I visited New York twice: first, a couple of years back, while reading E. B. White’s “Here is New York,” and second, this summer. White’s nonfiction masterpiece is a tribute to New York of the mid-20th century — a city that bestowed “the gift of loneliness and the gift of privacy,” “peculiarly constructed to absorb almost anything that comes along,” where “a young girl arrives from a small town in Mississippi to escape the indignity of being observed by neighbors” and where “a boy from Corn Belt arrives with a manuscript in his suitcase and a pain in his heart.”
Nothing much has changed in New York to what White observed seven decades back. It is still the city of the aspirants, the artists, the commuters and still “brings in a single arena the gladiator, the promoter, the actor, the trader and the merchant.” It is simple and complicated at the same time. Sometimes, it feels too grand a place to fully comprehend.
Different parts of New York offer visitors a different sort of vibe and atmosphere. The Wall Street area depicts the unpredictability and aggressiveness of the corporate world with the Charging Bull being the center of the attraction. It is a common myth among the visitors that touching the bronze balls of the Charging Bull brings good luck and fortune.
Times Square, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh avenues, is one of the busiest junctions of the world and becomes more and more vibrant as the night progresses. With all the colorful billboards and lights, the street performers, vendors and thousands of visitors occupying that compact area at the same time, it is undoubtedly one of the most visited places in New York.
Central Park made me think how the designers and urban planners imagined such a magnificent park in the heart of the greatest metropolitan in the world. I was particularly fascinated by one Erhu artist who played a melancholic tune in one of the walkways of Central Park. But my favorite place in Manhattan is Fifth Avenue. It is the most elegant and aesthetically pleasing street I have ever been to. I, along with my friends, also took a ferry to Liberty Island, visited the Statue of Liberty and walked along the iconic Brooklyn Bridge.
The home of the Yankees, Jets and Knicks is a complete city consisting of indefinite places of wonder, and also an indefinite set of things to do. It is as rich as Paris in art and as diverse as Toronto or the San Francisco Bay Area in population. It has one of the best skylines in the world. Its influential role in the entire world of fashion, commerce, art, politics, information technology, media, entertainment and even social consciousness is second to none.
There is a Little Italy, a Little India, a Little Spain, a Chinatown and many other little neighborhoods representing the concentration of many other communities all over the world. New York City has more Puerto Ricans than even San Juan. It has more Nepalis than my rural hometown back in Nepal. It is an entire world of its own, and it is rightly said that if you can make it in the city of New York, you can make it anywhere in the world.
(New York is a convoluted city to travel alone — especially for someone new to the metropolis. Special thanks to Rahul Gupta, Manoj Baniya, Gokul Dhakal and Gaurav Sitaula for their company during the travel.)
