Sauntering through Midtown Manhattan Albertina Almeida albertina.alme...@gmail.com
Sauntering through Midtown Manhattan is quite an experience. Occasionally as you get references to the kind of places you are looking for, you know you would not have to ask anyone for the directions, because the avenues and streets are all laid out at right angles to each other. Very different of course, from the turn-right-you'll-find-a-cross, walk-a- few-metres-and-you'll-get-a-tamarind-tree,-and-then- you'll-see-this-yellow-house-with-tiles kind of direction for location. The difference is palpable upon your very landing at the airport. At any airport in India, you have trolleys galore and you can just pick up one and take your luggage out. But the John F Kennedy Airport bills you for everything, from the trolley to whatever. Something normal to witness, I am told, are shouting matches between taxi drivers and potential passengers... this is when I see one between a Black taxi driver and a White woman who wanted to hire a taxi. She expected subservience and he wasn't ready to oblige. Beneath the veneer of this much talked of free country, there is a reeking racism, much like our caste system. Predictably, there is sexism too. cold at minus 3 degrees Celsius from a warm and humid 32 degrees in Goa. It was gradually to get to even minus 7 degrees Celsius, mind you, although already supposed to have been the end of winter. But after a while, you just get used to it. One has to concede though about the feeling of safety at any time of day or night. Although a stranger, I had no difficulty walking through the streets past midnight on my own. I am not sure if I would venture to walk late at night like that in Goa, except if there was no other choice. The key to this is that there are more women and men on the street, although they are not sauntering like me and always have a brisk walking pace. Marches through the streets are a familiar feature considering the location of the United Nations in the area, and also the location of several country permanent missions to the UN. The concerns around the Ukraine crisis also spilled onto the streets. One could not also miss seeing the woman who was speaking through a funnel about how their family property was grabbed in China. One day when the cold had got to me, I decided to have a soup for lunch and ordered lentil soup, looking forward to something to relish, little knowing that it was in fact good old dal curry deliciously cooked. Talking of meals, your best bet at Manhattan are the pizzas, nothing to beat those authentic local pizzas, with artichoke, broccoli, chicken, sausage, zucchini... to suit your palate. As far as the literary domain goes, I found the New York Public Library quite exciting. Anyone can just enter with their bags and all and read and you have staff that really tries to help you much like the staff at our own Central Library in Goa. You give them the name of a book and an author and even if they don't have it, they will tell you which other public library may have it, or even suggest another book that could be on the same subject matter. The Morgan Library which is a private library has a Department of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts, which among other items, houses a manuscript which has some leaves of texts and several leaves of drawings some of which were illuminated partly at sea aboard the Portuguese vessel *Rainha*, and at Goa, between 1558 and 1565, in colored ink and watercolor. It however requires advance notice of visit by at least a month, to retrieve the document for you to refer or glance. Another interesting feature is the community volunteer service at the public libraries. You find old retired people particularly women who sit at designated spaces at the entrance and volunteer to assist you to procure any information you may need about the library. They even have guided tours of the library, though that is something t Albertina Almeidao be paid for. Conversing with one of them as to what prompted them to volunteer, she remarked it was payback time, as she herself had been much enriched by her access to the library. She asks me from where I am and when I tell her that I am from Goa, her next question is: are you happy with the consequences of Liberation of Goa? I simply say yes and no to her. Bookstores? I find my way to Barnes and Noble; there are racks of books galore and you can keep yourself occupied for all of your life in the midst of those books, BUT they are expensive. Convert the price into rupees and it is a whopping amount. But I am happy enough to have the shop staff guide me to an affordable bookstore, as I do not have that kind of time to laze around. There is a book shop called Book Off. They have both new and second hand books. You might even find something on Goa, as the range is vast, and what is also worth noting is that the prices are affordable. You can even get some books for a dollar. I got an interesting health book for the price of seven dollars, one that would have easily cost me the equivalent of twenty dollars here. And of course, laptops and electronic items are available at much cheaper rates than they are in India, although India can pride itself in having some of the finest IT professionals and the brain drain provides the US the possibility of making the advances as well as keeping the prices low. Sometimes the rates may not be able to beat the e-shoppping rates. When I ask a local shop owner as to higher rates, he is quick to point to each of his staff and say 'salary, salary, salary' and the staff promptly respond to say, "We have to be able to eat at least pizzas." The CUNY (City University of New York) Graduate Centre, a public institution, with its umpteen centres and their weekly events open to the public, is set to bring a synthesis between academics and change offers its students a great opportunity to interact with people from all over the world on emerging issues and concerns. The Centres include the Center for Music Research and Documentation, Center for Place, Culture and Politics. There have been talks on varied themes such as Curiosity, Understanding and Utility: Science and the Creative Economy, Academic Freedom, Marxism and Social Movements, and this is an ongoing activity throughout the year contributing to fostering an active intellectual climate in the city. Among the Projects of the Center for Music Research is a Foundation for Iberian Music, which besides hosting public events such as concerts, lectures and exhibitions, is also developing comprehensive archives of scores, books and recordings of both classic and popular traditions of Iberian music. Manhattan also has in its compass the Central Park which it seems was set up by the real estate as a forerunner to the development of the area. Be that as it may, undesirable as it is, but it is a history of a century ago in when it was started, but the way in which the park has been developed and areas apportioned for different interests of the burrough's residents, is something that we can draw a leaf from. There are also the retail outlets of high end branded clothes, shoes, household items, considering that mid-town Manhattan represents a mix of people of various economic strata. You find all the stores brimming with customers over the weekend. The little mobile carts (a sophisticated version of our ghaddos) with sliding aluminium windows, offer all kinds of meals for the low budget customer specially outside railway stations and at street corners. Many of them appear to be run by Asians and similarly the street side vendors seem to be Asian. But in a society that does not like probing about their ancestry, I dare not ask. The Grand Central Terminal is a railway station whose architecture and its reconciliation with present day technology and needs is worth viewing. It is barely two streets away from the New York Public Library. So are several other old buildings there such as the Post Office, the Chrysler Building, the Rockefeller Center with its General Electric Building and the Prometheus Statue, St. Patrick's Cathedral. These seem somehow to sit well with the new skyscrapers though for people like us, it may feel scary to think of anything more than seven floors. -- Albertina Almeida is a women's rights campaigner, lawyer based in Taleigao and Panjim, and long-time Goanetter. Another article on her recent visit to the US has also been published in the May 2014 issue of *Goa Today*.