During my
junior year at college (2003-04), FRIENDS introduced me to a woman, a woman
whom I have heard of before but did not show much interest mostly because I
thought she was out of my reach. But this time around, she fascinated me very
much. My interest in her grew with every episode I watched and it grew to an
extent that I decided to go meet her at the earliest. And the opportunity
presented to me in the form of graduate school. I planned for my Grad school in
such a way that I would be close to her if not with her and I did get into a
school which let me do just that. There were a few brief hurdles in the
process, like me getting very sick with Mumps the week before I was supposed to
leave and almost deciding to postpone the trip and then there was the thing
with my fight ticket getting to me at the very last minute (for further details
refer http://tobeastronaut.blogspot.in/2005/08/finally-in-usa.html)
and such. But after much awaiting I finally did get to meet her on Aug 18th
2005. She was as amazing and beautiful as I imagined and then some. Paulo
Coelho said “A City is like a capricious
woman: she takes time to be seduced and reveal herself completely”. She
sure did take her sweet time and even after all these years, I barely know her.
She goes by many names, The Big Apple, The City that never sleeps, Gotham, The
Melting Pot, The Empire City and the list goes on. She will always be just New
York (no offence to the State of New York) to me.
People have
asked me “what is so special about her?” or “why do you like her?” etc whenever
I tell them about a certain girl I like(d). I could never really give them an
answer and the same is the case with NYC. Why do I like it so much? I do not
know. It could be because this is where I became truly independent for the
first time or because it showed me a path towards achieving my career dream or
because it has been part of many a sweet memories or because it is where I met
a certain girl whom I thought to be the one (again) or because it has been with
me during many hardships and helped me through them or because it helped me
learn quite a few things and taught me many life lessons. There may be many such
cities just like her, but all I have to say is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PTDv_szmL0.
They say “absence makes the heart grow fonder” and trust me when I say this, my heart
is fondest for you my dear. In my ideal world I would spending today with the
one and my woman. Since life doesn’t just work like that, so here I am, longing
for THE CITY and wishing you all out there a very Happy Valentine’s Day.
