THE US of A!!

Its been over a week now since I have arrived here. This long journey started on a pretty good note. I think it was my wisest decision to go by Jet Airways. Since it was just their third flight to the US, it was going to be a good flight. Jet is a well known name in the Indian domestic circuit so i was sure of having an aweosme flight. After we landed in Newark, I had no problems with immigration, customs, baggage etc what so ever. And then we were given a pleasant surprise by Shyamal's older brother at the airport. He gave Shyamal his new phone right away (that is helping us a lot right now to keep in touch with friends and family back home). Then Jigar(Shyamal's brother) came up with the idea of going to visit downtown Manhattan. We had almost four hours on our hands, with nothing to do. So we decided, what the heck. Who knows when we might be able to get such a golden chance again. And that turned out to be the highlight of our trip. We got to travel in the metros and the trains connecting New Jersey and New york. When we reached manhattan, the first thing we were greeted by was ground zero and the new world trade centre buildings. It was hard to believe that this was once the site where two, hundred and ten storey buildings used to stand. Then walking around we got a glimpse of the life in Manhattan. Its very much like Mumbai. But I guess not THAT crowded. Various people, from different religions, races, ethnicities were working, talking and walking together. One thing about Manhattan is that it has no small buildings. Believe me, all the buildings must be atleast sixty to seventy stories tall. After a while my neck started to pain, looking up at the tall buildings. We checked out places like Wall street and the NYSE bulding. Its humbling to actually see buildings which i had earlier seen only on television. Another thing which struck me, and which is not particular to NY only is road traffic. I mean firstly it is the left hand drive. Second is the driving sense the poeple have. I mean in India if you are crossing the road u might have to dodge a number of cars or ask the cars to stop by waving ur hand. In India, there is nothing like jay walking. Here if you are crossing the road the cars stop 500 mts away an allow you to cross. I mean I had read and heard about these things but actually seeing it was really strange (lol). And guess what. Jay walking has a fine (again lol). Newayz the whole visit to Manhattan was a rewarding experience. We had a funny experince on our connecting flight, something quite different from the Manhattan experience. Lets keep the mystery alive shall we ;).