The Hindu Business Line : Slow dance in NY

It’s a warm and humid summer night in New York City and we’re on our way back from dinner at a restaurant near Madison Avenue. Our car is in a parking lot several streets away. The evening’s agenda is to spend a few hours in Times Square, enjoying the bright lights, milling crowds, the sight of people lining up for the next show at the many theatres on Broadway — in short, to absorb and be absorbed into the heady atmosphere that this part of New Y ork City offers.

All the places I have seen so far — stores, malls, restaurants, groceries, boutiques or what have you — if they aren’t holding clearance sales or shutting down altogether, are full of deals and discounts to get people shopping in the recession. Till I came across this signboard outside a pub in Broadway, the menu seeming to reflect the recession of the past year, and in good spirit: Called Comfort Food Selections, it was a prix fixe menu of $16.95 and offered, among other treats, ‘Chop Chop Credit Rating Salad’, ‘Langan’s Famous Madoff-Robbed Cobb Salad’, ‘Standard & Poor’s Shepherd’s Pie’, ‘Pasta Bailout Bolognese’ and ‘Strawberry Shortfall Sponge Cake’.

Another day in the city, I’m walking downtown and eventually find myself at Ground Zero. Typically tourist, I succumb to the temptation to take a picture of the place, filled now with cranes and other heavy equipment. My New Yorker friend retreats into the shadows, her face clouding at the bad memories, which are compounded by the fact that she used to have a close view of the twin towers from her office. Even as I suspect that she doesn’t want a part of this exploration, and press the Delete button on my camera in deference to her feelings, we are besieged by boys trying to sell us books that contain pictures of the planes crashing into the World Trade Centre and the subsequent chaos and devastation. “This isn’t all. Tourists come here and pose for pictures, waving and grinning,” informs my friend. Back in India, I mention this to someone, and they tell me they’ve seen this kind of enterprise in Velankanni too, post-tsunami.

Later that evening, we reach Madison Avenue, and come upon this scene — the building in whose shadow we are standing is reflected in the glass-fronted skyscraper across the road. Among the many memories of the city’s sights, solemn, humorous and wacky, those that stand out are the cycle rickshaws promising a tour of Central Park for $60; a pavement stall at Union Square strung with T-shirts and scarves with pictures of Hindu gods; a group of people dressed as clowns, perhaps on their way to a clown party; a man whose job it is to park himself on a busy sidewalk and ask passers-by if they want to be part of the TV audience for some reality show; and last but not least, in a rather bizarre twist to political merchandising, a woman selling Obama and McCain condoms!

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