City of Blinding Lights

Finally, the city I had wanted to visit. The city that I have always knew from the movies and tv shows. Finally I was there, walking the streets, breathing the air, hearing the sounds and taking in the sights.

It was quite an experience. Rain on my face, snow on my shoes, smoke from the manholes and yellow taxi cabs everywhere. NYC! NYC!

I feel small in this city. Almost invisible. There are so many people packed in this city, you become just a background or backdrop for countless tourists taking pictures to commemorate their visit. Lines formed everywhere, restaurants are full and the service is to me just adequate and yet the city is on the brink of bankruptcy.

The city in the country where piracy is shun upon, strangely street peddlers sell counterfeit LVs, Prada and Chanel bags right outside the big and fancy boutiques. Yes, NYC is also a city of paradox and contradiction.

Central Park, a brilliant concept when building a city. A garden amongst the madness along it's borders. A lung for the city to breath in non congestion air within a sardine of a city.

The grid system is brilliant but not so for a city on such a tiny land mass. Driving within the city is certainly no joy. It's a city built for walking and the subway. The veins buried underneath the skin of the city ferries its inhabitants like veins in our bodies ferrying blood vessels to the vital parts of our body.

While Central Park is it's lungs, Wall Street and the whole of downtown is it's heart. The voices of people yelling out buy and sell orders and the whispers of secret deals and exchange of information from within the walls of the buildings here feed it's inhabitants with food and aspirations as well as greed. Here is where the American dream is supposedly made these days. A place of opportunity as well as contempt for its extravagance.

NYC. A city that is unique. One of a kind.