I am in New York…for some official work…but the last three days (owing the weekend) have been completely personal. Staying at Manhattan…a 2 min walk from ground zero and wall street alike. Spend the whole of yesterday wandering…wall street, battery park, broadway, times square and the lovely central park. Central park is too big to be seen completely in one go. It is almost the size of a small city…nestled in the heart of NY. The subway system is extra ordinary…considering that it is 100 years old. My brother says…luxury is not when you can afford a car…luxury is when you can stay without needing a car!

Got a new laptop the first day I got here. A Dell XPS 16… great deal. Tomorrow…work starts…and there is loads of it. My office is in Brooklyn (BNY Mellon headquarters is One Wall Street!) so I take the subway (train) to Brooklyn and also have subway (sandwich) for lunch.

Times Square was packed with people yesterday. I have never seen so many people outside India. It was as…or even more crowded than Bombay. I met an Egyptian, Colombian, German, French, Arab, Indian, Pakistani and some others in the two hours I spent there. I am not counting the many Asians that i came across who probably were from different Asian countries…but cannot be differentiated from each other so easlily. The MNS and Shiv Sena have problems dealing with immigrants from two of India’s states….what about NY…it has not only got American’s from all over…but people from probably each country of this world…including North Korea! I think the only two people who don’t tend to migrate are Germans and Japanese. I spent a good two hours there…watching the chaning colors, as it turned dark at 4 30 pm, thanks to day light saving.

I think day light saving is the stupidest concept ever made. It must have started off as a joke…before it became the popular joke that it is today! Thanks to DLS…I sleep by 8 pm and wake up by 4 am! Yesterday, I went to the gym at 4 45 am. The guard was shocked to see me. One of these days…I will go back to central park and hire a bike to ride around. The crowd there is just lovely…all ages…all shapes…all colors…you say it…and it has it. Winter brings out the best in everyone…and with the coats and hats and gloves, people look gorgeous, all around.

Sometime I get tempted to settle here…sometimes I think otherwise..

More soon..