new york new york - part 3

It was just an aimless wander. We were 2 strangers in a strange city. In some ways it was comforting to know that he was going to be gone tomorrow and that i would never see him again. I thought maybe, just maybe, this will take my mind of him.

Varun and I had things in common - music & bollywood is what we had in common. But that's about it. We discussed the subjects at length - sometimes over a cup of coffee and sometimes over a Mac burger. Apparently, AB was his fav actor while i was in the AP (amol pakelar) gang. He was into adnan sami genre of music and I thought jagjit singh ruled - and not just the gazal world ! Somehow we got talking about college and culfests and he sang a little bit of "aaina mujhse meri pehli si surat maange..." to prove me wrong. Something in his voice & something about NY made me trust him.

There was a farmers market on the way. We stopped to get some fresh cherries - yum. Walking on the 6th street for 4.4 miles in high heels - was fun. Really. Varun offered to stop so that i could give my poor legs a break but i knew if i did something like that, i would be mocked till eternity. So no, we just continued to walk. I took out my "must see NY sites or you'll have to come back" list and asked Varun to take me to each one of them. Varun smiled, and it seemed like a genuine smile. We walked for 5 minutes and there was the Rockefeller building. Another 5 and there was Chrysler. Yet another 2 minutes of walk got me to empire state building. Suddenly, NY seemed like a very small place. The city gave me sense that everything's possible - it's where people realize their american dream. From the midtown(times square) to the financial district (battery park), NY was so full of life. Our aimless wandering got us to the world trade center and the NY stock exchange by sheer dumb luck. At last, we got to the very end of NY (at least as far as I was concerned) - battery park. I could see the statue of liberty looking at me. Have you ever looked at the sun at dawn? The flurry of colors can take your breath away. There I was, standing with Varun looking at the sun and the water. Neither one of us spoke for the longest time. After a while, we looked at each other and almost together said "Beer?" The occasion called for a cold one.

We started to walk back and for whatever reason, we had slowed down considerably..were my feet hurting too much, was Varun trying to be supportive or did we just not want the day to end ? We stopped at a square where there were tons of pigeons. We both lay down on that square - my head on his lap. I tried to be very sure that it was my feet that hurt. I saw people staring at us and this was NY ! I almost hummed "do diwane sheher mei.." (didn't i tell u i was a AP fan?). In a little bit, we started our final descent to our hotel.

final part coming shortly.