Bernard Shaw said “When I’m traveling, I hate to feel at home”. This trip to NY has certainly not felt like home. To make some frank admissions, I’m not one of those high fliers that packs a toothbrush and flies to NY when I find time hanging on my hands. This is my first ever trip to America and only my second to North America. My only prior trip to N.America was to Canada, and good old Canada while being awesome was nothing compared to the vibrancy of NY. This is maximum city. It never ever pauses.
Things that struck me really big on this trip:
1) People create and respect queues. And they’re extremely patient in the most serpentine of queues. Something we’ll never get to see in Delhi or anywhere in India. I guess this is one of those cultural issues…in India, life teaches you to be opportunistic.
2) People are polite. Perfect strangers smile / nod at you in corridors and in elevators. When I write “people” it includes women. In India women are mostly hassled by men and they’d much rather look in the other direction, than smile at strange men. Everyone I’ve seen checks for your floor and presses the right button if you’re at the other end inside the elevator. This is a sharp distinction to the normal reception I get in my office elevator in Delhi - there’s a bored elevator guy who yawns every time he sees me.
3) The infrastructure is amazing. 40 miles outside NY, well past the NJ Turnpike into the heart of New Jersey’s open roads, there are complicated flyovers and under passes that put Delhi’s most attractive roads (like the bunch of flyovers near AIIMS) to shame. In an article on the economics of infrastructure, I once read that America always over-invests. It did so in the rail road industry and in (asphalt) roads as well as undersea and last mile fibre-optic cables for the internet. The article went on to prove how it has reaped much more than it invested in all three cases. When I do post my photos, you’ll see some pics of huge refrigerated trucks that help transport perishable food stuffs to supermarket shelves from the corners of this large country and from its air and sea ports. The lack of that kind of infrastructure is what Bharti/Walmart could write long reams about…their venture has never really kicked off in India.
4) Live life every day – when I walked Wall Street today and looked in awe at the place where Benjamin Graham, Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan and their ilk plied their trade, it was a humbling feeling. When I was growing up and plunged into my CA course with a graduation gold medal under my belt, I had high hopes…the kind a colleague rather colorfully painted as “conquering the financial sector”. 8 years after finishing my CA, I’ve done nothing of the kind. Short of saying that I dislike my job (I like anything to do with complicated financial structuring), I must say that the scale somehow is grossly incongruent. I wish life gives me a chance to work here in NY for 2-3 years in life and get this city’s culture into me.
There may be many things that aren’t great about NY but its strengths greatly outweigh the negatives. In my job of structuring deals, I’ve visited other financial nerve centres like London, Zurich and Singapore (I also worked in Abu Dhabi for a year, before I threw it all up and returned to a more challenging career in India) and I’ve never felt anything even approaching this feeling of awe that I feel here. London’s range of food is decidedly better, and Zurich is immensely prettier with its lovely greenery and stately buildings, but they lack this vivacity, this zeal to life. Bono’s soaring lyrics and the Edge’s minimalistic guitar were in my head- from their song New York - through most of today’s cruise on the Hudson and the “Top of the Rock”, an observatory atop the Rockefeller center.
Warning - I’m likely to cut loose and get lyrical in my next post….which will be with pictures. This wasn't meant to be an India-bashing blog - it was in praise of NY/USA. I like India and I'd love to see us adopt some of America's strengths....we only seem to pick up the wrong things - read: junk food like McDonalds and living way beyond means which is something most Americans can be rightfully accused of.
Things that struck me really big on this trip:
1) People create and respect queues. And they’re extremely patient in the most serpentine of queues. Something we’ll never get to see in Delhi or anywhere in India. I guess this is one of those cultural issues…in India, life teaches you to be opportunistic.
2) People are polite. Perfect strangers smile / nod at you in corridors and in elevators. When I write “people” it includes women. In India women are mostly hassled by men and they’d much rather look in the other direction, than smile at strange men. Everyone I’ve seen checks for your floor and presses the right button if you’re at the other end inside the elevator. This is a sharp distinction to the normal reception I get in my office elevator in Delhi - there’s a bored elevator guy who yawns every time he sees me.
3) The infrastructure is amazing. 40 miles outside NY, well past the NJ Turnpike into the heart of New Jersey’s open roads, there are complicated flyovers and under passes that put Delhi’s most attractive roads (like the bunch of flyovers near AIIMS) to shame. In an article on the economics of infrastructure, I once read that America always over-invests. It did so in the rail road industry and in (asphalt) roads as well as undersea and last mile fibre-optic cables for the internet. The article went on to prove how it has reaped much more than it invested in all three cases. When I do post my photos, you’ll see some pics of huge refrigerated trucks that help transport perishable food stuffs to supermarket shelves from the corners of this large country and from its air and sea ports. The lack of that kind of infrastructure is what Bharti/Walmart could write long reams about…their venture has never really kicked off in India.
4) Live life every day – when I walked Wall Street today and looked in awe at the place where Benjamin Graham, Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan and their ilk plied their trade, it was a humbling feeling. When I was growing up and plunged into my CA course with a graduation gold medal under my belt, I had high hopes…the kind a colleague rather colorfully painted as “conquering the financial sector”. 8 years after finishing my CA, I’ve done nothing of the kind. Short of saying that I dislike my job (I like anything to do with complicated financial structuring), I must say that the scale somehow is grossly incongruent. I wish life gives me a chance to work here in NY for 2-3 years in life and get this city’s culture into me.
There may be many things that aren’t great about NY but its strengths greatly outweigh the negatives. In my job of structuring deals, I’ve visited other financial nerve centres like London, Zurich and Singapore (I also worked in Abu Dhabi for a year, before I threw it all up and returned to a more challenging career in India) and I’ve never felt anything even approaching this feeling of awe that I feel here. London’s range of food is decidedly better, and Zurich is immensely prettier with its lovely greenery and stately buildings, but they lack this vivacity, this zeal to life. Bono’s soaring lyrics and the Edge’s minimalistic guitar were in my head- from their song New York - through most of today’s cruise on the Hudson and the “Top of the Rock”, an observatory atop the Rockefeller center.
Warning - I’m likely to cut loose and get lyrical in my next post….which will be with pictures. This wasn't meant to be an India-bashing blog - it was in praise of NY/USA. I like India and I'd love to see us adopt some of America's strengths....we only seem to pick up the wrong things - read: junk food like McDonalds and living way beyond means which is something most Americans can be rightfully accused of.
4 comments:
The best thing about NY is its many faces. Downtown & Times Square is one thing... but i love Uptown as well.And the totally berserk Harlem. The picturesque East side with cafetarias et al. And my favirite and absolute favorite part of NY is SoHo.
hey u cant blame the indian women.. we come across like 1"genuine gentleman smile" out of the 100's that we cross probably,no exaggerating there.. am talking delhi ofcourse.
await your next post!
"..." - I gave SoHo the once-over from the bus. I'm something of a dinosaur as far as fashion goes....I just don't understand the stuff. But it was evident that that was where the big boys of fashion set up shop - Dior, Armani, YSL, Prada etc were jostling each other at every nook and cranny.
"I scribble here" - the cruise photos look terrible on the camera screen - I tried some manual settings in lowish iso because the weather was gray and rainy and it was dusk. I fear almost sepia-ish finishes. I am keeping my fingers crossed.
I second ISH....I would never acknowledge a strange man anywhere in India; women, ok.....but never ever a man. I have been wished a good morning or good day whatever in the UAE by men in elevators & been acknowledged if you're coming / going through doors etc & I do reply. But even here, I would never be the first to wish, I'd only reply if someone wished me....what can I say, Bombay teaches you to be safe than sorry :)
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