Oh New York!

The first term of the MBA ended on the 16th, and I subsequently stayed at my uncle's place in the term break. The family stay left me pleasantly filled with the love in the family, Chachi's wonderful cooking and the energy that Guruji left behind when he had stayed in this house. During this time, my cousin and i took a fantastic two day trip to New York city.

New York City attracts millions from around the world over every year,

who soak in the sheer diversity of human experience that the city throbs with. I remember Dominique Lapierre's ode to the city in the Fifth Horseman where he claims this metropolis as a microcosm of humanity itself, with all its vices and virtues, with residents from every ethnicity and nationality. Visiting the city reminded me of the ashram, which is also a microcosm of humanity, but awash with divinity.

There may never be enough time to experience all the city has to offer, and yet the smallest of times spent here would leave behind awesome memories. Visitors can plan to explore the city with themes, like food, or art, or landscapes and buildings. Or they may resort to the standard tourist attractions of Times Square, Statue of Liberty, and the other magnificent buildings which are probably the world's first skyscrapers. Structures like the Rockafeller center, the Empire State building, the Chrysler building symbolize man's quest to reach for the skies, tokens of the power and egos of corporate giants of early 20th century.

While these are fun to explore, i wanted to explore the pulsating arts and theater scene in the city, and its equally exciting gastronomic gamut. Of course, we saw some of the buildings and shopped too.

New York is home to the first large TV studios and to stalwart comedians. Celebrity show hosts

like Conan'O Brien started their careers in this city. To experience the comedy scene, we visited Stand Up New York, a bar that hosts acts from mini celebrities every night, and was

recommended by our Frommer's guide. We got to see performers from Comedy central and the acts were uproarious. A word of advice, these are suited for adults because of the strong content. At least two families left midway with parents covering their 11 year olds' ears. Anyways, it

makes no sense to be taking your kids to bars at that age. For an infusion of culture and art with the family, i would recommend catching a broadway show. Actually, you should see these even if there is no family around, because Broadway shows are arguably the most lavish theater productions in the world, where the finest theater actors perform some of the most famous acts in spectacular pomp and gaiety. The only place I know of with more opulence are really really rich people's indian wedding. We saw the "Phantom of the Opera". Based on Gaston Leroux's script and Andrew Lloyd Webber's score, this show is one of the longest running in broadway history. It has been around for 13 years, and we still watched it in a packed house. The show was a delight - lush, pompous, stirring and satisfying all at the same time. We also caught an Imax show at the enormous, city block spanning American Museum of Natural History, which once housed the largest collection of natural artifacts on the planet. That was pretty neat as well.

The other theme we explored around was food. New York is a vegan's paradise. I had researched on the internet for vegan restaurants in the city and there were thousands of results. We chose Cafe Viva natural on the 87th street and broadway, a pizzeria serving the famous New York style pizzas on crusts of whole wheat, rice, corn or other whole grain crusts, having toppings of myriad veggies and sauces and specialty 'veggie' meats like seitan and soy. You can buy by the slice here, and we loved the pizzas. We also dined at the more upmarket Cafe Blossom, which has been acclaimed by many NY publications. Started by an actor couple, the vegan joint serves remarkably similar vegan alternatives for popular italian dishes, along with exquisite in-house recipes. You can even check the menus online, and we had our orders ready even before we arrived. My fettucine alfredo was perfect, and the accompanying vegan chicken fillet tasted like the real thing. My cousin's mushroom and soy burger could holds its own against any meat sandwich. New york is famous for its pizzas and for bagels, doughnut like jewish bread. My uncle, who is a NY resident took us to Eisa's bagels in lower Manhattan, and i loved the 6 grain bagel with scallion cream cheese.

We also touched upon the George Washington bridge, the brooklyn bridge, the central park, NYU, and shopped at the Times Square. In fact, shopping at NY deserves a week by itself, with its plethora of super specialty stores. NY's fifth avenue has been one of the most prominent fashion districts of the world, with mega stores like Macy's, Saks fifth ave and Barney's. Not advisable on a student budget. I loved some of the niche stores off Times Square - the M&M's store, a 3 storey shop with entire walls covered with chocolate dispensers, the Toys'r'us store

where adults and kids behave alike in awe of its merchandise, and the NBA store, one of the very few, with jerseys and memorabilia of all NBA teams. Interestingly, they had hand impressions of NBA superstars, so a fan could size up against their favorite player. Beware though, comparing

your hands against Shaq's would probably entail a moment of awed silence.

Concluding, one should also experience the lifeblood of NY - its subway trains. More than the fact that they are cheap and fast, they allow you to see the diversity that makes up the city. I must mention that the visit would have been incomplete without the awesome tour my uncle gave us in his BMW, where we covered most of lower Manhattan. So lots of fond memories, lots of great food and now, its back to another term.