When New York was sleeping, I became lonely!!!

When.... New York .....was sleeping...., I.... became.... lonely!!!!!! Nooo, I am not quoting the song(newyork nagaram urangumbodhu thanimaiadarndhadhu) ,one of Rahman's magical numbers rather I wanted to share what happened on 4th january 2009 to me.And it carries so much significance because that incident made me to think about blogging and here I am in this blogging world with my first ever post. To first understand the sequence of events in spent in NYC I woud like to go four days back to 31st dec midnight, and that was new years eve, guess Where I was, the place to be.... the once in a year event... a miraclulous occasion.... yeah you would have heard enough, yes I was at Times Square to witess the Ball Drop event to mark the new year celebration, one of the most viewed event on television, a gathering of a million people at the place.But what was like in the middle of the event is altogether a different story. I travelled a day before to Milford (CT) to my friend's house and was well prepared for that evening of the Ball Drop. One vest, one T shirt, one sweater , a wollen over coat. one woolen fleece pant and a jeans pant, a pair of gloves, a ear warmer... dont think am canvassing for a winter sale, this was what I wore and prepared myself to tackle the wild winter of NYC. There was a snow storm throughout the afternoon and when I set off from Milford with my friend it was as if I was walking on a white spun cotton cloth covered over a big park,,,, snowwwww wowww..As I moved on the road till the railway station , the cool breeze and white visuals made me sail into a Christmas fairy tale........ it felt good...it was awesome....but only for a few minutes..... then uffff... don ask me....my frozen fingers will answer with pain... but still its Experience... its History ..... to go to Times Square ball Drop is history in the making for me, as Comedian Vadivel says in his famous film, Varalaru Migavum Mukkiyam Amaichare!!!(Oh Minister!!History is damn Important..)whatta translation wowww LOL :) .Continuing my story,We reached the Grand Central station(much like our Central station in Chennai but no Autos outside), moved to the SubWay ticket vending machine...purchased the ticket... and at the entrance ,I swiped it fast and the machine said "TOO FAST"... swiped it slowly,.. the machine said "TOO SLOW"... somehow managed to swipe it at a medium pace and it said "GO".....Entered,Sat in the SubWay train and it took us to the Times Square.Then the real fun starts... I asked almost all the cops on my way "Where will they drop the ball for the New Year?" the answers.... "45th street sir....walk down further".... "47th buddy happy new year".....and each cop gave the numbers of street from 45 to 57...but none knew where exactly was it..... neither did we.... I could have carried a GPS with me so that the female voice would have guided me and at the end would have told "Destination Reached" ..hmmm....Then somehow I and my friend reached 55th street where they were allowing people inside, after a complete security check(thanks to the 9/11 attacks) they let us in to a street where we walked for few minutes to see on the top a Lighted Ball and few giant screens showing some visuals of people cheering.yes, There was the ball... thats the Toshiba Screen(I now know why Toshiba don't advertise so much, this giant screen is enough for one year's advertisement) where they screen the countdown..... and it flashed "4 hours to go... cheer up!!! By this time the chillness started to enter my gloves and shoes , my hands started to freeze.... my neck felt like it was ripped of my body... and I didnt have any strength to click the shutter of the camera to take the few snaps.. and the gloves didnt help the cause either... anyway, somehow managed few snaps...mostly dark ones with colored lights of the ball and screens.... one hour passed... two hours passed..three hours passed... all people old and young with so much energy were standing there... but i was totally enervated and exhausted... Like a frozen statue I stood ... my jaws didnt move and I spoke in a language alien to me....... it felt like -21.celcius!!!!! I later found out. The last one hour were the longest of my lifetime.... I was just praying for the clock to strike midnight........ And my prayers were answered not before my legs had cramped and nose running........ The Clintons were the special guests at the Time square and they along with the mayor of NYC appeared on the giant screen and pushed the ball... The ball rolled down and the countdown 60...59....58.................. 4...3...2...1..... "HAPPY NEW YEAR" appeared on the screen.... there were lot of kissing scenes all around and me and my friend looked around and felt "where do they get the energy from?" Maybe Budweiser or Corona Extra.( the two things I know ).. No no...mayb something hot not beers :)......... So somehow bid farewell to the Times Square and caught the subway and the train to Milford and reached connecticut at 3 AM...... and our friend slept off at home and didnt bring the car... So icing on the cake.... after an eventful night.....had to walk back to the house in the snow flooded streets....... I just rememebered a book preview I read ... that was "Eat that frog"....."Eat that frog"... is a metaphor for tackling the most challenging task of your day.Once you imagine like eating a frog in the morning.... You're rest of the day becomes so easy.... not so difficult like eating a frog..... I just took my times square experience on a positive note that Once I have faced this kind of a frostbite New Year eve then the rest of the year is going to be very easy. Wow... what a analogy and philosophy..............So in the next few days I went to the liberty statue....in the same freezing condition waiting for the ferry and travelling to see a Statue that looks like it was washed when french gave it to US.... then they had water scarcity i guess :)............ Then to the Wall Street...... (Everyone cliams that the Wall street was plunging nowadays.... actually it was planar like any road ....believe me :)) .... then the brooklyn bridge..... then the WTC center.... then Madame tussads Wax museum( took a snap with almost all the models ,actors and few leaders).... then a visit to Boston..... where we went to a famous science museum.... then to Nashoba Valley Skiing near Boston....( more of falling and less of skiing infact).....On the way back to CT visited the MIT campus.....( Again History is damn important... u may not be allowed to enter the university with your acads... but nobody can stop me from a pic outside the univ).... and lastly to the Mohegun Sun casino( where my 5$ became 28$ before plummeting to 0$, nice experience though)..... So now you got the background of my NYC trip and places I visted... lets get back to the 4th jan night.......before that 4th morning I visited another friend of mine at Danbury in CT( the place was awesome.... frozen lakes.. drive thorugh the mountains) and I visited another friend in Jersey city NJ....... eventhough my friends warned warned me about the new york traffic, my GPS said it ll take 32 minutes to the airport.. So I believed it..........(32 minutes la poidlamnu nambi eri ukandhen).......... I started at around 4:00 PM for my 6:25 flight back to raleigh.....( a good 2:20 mins buffer)As we moved further the GPS showed a toll plaza... paid 8$ there and it went through a tunnel... i thoiught i would see the airport in the next end of the tunnel( Holland tunnel).... must be a quicker way... but what was lying on the other side startled me... It was a combination of our Usman Road and renganathan street traffic... people moving here and there.... stranded cars..... uff.........It was "China Town" I later found out... my car moved like a baby practising walking for the first time.. and my friend tried his level best to move through the short cuts and reach the airport in time.... yeah I reached the airport,..... no doubt.... but at 6:20 and the flight was already boarded and no more check-ins allowed...... I sttod in the queue and they gave me a 8:00PM flight to raleigh. just more one and half hours wait... wow nice people... these people are genuine and helpful... very straight forward and caring........let me tell you more later... let me reserve it to the end..... And I called up my friends to tell that I am safe and I was re-booked for the next flight and No problem what so ever because of checking-in late.........And it became 8:00PM now... the person who was to check tickets announced that there was a manitenance problem in the flight an they are looking into it....... an hour passed by and it was 9:00Pm ... lot of flight crew moving here and there and atlst they told that the flight is cancelled due to inclement weather..outside the weather was good.. and I asked her... She said at raleigh the weather is bad and the pilot feels he cant land ..I was wondering .. just an hour ago the flight i should have travelled would have landed... ( What started as a maintenence issue is now a weather issue...)..They told that the next flight is in the morning and is with another airways.. And why this goof-up... it is to avoid the night-stay fare that they need to give if they accept it as a maintenance issue or a breakdown... so blame it on the weather...... Just like batsmen trying to save a test match with just one wicket in hand calling for umpires to check the badlight ... later terming that the weather had played spoilsport).Here People are so genuine??.... no they are not.... I asked them what should I do for the night stay? check for hotels outside... cant they even arrange that.... are they helpful... Nooooooo.....Are they caring to their own passengers.... Nooooo.... So what next ..... after enquiring at the hotels that one night stay is more than 150$!!!!.... I decided.. come what may,, I will stay in the airport the whole night............... I had to move between buildings as the airways which they gave the ticket for, was having another separate terminal........ then went to the first floor of the ticketing section and asked if I could check-in and stay in the Lobby atleast..... No..... came the reply... I had to wait down in the ground floor of the terminal till morning 4:00 and then come back and do the check-in...... So I moved down to the ground floor and sat in the chair..not a soul around .... except for a security personnel patrolling outiside... Yesss you got it.... it was 11PM in the night and that was when I felt like in rahmans Song , Newyork city had slept and the loneliness creped into my mind.... I felt as if I was stranded in the rough ocean..... ofcourse airport is a protected area and safest place on earth... but the kind of secured life we have used to in apartments,. i became agoraphobic........... I called up my friends in NJ , if they could pick me up.... but they told me it would be very difficult,... I understood.... I dont want to face the china town traffic or the experince one more time.... So I just took my sweater our and made it into a bed...... took my muffler and wrapped it around the bag to make a pillow and lay down in one corner of the exit where one or two people occassioanlly checked out bringing the cool breeze into my secluded open bed room........ But I couldnt sleep..firstly the floor was cold and secondly I was alone.. Several thoughts crept through my mind and one was to document my trip to NYC.... So came the idea of blogging..... And the end result, is an otherwise bland but intentionally spiced up.... first blog of mine you read now.........