Dhammerica – Day Five

Once we are back in NJ, we set about completing the stuff we had missed out in our NY itinerary. Central Park is the next target.

We do all the usual stuff – Bethesda Fountain is the first stop (made famous by Woody Allen). Next is Strawberry Fields (made famous by the star for John of the Fab Four). And here too, there are a few hundred runners. Apparently Central Park is the running location of choice to quite a few people, regardless of sex. Incidentally when we are on our way out, we are a little at odds as to the direction we must continue in. A bunch of old men, who park there (no pun intended) everyday, take one look at us and direct us on our way. They did ask us whether we had planned to take the train or a bus. We proudly proclaimed that we intended to walk.

Our next stop is somewhere on 33rd Street and we started from somewhere on 71st. We can’t say we weren’t warned! But then as a tourist, one is not in a hurry and there is nothing like discovering a city by walking around. We make one of our numerous crossings of Broadway.

We have coffee scheduled with one of our batchmates. And it is raining. While we buy coffee and she orders Chai tea Latte (which is apparently the closest you get to masala chai in India), we do a lot of catching up in life and explore worklife in the US through the eyes of someone with a similar academic background. When rain ensues, she offers to buy us one of those $3 umbrellas to shield us from the rain. And thus we part company.

Also, along the way we ask one of the kerbside kiosks for some direction and buy some gum. The owner asks us if we are Indian. Then he sells the gum to us for 20 cents against its price of 30 cents simply because he is Bangladeshi. Actually, perhapshe also looked at the change we had and didn’t want to change a dollar, after he had quoted 25 cents!

Our next stop is the Starbucks in the lobby of our buddy’s office. While entering the said lobby, we are accosted by this huge black American. He asks us, “You Indian?!” When we answer in the affirmative, we are greeted with, “That’s great, That’s great!” We chose not to seek to discover what was great about us. A brief stopover before we walk to the Grand Central Station, where we meet a lovely lady for dinner. Of course, all this is scripted and so please don’t go around asking ladies at Grand Central Station for dinner! One of the reasons being, that our friend wanted to educate us on the architectural delight that is the GCS. One is reminded of the station in the movie – My Best Friend’s Wedding as well as some other movie we can’t recall right away.

Then we walk to 22nd Street to a restaurant called Restivo – an italian place. Nice food. Nice wine. Reasonably priced as well. Altogether memorable occasion, not in the least part due to the company of a charming lady.

Once home, we reflect on big bro’s advice about not stretching ourself a little too much a few days before the marathon. We are now walking around 6 miles on an average. One shouldn’t even be running around so much typically in the taper before a marathon.

But as our learned friend in Berkeley remarks frequently, What to Do?! We are a tourist and one must look around.