10:52 p.m. Wednesday
It has been 10 days since I arrived in the US now. Of my 45 day break, 10 days have gone by so quickly. I seem to have barely started doing things here. I have been struggling to write about my experiences here, mostly because I seemed to not be able to think about what I was experiencing. The entire experience so far has been so overwhelming that the more I delay the more impossible it is going to be for me writing about the US.
Today, somehow I think I shall be able to put my thoughts together and finally talk about the US of A. I have been to NY - Manhattan a few times now, been to downtown, mid town, central park, Times Square, seen the Madison square garden from outside, seen the Macy's store, and been to Greenwich Village. New York is a magnet. It attracts you and never lets you go! It's a city that I firmly now believe to be "global" in spirit and in its energy. It's a vibrant place buzzing full of activity everywhere. There's not a moment of dullness in the city – and yet you can have your moments of quiet peace in one of the several parks spread across the city. The air is so clean, so fresh, so inspiring. There is a lovely country side in its neighbor – New Jersey. I am living in a place called Parsippany, about 40 miles from Newport. Between Newport and Manhattan lies the Hudson River, separating New York from New Jersey. There are 2 tunnels that run under the river built over 120 years ago – the Lincoln Tunnel and the Holland Tunnel. These tunnels allow vehicles to move from NY to NJ. Ferries also operate that transport passengers across into Manhattan.
NY City's five boroughs – the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island are linked by a series of bridges, tunnels and ferries. Manhattan is an island that's 13.4 miles long and 2.3 miles at its widest. It has avenues running north and south, streets running east and west. This excludes the northern and southern tips. Fifth Avenue divides Manhattan into east side and west side. Street addresses increase with their distance from Fifth, usually 100 per bock.
New York City has an extensive system of buses and subways that beats Mumbai any day. The difference being that the number of passengers the Mumbai locals transport in a single day will be what the subways transport in a week! Staten Island is served by Staten Island Railway. Many lines that go underground in Manhattan go above ground in Brooklyn, Queens or Bronx. Most routes operate 24 hours. There is a flat fee of $2 per single fare however long the distance may be! For the subway you need a metro card – the card can be purchased per journey cycle, or can have unlimited rides for a day/week or month. Metro Cards can also be used in a bus; otherwise you mostly need exact change for bus rides. All buses are automated and you have to put the change in the machine next to the driver as you enter the bus.
Smoking is prohibited in the taxis, buses and the subways. It is also prohibited in all indoor public places including restaurants and bars – except registered Cigar bars.
New York City and New Jersey are connected by the Path – The Port Authority of NY&NJ. The path operates only between 6 main stations. It runs through Newark, Journal square, Pavonia Newport, Hoboken (all in NJ) and WTC and Penn station (in NYC). There are different Path trains taking different routes to these destinations. When we come from Randolph going to WTC (Downtown Manhattan – Financial District) we get off at Hoboken by NJT (NJ Transit) and then take the path to WTC. Alternatively if its late and we need to get back to Hoboken, we sometimes get on the WTC-Newark line, get off at Grove Street or Journal Square and then take the path that goes from JS to Hoboken. All these distances are traveled within a max of 30 minutes and a minimum of 10 minutes. Perhaps the longest Journey would be from Newark to Penn station on 33rd street. The Path runs Monday to Friday from 6AM to 11PM and on Saturday, Sunday and Holidays 9AM to 7:30PM. (You may visit panynj.gov for more details!)
NJ TRANSIT is New Jersey's public transportation corporation – and provides bus, rail and light rail transit, linking major points in New Jersey, New York and Philadelphia.
The rail system features 11 lines in three divisions. Passengers can transfer between all lines, except Atlantic City Rail Line, at the new Secaucus Junction station. (The Raritan Valley Line requires an additional transfer at Newark Penn Station.)
The Hoboken Division (includes the Midtown direct service on the Morris & Essex and Montclair-Boonton lines to and from Penn Station New York and lines operating to and from Hoboken Terminal on the Morris & Essex, Main/Bergen, Pascack Valley and Montclair-Boonton lines). At the Hoboken Terminal, transfers can be made to PATH trains between Hoboken, Jersey City, Newark, and midtown Manhattan
The Newark Division (includes the Northeast Corridor, North Jersey Coast, and Raritan Valley lines operating to and from Newark Penn Station, Hoboken Terminal, and Penn Station New York).
The Atlantic City Rail Line (operates between the seaside resort city and Philadelphia, serving points in between).
Randolph comes under the Morris and Essex line. To go to downtown, we take the train from Dover (that's about $5 with a cab or about 30 minutes by foot) and get off at Hoboken and then take the path to WTC. To go mid town, there is a train that goes directly to Penn station on 33rd street via Secaucus Junction. (for more information visit njtransit.com)
How do I know all this? Maps, maps and more maps!! I have collected so many maps of bus routes, MTA subway maps, Path maps, NJ transit rail maps, NJ transit bus maps, and Long Island rail maps. Of course all these are relevant places where I have traveled so far. The point I'm trying to drive is – one cannot get lost in NY if you have a map! And even better – if you don't know – ASK!! People here are more than happy to help, give information, and be of assistance. Especially in Manhattan because of the grid structure it is so easy to navigate between 37th on 5th avenue to possibly the 42nd street on the 8th! All you need is a map. And if you are not carrying one with you – don't worry. There is a map on almost every street corner giving you directions.
If you have a car and don't know directions – visit maps.google.com. Enter your current destination and the destination you need to reach – it will give you the exact routes you need to take to get there. You can take a print out if you like. It's free. You can even see a satellite picture! Try this – 44 center grove road, Randolph, NJ. We live on this address in a Gateways Apartment, No – E26. Go to the above web address and type the above address. You could try taking directions to Dover, NJ. It will freak you out!! Can we ever do this in India - I don't think so, no not for the next 100 years!
Things I like and dislike about the US.
There are several, and I shall keep adding on this list as the days go by. Before I start – let me state this. "The US is all about convenience, comfort and most importantly – people have the time to enjoy that convenience/comfort" I am numbering these and points are in order of the thoughts flowing!
1. Water is always available hot or cold from the wash basin/sink/shower. It's like this mega geyser somewhere that facilitates this!
2. When you turn the cooking range on, the fire lights automatically! Its safe and one never has to use lighters/match box. One also never has a cylinder – the gas is through a pipe (like how Reliance has started in some parts of Mumbai now)
3. The air is fresh to breath, clean and crisp. There is no pollution even in the most crowded places.
4. People are polite, and there is always a lot of energy around them.
5. All houses are of wood! The floor is either fully carpeted or completely wooden. There is no dust, so if you vacuum once a week or once in 2 weeks – there is no problem.
6. All clothes are washed in Laundromats mostly. That's for most of the people unless someone actually has "bought" a washing machine for themselves. You do your own laundry – once a week is good. Everything is automated. Depending on the load, the machine tells you how much to pay. We have a card given by the laundry company that can be charged in the Laundromat for any amount. We keep swiping that card once it's charged to pay for washing and drying separately. The whole process takes about 2 hours. You need to transfer clothes into the dryer once washing is completed. When you run your clothes through a dryer – it comes out hot and dry – if you hang it in your cupboard immediately – you don't even need to iron! WOW! So what if you have to do your own laundry!!
7. There is also a dishwasher in every home. You could keep all your utensils inside the dishwasher and it takes about 30 minutes to wash and dry the utensils. I don't like the dishwasher – somehow I am not confident that it cleans the utensils as good as I could do it by hand. And so I do not use the dishwasher. Joy gets a little pissed off, since she does not like doing dishes so much and the machine was a comfortable arrangement. For now I do the dishes by hand, and I am getting better at it everyday!
8. There are no on/off switches for power supply anywhere. Once you are plugged in you're connected! I found that to be strange and have not really understood why yet! But there is absolutely NO voltage fluctuation here and that's probably why. In any case all the electronics connected have their own on and off switch. Also if you plug into a socket – you never get a spark. So it's also safe I guess. I will investigate this one some more!
9. People DEPEND on the internet here. You can almost do everything online. You can pay bills, most people shop regular stuff online. If you purchase things online, you don't have to pay taxes at all. So people are encouraged to shop online. You could rent movies, purchase Broadway show tickets, buy bus/train/air tickets, book rooms in holiday homes, do your banking (incidentally online banking has some fine things; for e.g. – you can see a copy of any cheque you wrote for someone online – a digital image is available online!), get directions, watch movies, but tickets to the US open J. Or I could go to www.raaga.com and listen to a continuous stream of my favorite Hindi music. Or I could log on to CNN and see updated video files of 3 minutes being streamed without any buffer seamlessly! Name a thing, you could do it online!
10. What is also great about internet access is that its wireless. There are public places like a Starbucks or Malls that allow people to log on for free. So one could technically sit in a coffee shop all day and work remotely! And what speeds!!! Oomph!! I can download a 50 MB file in like under 30 seconds here! At home I'm connected @48 mbps!!!!!
11. People are crazy for coffee in America. There are so many coffee stores. I went to Long Island last weekend and stayed over at a friends place. He had a coffee grinder about the size of large coke glass at McDonalds. He ground fresh coffee beans in that. Then he put the ground coffee in a coffee maker and in about 10 minutes we had fresh coffee! Awesome! I will buy one of these things on my way back! However – there is nothing to beat our south Indian filter coffee – now that I have had both!
12. Everything in America is the reverse of what I would say "normal" and this bit I dislike most. The doors open the wrong way, people drive the wrong way, walk the wrong side, switches are on and off the wrong way, petrol is in gallons, heights is in centimeters, climate is in Fahrenheit. On elevators, one has to stay on the right hand side to give place to people who want to rush down or up from the left!
13. They misuse paper like we misuse water!!! It is used everywhere for everything from blowing your nose, using it to wipe your hands, clean you know what (there is only toilet paper!!! No jets!!), clean the kitchen "ota", wipe the kitchen "ota" after all's done for the day.
14. Tipping – One has to tip for everything here where some form of human effort is involved. For e.g. if I take a ride in a cab to Dover station – I will have to pay $5 fare and $1 as tip! In a restaurant typically one tips for double the tax amount – which comes to roughly about 10-15% on the meals. So for a $65 dinner for 4, in a Mexican restaurant, we tipped almost 15 dollars on tip! That's like 600 rupees!!! You do not have to tip in fast food places or when you order "to go" (parcel).
15. Aah…how could I forget the parks!!! They are so lovely and you can find one in almost every other corner around Manhattan. There are big parks, small parks, and the huge Central park. One can sit in these parks forever. Listening to birds chirping, or just watching parents play with children or public entertainers in the Central Park. Parks are what make Manhattan ever so charming amongst the entire buzz! It's where you can break away within work hours and get right back once you are charged!
Labor Day weekend – Sat-Sun-Mon: Sep 3-4-5.
It was a holiday weekend here. I spent Saturday in a unique open air mall called Woodbury's. It is about 1.5 square miles, and houses over 400 stores with a backdrop of some lovely picturesque mountains! Saturday was for shopping and we walked more than we shopped!! Sunday – I went for morning meditation in Manhattan, met some more friends and spent the entire day with them. I went to look for my camera to one of the world's largest photography equipment stores called B&H photo studio. There I checked out Nikon and Canon digital SLR cameras and fixed on the Nikon D70 (eventually bought the Nikon D50 with 2 lenses – purchasing was done online). We had lunch at an Indian restaurant – I had a butter masala dosa for $3.75! Then we spent about 4 hours in Central Park. Later in the evening we drove by Times Square, walked around Greenwich village, ate Kathi rolls at another Indian joint, sat at the Washington Park around the NY University campus and then drove to Long Island with our friends. Monday morning, I got a $10+$1 tip - haircut by a Russian woman (its so expensive here – I just had to cut it so short!!!)
Joy and I spent Monday with her friend Almas (also from Pune – working in Houston for another Satyam client). We took the New York Sightseeing bus and sat in a roofless bus going around Manhattan. In the evening we took the Staten Island ferry to see the statue of Liberty and the Manhattan skyline from Hudson river. I have clicked plenty of pictures of this exciting weekend - I shall upload it on a website and then send the link.
The coming weekend is again very exciting and we will be in NY itself. Friday evening we will be going for a play "Shakespeare in the Park" (http://www.publictheater.org/). On Saturday we are going back to Long Island to be with friends and watch a "Frisbee tournament". I shall have my new camera tomorrow, so it shall be an exciting time for me. Sunday is the men's finals at the US open and the entire day will be spent at Flushing Meadows – again an excellent time for some photography. On Saturday evening, we may go to a pub with a couple friend of Joys (actually her boss and his wife) both are the same age as mine. We are going to the US open with Joy's office colleague gang!
Well that's all for now. I have deliberately not written much about the people and the lifestyle here. I will be writing a separate chapter on that soon. Also I shall write more on Labor Day weekend – the shopping trip and Central Park. Look out for that!
Its 1:08 a.m. now and India has woken as I go to sleep. It has been a pleasure writing this essay.
Cheers!
