spend lunch hour in front of a computer. Thankfully Paulistas unlike some New Yorkers (what?? I am being honest!) don’t have the ‘I work harder than you coz I even have lunch at my desk’ attitude!!

18° Feels Like 5°!!!

One of the less documented aspects of travel is the weather! The grandeur of ancient building, the glamour of nightlife, the aroma of food and the diversity of local culture for obvious reasons take a precedence over the oh so boring weather for most travel bloggers (me included...and I know I am shamelessly giving too much respect to my silly posts by categorizing myself :)). But isn't experiencing 115◦F heat just as memorable as seeing Taj Mahal for an Alaskan?? :) Or Snow for a South East Asian.

This was beautiful!!! In this day and age of $18 IMAX experience....thankfully the best visuals still are free and not animated!

Finest, Bravest and Winning-est???

Finest, Bravest, Winning-est Yankees T-shirt

Yankees are the finest, bravest and winning-est team in baseball history said a T-shirt. I wouldn’t know coz I obviously don’t follow baseball. Not much at least. I’ll watch if you buy me beer. Maybe. But its impossible not to get sucked into the excitement of it all in NYC when Yankees are playing the Phillies (its like India vs Pakistan or Utd vs City…we are neighbors…how can we possibly get along?? :):)) for the World Series. Yes the World Series!! This one I will never get. How can you call it the World Series when it’s just American teams playing in Major League Baseball?? We should do this back home. The year Kolkata Knight Riders win IPL…we should just call them World Champions. F@#$ the Aussies :):)

Anyway we were talking about the Yankees. They won their 27th World Series and boy do New Yorkers know how to celebrate!!! It incredible. Two days after the win was the victory parade on what is called the ‘Canyon of Heroes’. Basically the stretch from Battery Park to City Hall through Broadway. Right through Financial District…in between all those offices…during a weekday!!! Wow. We need more of this stuff. I missed three subway trains on Grand Central just coz I could not get onto one!! It was 8 something in the morning and it looked like the whole of New York was heading downtown. I was the only one not wearing a Yankees jersey or a cap in my coach! When I walked out at Wall St. station the crown was overwhelming. And the parade wasn’t even gonna start till 11 AM. Crazy. I had to walk two blocks towards Battery Park before the cops let me cross Broadway.

Of course I got a little bit of work done (Yes I am implying that I did work…despite the hoopla and excitement...) but stepped out around 11. I didn’t get to see much from where I was standing but I must confess I felt part of the crowd. Victory parades are the same everywhere I guess. They don’t care if you follow the sport. Or the team. Or if you watched every pitch. It’s all about celebrating a special moment. And hope that you can do again. Next season :):)

Hola Halloween!!!

She posed for me, not once but four times! New York City Halloweeen Parade

Hola Halloween! Last time I was out on Halloween night was in Austin, Texas two years ago. Fair number of UT students in costumes and an equal number of onlookers walking up and down 6th street doing shots. There was no Halloween parade like here in NY. Or maybe there was and I probably missed it. Anyway revelry of such kind is unheard (‘unseen’ maybe the right word) of back in India. Oh…how exciting it would have been, back in college (still is!), to watch pretty ladies 'walk' out your fantasies. Nurses, Robo cops or Vampires. Whatever you are into!! :):) Or even candies from the most stuck up neighbors when you are kids. But seriously it’s incredible to see adults dress down and have such fun. Hola Halloween!

Of iPods and Homeless

New York City Subway

That would make a neat title for a ‘Freakonomics’ chapter but unfortunately I don’t have any groundbreaking logic linking the sale of iPods to partner preferences of the homeless. The link is in my head. Of images from my daily commute.

The subway system here in NYC is no different qualitatively from others that I have used previously. It does a great job of getting you around and that’s what counts. But I am not too sure I can say the same thing about New Yorkers who travel on these trains. They have got to be one of the most interesting bunch of commuters in the world!! (I am excluding the Indian train ride of course:)).

The white iPod earplug (literally and factually on every third person, depending on which coach you sit,) is as ubiquitous as the Chinese American girl with the white American guy!! The homeless (shouting for attention) put on a sincere attempt to convince fellow commuters that they have never done this before and that the money is only for the night’s supper and not drugs. The obnoxious evangelic (yes I said it!) screaming his lungs out and passing the most crude judgments about other peoples lives (big collective sigh of relief when he stepped out). The young kid who doesn’t think much of practicing his dance moves as others jostle for leg space! The sketch artist who kept looking at my shoe and drew god knows what (I didn’t move my leg for 3 stops under pressure!!). The musicians. The nerds. The Tourists. The ‘Straight Off to gym’ types. The Wall Street guys. The Asian guys with tattoos and the queer guys with bindi! The blondes:) The Latinas:) Its never a dull ride….except maybe Monday mornings!

Summer and all!! (Central Park, Strawberry Fields)

Yet another Beetles tribute: Strawberry Fields, Central Park

Thankfully the weather cleared. But by that time it had already dampened my plans for a run around the Reservoir. To be fair I was looking for an excuse.

I went out for a coffee though. And then walked to Strawberry Fields in Central Park (West 72nd street) hoping some music would salvage my day. I am not really big into any band and that includes the Beatles but live music is always uplifting. Especially if you get to hear the odd song that you know :). Make it a point to pass by Strawberry Fields (SF) every time I go to Central park (for those of you who don’t know, it’s the part of the park that is dedicated to John Lennon).

The first time I went to “SF” was two years ago when I was visiting NYC. Somebody recommended it and I am glad he did. I was blown away by the city on that visit and needless to say the couple of hours in Central park were the highlight of my stay. It was a long weekend (probably the 4th of July one). The city was buzzing with tourist (like me) and sailors. Central Park was on that surreal day an eclectic mix of people, music and relaxation. For people from tropical cultures like me, the romanticization of summers by western writers / journalist was always hard to grasp growing up. But that day I knew exactly why. I guess the winters are so hard (I am yet to spend my first one in NYC..not looking forward to it :)) that when summer comes there is no reason to stay indoors and not celebrate. Besides it not as hot as Southern India or the Middle East :).

Anyway I was talking about SF. The same bunch of guys play Beetles music every weekend (probably even weekdays but I have never been on a weekday to be sure). I recognized couple of faces from my visit two years back (The Filipino looking guy in the NYC cap…same fricking cap too!!). It’s incredible. Their passion for music and for one band!! I know Beetles are not just another band especially for folks who grew up in that era but to show up in a park every weekend and play the same songs to passersby crowds, who immortalize you in their memories (if at all) and nothing else, requires a special kind of passion. The fact that none of them look like they stay at Trump Plaza makes them even more lovable. People from all around the world, a lot of who don’t know anything about SF or maybe even Beetles (yes there are places like that!!) stand together and swing their heads (some sing along) in appreciation. I didn’t get the goose bumps today I got the first time but like I said earlier it sure is uplifting. Let it be!

Summer and all!! (The Met)

Venus and Cupid – Lorenzo Lotto

I moved into this new apartment on 104th Street...a block away from Central Park....but only for a month. Newport wasn't bad but I am hoping this will be more fun during the summer. Spent some time at the Met yesterday. Its fricking hugh!! The only three galleries I managed to see (in 5 hours!!) were the Egyptian Art (including the temple of Dendur), European paintings and the 19th and early 20th century European painting. Don't know why i chose to see the paintings!! They weren't bad or anything...just that I don't exactly have any experience "appreciating" art :)

But here's what I figured out. I kind of enjoyed the paintings with detailed work and not random brush strokes. Dutch mannerisms (whatever that means...haven't wikied it yet) were the most discernible and hence more soothing to MY untrained eyes! Anyways here's a list of paintings (yeah I carried a small piece of paper around...weird I know!) I liked (and you must see!!) at the Met (in no particular order):

1. The Golden Age - Joachim Wtewael

2. The Crucifixion; The Last Judgment - Jan van Eyck (I really liked this one…its actually two different paintings in one frame…the one on the right is about Heaven, Earth and Hell..the God actually looks like some Japanese cult leader sitting in a Hindu God’s pose :) but the most stunning part is the depiction of Hell below earth..bodies mangled together overseen by the Devil…if I were a heavy metal crazy rockstar..that would be tattooed on my back :))

3. Allegory of the Catholic faith – Johannes Vermeer

4. Venus and Cupid – Lorenzo Lotto (Little Cupid peeing on Venus!!)

5. The Martyrdom of Saint Barbara - Lucas Cranach the Elder

6. The Judgment of Paris - Lucas Cranach the Elder

7. Samson captured by Philistines – Guercino (Boy this was some painting..the scale and the beauty of it was incredible…I am tempted to say this was probably the best among the ones I saw)

8. The Organ Rehearsal – Henry Lerolle (Another massive masterpiece)

9. The Weeders – Jules Breton

10. The Torment of Saint Antony (apparently earliest known painting by Michelangelo ..painted when he was only 12 or 13 years old...and the knowledge of that fact makes this thing even more impressive to look at..another one for my imaginary rock star body)

Among the other more famous ones (the ones that were recommended when I goggled the collection at The Met) I saw were:

1. Cypress – Van Gogh ..I think the trick with appreciating all these so called Impressionist is to go closer to the painting and observe the brushstrokes…its utterly chaotic (at least to an amateur like me) and then step back a few feet to see the overall painting. Anyway, don’t miss Van Gogh..something to brag about if you get stuck with one of those artsy kinds :)

2. Aristotle with a Bust Homer by Rembrandt

3. The Death of Socrates by Jacques Louis David (pronounced Daa vee dh as per the audio guide:))

Why the hell did I write all this down???