The official guide to spending time at NYC

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It’s beginning to get cold here. Today the temp was about 1 C or so. And in the morning I woke up to see snow flakes drifting down my window. Before I could get excited about it, the sun was out and the snow flakes had beaten a hasty retreat. This last week I’ve been to NYC like 3 times, just don’t have that many pictures to show for it. On Saturday, after tossing the coin a hundred times on whether to go for New Jersey or NYC , we finally ended our geographical ambivalence and headed for good ole’ NYC. I persuaded Sanjit that we must take the ferry to see the Statue of Liberty. So we reached Battery Park (the tip of Manhattan from where you get ferries for Statue of Liberty) .Sanjit headed for the ticket counter very confidently and promptly came out with a silly grin. Turned out there was an hour long queue for the tickets and then another hr to get into the ferry. So hey, what’s so wrong with seeing the statue from a distance. !! We wandered around aimlessly at Battery Park for sometime, and then started walking towards Ground Zero (the site of the WTC towers). It isn’t too far away and the chicken-fajitas-wrap-on-the-way kept us in good spirits. At Ground Zero, we kinda saw the WTC tribute which is a visitor’s center with pictures etc of that fateful day. From there, we walked towards Brooklyn Bridge (wow man, we do walk a lot here!!) and that was a long, tedious climb but the views from the bridge are definitely worth the effort.

Ok the rest of the piece is written entirely by Sanjit:

So after tiring out our hinds, we decided to spend the afternoon catching up on a slice of Bollywood. And, on Swati’s suggestion, Dhoom 2 it was to be. The movie had just released, and there was a general euphoria of seeing a star-spangled cast in an all-out action flick. So we queued up dutiful ‘desis’ at Regal Theater, and managed to get two tickets for the 4.30 show. We couldn’t stop marveling at how easily we got Saturday evening show tickets. Something we probably never would have managed in Mumbai or Bangalore. The hall oozed swankiness, the neons glittered, and the ‘small’ popcorn and coke were each enough to fill a small bucket. We settled into our seats feeling pleased as punch.

I pause to mention here we were coming off the previous week having watched two very classy movies - Babel (similar to Crash for those who saw it), and All about My Mother by Almodovar. Anyways, Dhoom 2 started. Or it sputtered. For the first five minutes, the screen went completely blank although we could hear music, and dialogue. And we were like, ah this is like home. In just a few minutes, the desi boys including yours truly were stamping, whistling and shouting ‘abey koi hai’. We both loved this welcome rush of Indian-ness. It also brought back memories of ‘Tarapodo’ of KGP fame.

The movie itself was a total washout. I strongly suggest that the trio of Yash Raj(Producer), Sanjay Gadhvi (director), and VK Acharya(screenplay & dialogue) take a trip to Kedarnath. Maybe the cold mountain air will clear their heads, and make them see their movie for what it is really worth. Which is nothing, of course. I think its high time Indian audiences stood up and shook these impersonators out of their cozy cocoons. I mean look around - everywhere we are pressurized to perform. The poor Indian cricket team is a case in point - they lurch from one disaster to another, brickbats to boot! In the corporate world, non-performers are shown the door, often not even politely. And, our good friends who made Dhoom 2 not only get to parade their crap, but laugh all the way to the bank with it. We really need to get over the superficiality of our plots. To start with, we need basics, like a good script (sigh!), like dialogue (wish there was even a wee bit of that), scenes and plots to connect up (I mean was there any point on Bipasha’s twin, or Bipasha for that matter, the cop dancing with the thief?, or even the ending), that you cannot have songs at the drop of a hat (and not even one was any good). The sole redeeming feature was Hrithik Roshan who looked smashing and gave a very spirited performance. The rest of the cast looked quite cheesy.

Anyways, guess I made my point. Great bods and soddy stunts cannot a movie make, and the sooner our dear friends realize that, the better for them. I pray for salvation. Movies need to leave an impression on the viewer. And the overwhelming impression was that I wanted to retch by the time it got over. Thankfully, we were at Times Square so the rotten evening was quickly sublimated by some NYC nightlife.

p.s. - we know the title of the blog is a misnomer

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