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.

Pasta and Maths with the Rishis

Good things often come to you without notification. If you are a devotee they come frequently and always without warning. And because opposite values are complementary, they are usually preceded by some frantic bursts of crazy running around, desperate phone calls, roller coaster emotions and fervent prayers. If you like a well defined, surprise-free life (i.e. you have not done the YES+), you would probably be wondering what these lines meant. If you love your life, like crazy adventures and care for the planet (i.e. you have done the YES+) you would be right at home with the above.

Yesterday was one such day - Vishal's fateful phone call at 4 pm went "Bawa is coming to Koramangala at 7. Get 40 people" This was followed by 2.5 hours of frenetic phone calls, cajoles, threats, and other means of persuasion in different parts of bangalore. Only 20 blessed souls made it to the venue though. Then came the rishis - both Bawa and Dinesh, their glows lighting up the Indian Heritage Academy.

The mathemagic session was brilliant. One answer in particular stood out highlighting Bau's total presence of mind and depth of wisdom. Bawa was 100% teaching the topic of countable infinity and uncountable infinity. In short, an infinite number of distinct things become countable infinity. An infinite number of things where infinite other things exist between any 2 things is uncountable infinity. A question asked was that In any situation, human beings have only a countable number of choices they may make - hence countable infinity. Yet why is it said in books of wisdom that we have infinite possibilities in any situation (uncountable infinity)?

The answer was sheer genius. Look at the diag ram here. Bawa said that most people believe themselves capable of doing only a certain number of things. Hence their choices are countable, bound within a small solid circle of possibility as shown. When you get enlightened, this barrier breaks and you are capable of anything! Lke Guruji :) Hence enlightenment is the transition fom countable to uncountable infinity, and meditation is the way.

The joyous mental exercising left us pleasantly hungry, and we proceeded to Via Milano, one of Bangalore's most promising Italian eateries, for dinner. Now Via Milano is known to be a slightly elitist place, where people are so proper. When our YES+ group walked in, it was as if the place had come alive suddenly. It felt much more warm and comfortable. Carl, the restauraneur who owned the place was a gracious host and we had splendid vegetarian choices, which could have been better had they stocked whole-wheat pastas instead of maida ones. We had an assortment of yummy italian salads, tailormade to Baus impeccable tastes, with potato and mushroom soups, special mozarella fritters and 3 gobsmacking authentic thin crust veggie pizzas. This was follwed by the main course of assorted pastas, lasagnes each spiced perfectly and accompanied by flavored olive oils. The pannacotta dessert ws superb. Our verdict was that the place would be a definite go-to if they serve whole wheat pastas, which Carl has promised to do if he is called in advance. Of course we had lots of photos, lots of laughter and it was amazing to see how Bau and Dinesh bhaiya seem to be so effortless and natural wherever they are. It seems that their sorroundings blend into them rather than they blending into their sorroundings. Dinesh bhaiya cracked a couple of sardar jokes, Bau gave Carl pointers to improve his delightful cuisine, and we all retuned happy, glowing and well fed.

The icing on the cake was that Dinesh Bhaiya was so gracious, he sent a message thanking us all after the dinner. Praying to have diner with them really soon:)