9/10 at NYC

“Make sure you stay out of NYC on 9/11”
“Sure, thanks buddy, see you tomorrow”

At 6:00a.m, it was a traffic free journey to Stamford. I set the cruise control at 75mph for the first 100 miles of the trip. After missing couple of turns in downtown Stamford, I parked the car at Santhosh’s house and took the MTA train to the Grand Central Station, NYC.

Wanted to pack three veggie delights at the nearest Subway shop and searched for a Subway all around Grand Central and Time square. I did find many Subways, but they all dealt with trains only.

The semi final match between Andre Agassi and Robby Genepri was scheduled to start at 11:00a.m at Arthur Ashe Stadium, yeah, the center court. I was back again outside the Amsterdam Theater where we watched Lion King one week ago. The theater looked more affable with cargo pants and T-shirt. We took the subway train # 7 from Time square to the Shea Stadium / Willets Point Station. After a 30-minute delay in our schedule, we reached the stadium around 11:25a.m. The stadium looked huge. It was an amazing sight. We threw our backpacks at the locker near the entrance. Though we were carrying it in our hands, it is still a ‘back’pack and not allowed.

Transferring the Rotis and Alu mutter, which Prashant got from his uncle's place, to a plastic bag, we found our section, row and seats. It was a good view. We got the 10 o'clock / 4 o'clock view, if we consider the court, a face of a clock. The match began only around 12:15p.m. It was a wonderful feeling to watch Agassi in action.

There was an urgency in Agassi's game. He badly wanted to win the match. He ran the corners, dug out the drop shots and did all that he possible can to level the set score at 2-2.

During our lunch:
"Where did you guys get those rolls"
"We got them from home"
"Oh! that's not fair" the two ladies sighed and continued towards the cafeteria counter.

The dream came true, Agassi won the five setter. All the top pitched "Lets go Andre", "Come on Agassi", "Go Agassi" did not go waste. Federer vs Hewitt was a good treat to watch too.

After collecting the free US open wrist band, we found our way to the seven week old Saravana Bhavan at NYC and had Kaima Idly, Sambhar Vadai, Mysore Bonda, Channa Batura, Aapam, Badam Halwa, Coffee. We asked the American waiter, if he had tasted these items and he goes "Kaima Idly is my favourite", "but nothing can beat the Badam Halwa, not just among the desserts, Badam Halwa is the best of all" and he asked "have you been to the Saravana Bhavan at Chennai?". I totally lost track of time and it was past 10.00p.m when we came out of the restaurant.

As we were walking past the 'now' tallest building of NYC, I got reminded of what my friend told me first thing in the morning. Took the next available train from Grand Central and reached Stamford 50 minutes before 9/11/2005.

Lost and Found

“What time should we start da, to reach the theater on time?”

“The show starts at 8.00p.m, it seems, the opening sequence of Lion King is a must see”

“Dei, We are fifteen minutes behind schedule, and just one hour dhaan irukku, can we make it?”

We got on to and I hear “Who has the tickets? Did you take the printout with you?” Absolute silence followed.

Back to square one, and the tickets were not to be found anywhere in the house too.

On to once again, this time, with the tickets. We took a printout from the nearby office building of our friend TVK.

“Its Forty five to start, how many minutes of the show will we miss?”

“Can’t say, depends on how kind the Holland tunnel and the city traffic is, but we may miss fifteen minutes”

After risking at least 50 speeding violation tickets, and completing my maiden drive through the infamous NYC traffic, we reached a parking lot near the Broadway theater at 7.57p.m. I don't want to start on the merciless NYC traffic, Its like everyone are behind schedule 24/7.

We asked the parking-lot guy to show us directions to the theater. I was hoping and praying to see a button on the elevator that will take us to the theater entrance.

Unfortunately, it was 4 blocks away from the parking lot. With her high healed shoes my sister could not run for more than a block. 3 out of 5 took a cab, while I ran 4 blocks with my cousin to the entrance. Damn the formal dressing for this occasion. 8.01p.m, the lights were still on and the curtains were drawn. We took our seats at the balcony and the lights went out, the curtains rose.

It was a wonderful opening with a pleasant song, but I couldn’t understand one word of it. “Che! Ivvlo naal indha voorla irudhum onnum puriyalaye”, and my sister Ramya, corrected, “Illa da, it’s a tribal song of Lion King (dom), so its only good that we don’t understand it”

We failed to see the faces of the performers; no, I am not writing about the distance from the stage or an eyesight problem, we only saw the faces of the characters. The elephants, the giraffes all looked natural (‘natural’ = ‘animated’, in this case). So many minute details were taken care off meticulously. It took at least one hour for me, to believe that the sound track was not recorded in a studio, but was orchestrated right below the stage. They even pulled off feats like Mufasa falling off a cliff, in slow motion, Simbha and Nala getting air borne during a duet sequence. I never knew people cared so much for perfection in a stage play. It was nothing short of a magic show when they simulated water falls and even drying up of the lakes when the evil uncle (what is his name?) takes over the kingdom after Mufasa’s death.

During the 15-minute break, I realized that a balcony ticket is not the most preferred in stage performances and all along I was wondering “how did Ramya manage to get ‘balcony’ tickets at the last minute?”

I exited the show with a sense of achievement. Just when I was thinking that the $80 [I haven’t yet paid for the tickets] was worth all of it, Ramya goes “Guys, it's my treat!”

On our way back, Ramya gets back to her storybook, only to find that the original ticket printout is her bookmark!