Blues Celebration

This has been a really hectic week, work and personal-life wise. We had friends visiting from California for the long Memorial-Day weekend, a cousin and his daughter visit to enroll her in Columbia for the summer (she’s going to stay with us) and a lot of other social engagements. We’re still recovering from all this.

PS116 Variety Show Rehearsal
A few weeks ago, the mother of a young Chinese-American girl who catches the bus to PS 116 with Dhruv told us about an upcoming variety program at their school. Any student could sign up and perform a small act of two minutes or less. Since Dhruv was preparing for Michael's concert anyway, we decided to enroll him in this variety program too. Rehearsals were scheduled for Tuesday evening, and Dhruv and I walked over to the school at around 5:30 in the evening. We climbed up the stairs to the top floor, to find the hall full of young children and their parents. We put our names down in the sign-in sheet and waited our turn. We were number 21.

After about half an hour of waiting, it was Dhruv’s turn. We entered the music room (which had a piano) where one of the parents and her two daughters (who seemed to be in middle school) cheerfully welcomed Dhruv in. They asked him what he was going to be playing ("Ode To Joy" and "Surprise Symphony") and then he proceeded to play -- with just one small mistake. Since we had timed it at home earlier, it came to exactly two minutes, and they were delighted. Sandhya and I were quite proud that Dhruv confidently stepped up to the piano and played quite well. The actual concert is on June 3, and we have a few weeks to brush up his applying before that.

Dinner at the Narains
The rounds of farewell parties for Sonia and JV have begun. That same evening, we were invited to dinner at the Narains', in Building 10. They'd also invited another common friend of theirs, who used to be with the Indian Foreign Service (the elite diplomatic corps of India) and is now with the UN. Interestingly, his father had also been in the Air Force, many years ago. We were an interesting group -- almost all of us (Sandhya may have been the only exception) were children of senior Government / Armed Forces officers and we therefore had several shared experiences from our time in Delhi, when our parents served.

It has been a long time since I was last in such company, and it has been an interesting re-introduction to that world for me. In the Silicon Valley, one was quite far removed from this sort of thing. On the other hand, in New York, because of the proximity of the UN and because of the circles in which we have been making friends (a lot of those friends were through Sonia and JV) I'm finding lots of common connections that go back to Delhi University, shared service in government, etc. At one level, one could probably call this circle the 'ruling elite' of India with the special exception that almost everybody is in their position because of merit and not because of any special favor that they enjoyed because of where their parents were.

I can see all of these folks growing up in circumstances that were similar to the one in which I grew up -- solid middle-class values, a government income that wasn't a great by any standards but was adequate if you had modest means, the perks that come with government jobs and made it up for the meager salary, but most importantly -- a work ethic that placed a high premium on integrity, hard work, merit and advancement through one's own energy and achievement.

Returning to Ground Zero
On Wednesday afternoon, I had a meeting in the World Financial Center (which is right next to Ground Zero). The last time I was there for a meeting, was four days before 9/11. I had a meeting in the World Trade Center, at 8:45 am on a Friday (9/8). 9/11 was the next Tuesday. I still have the ID card that they prepared for me when I passed through security -- the World Trade Center was the only place that gave you a laminated photo ID card when you came in as a visitor. Going back was quite an emotional moment for me and so many years later it is still difficult to imagine the magnitude of the disaster that took place on that day.

Dinner in Midtown
Srini Vijayaraghavan was in town on Wednesday, and we had agreed to meet for dinner in the evening. Sandhya picked “Marakkesh”, a Moroccan restaurant on 53rd Street. The place was a bit difficult to find (it’s below street level) but we were welcomed by a sweet little lady into a really warm, family-run restaurant. We were served by a tall, slim bearded Muslim man in traditional garb. We studied the menu, and proceeded order appetizers and some Falafel sandwiches for Dhruv (he’s come to love them). Srini arrived, and we studied the menu again. The one thing that struck us was the absence of anything stronger than Moroccan tea.

I finally mustered the courage to ask our waiter: “You don’t serve alcohol, do you?”

He had a look of terror on his face and he visibly shrank before he replied: “Oh no!”

“Ok, thanks.”

Since we were meeting after a while, we decided that this wouldn’t do, and so we finished our appetizers (which were excellent, by the way), and then headed back to street level to find someplace else. We ended up at Mint, an Indian restaurant a few streets down.

Guests arrive
My cousin Murali and his daughter Jahnavi arrived on Wednesday night – she’s going to be staying with us for the summer, and taking classes at Columbia. Her selection of classes is really interesting – Film Appreciation, New York Architectural History and Drawing; she is also thinking of one that involves taking care of wild animals, with hands-on work at Bronx Zoo. Certainly nothing like the extra classes on Number Theory I took with my Uncle during my summer holidays.

On Thursday morning, Smitha, Poulo and their kids arrived from the Bay Area. Smitha and Sandhya went to college together, and they were among our closest friends in the Bay Area. We therefore had a house full of 6 adults and 3 children heading into the long weekend. Fortunately they all knew each other and were terribly understanding and low-maintenance, so it all went off without a hitch.

An active weekend
We had earlier made reservations for Phantom of the Opera, and so Sandhya, Smitha, Poulo and I headed out on Thursday evening, leaving the kids with Murali and Jahnavi. The show was really nice –typically Broadway, with a excellent production values and a talented cast. We did compare it to Lion King, and frankly it fell a bit short.

After the show, we caught a train down to Union square where we had some really nice Asian Fusion food at Republic. We then caught a bus over to Schillers, where we gorged ourselves on Stick Toffee Pudding and Key Lime Pie. The Lichee Martinis were great too. I have heard of New Yorkers going all over town for the perfect pie or drink -- we're becoming like that!!

They spent Friday and Saturday on a hop-on-hop-off bus tour of New York. On Saturday morning we joined them at the Museum of Natural History and then spent the rest of the morning with the kids in Central Park, while they did the uptown circuit and visited the Met. We had packed burgers, which we ate in the park, and then walked to the play area. We had hoped to catch an African-Drum concert, like in the movie “The Visitors”, but it turned out they actually play elsewhere. The kids had a blast all the same.

That evening, we had ordered food in from a broad selection of places – Kathi Rolls from Roomali for Murali, Indian Chinese from Chinese Mirch and Thai from Jaiya Thai. We had planned to take a couple of bottles of wine down to the Plaza, but the weather didn’t cooperate. Hopefully sometime soon – the setting is just excellent and we can’t wait.

On Sunday morning, we took the #6 train down to City Hall to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. It had been projected to be cloudy, which would have been perfect, but the sun came out and it actually was quite warm. The walk itself wasn’t that tiring, and the kids did pretty well walking the mile or so across.

We got across and on the other side headed straight for the famous Grimaldi’s Pizza, and found a line of around 40 people waiting outside. Sandhya and Smitha joined the line, while Poulo and I took the kids down to the Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park by the water. I did the math – if they even took 2 minutes to serve each customer, it would take 1.5 hours before we got our Pizza. I didn’t think any Pizza was worth waiting that long. Thankfully, Sandhya found out that she could call the place, order the Pizzas, and pick them up 20-25 minutes later – which was a great relief. The Pizza was deliciously tasty and after polishing it off, we walked over to the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory nearby for a wonderful Ice Cream Sundae.

Terra Blues
On Sunday evening, we had made reservations at Buddha Bar for 10:30 pm. We decided to go to our usual Bleecker / MacDougal area at around 8 pm, so that we could hang out there for a while before going to Buddha Bar. We started at Mamoon’s, and then headed over to Terra Blues. A wan youth greeted us on the Sidewalk. He didn’t realize that we were headed there anyway, so offered to let us listen for a few minutes to decide whether we wanted to come in. At first there was a solo act, which was to be followed by a Band at 10:30 (by which time we figured we would’ve left). The solo artist was a Junior Mack, a well-built African-American musician in his fifties, with his guitar. He had an excellent voice, but more importantly, a really cheerful manner, so Poulo and I decided it was worth it. There was only a $5 cover anyway. The others came in, and we got a table close to the stage.

As we settled in and ordered our drinks, we began to realize that Junior Mack was really good. His rich voice, cheerful manner, and easy style were infectious. As 10 pm approached, nobody was in a mood to leave – so Sandhya called Buddha Bar and moved our reservation by half an hour. Junior Mack wrapped up around then, and was selling CDs of his music – I couldn’t resist, and was rewarded with an autographed copy as a result.

The Band set up, tuned their instruments and began playing – Junior Mack came back on the Lead Guitar, and there was a drummer, cellist and keyboardist. By 10:30 they had played a couple of numbers, and we were just enthralled. Sandhya called to move our reservation to 11:30. Even my cousin Murali, who’s much older and quite an Indian Classical music fan was thoroughly enjoying himself. The Terra Blues experience was turning out better than anything we had done thus far in New York – Café Wha? Backfences, Zinc Bar included. At 11:00 pm we couldn’t deny the reality any longer – there was no way we could leave Terra Blues for Buddha Bar. I drew a finger across my neck to signal Sandhya that we were staying.

We finally left there a little past midnight, after having thoroughly enjoyed every minute at Terra Blues. The next morning, Junior Mack’s CD was promptly blasting out of our stereo, and we were really happy that we hadn’t left to go to Buddha Bar.

Back to Central Park Zoo
Poulo and I took the kids to Central Park Zoo on Monday morning, while the girls went shopping to Macy’s and Soho. They were feeding the Penguins as we arrived, which was an amazing experience, but the Polar Bears (there were two this time) didn’t give us the pleasure of watching them swim. We later caught the Seal feeding two, making it a twofer. We had lunch at Pongal on the way back.

Party Hopping to Buddha Bar
Another of Sonia’s friends had invited us to a farewell dinner on Monday evening, and we went – this one was in the Upper East Side. Their flat was wonderfully decorated with some really nice 19th Century Indian art. The crowd was very interesting too – and I was pleasantly surprised to meet the son of one of my father’s colleagues there – an IFS officer at the Indian Mission to the UN. I also met our hostess’ niece, who is a student at Hindu College, my alma mater. The Hindu-St. Stephen’s rivalry is still alive – in response to my question “So how’s the college these days?” she started with “It’s gotten much better than St. Stephens”!

We left a bit early to meet Poulo, Smitha, Murali and Jahnavi at Buddha Bar (we were all determined to make use of every available evening!) The place was a bit difficult to find, because it doesn’t advertise itself as Buddha Bar (something to do with the loss of their franchise license, apparently). It was huge – I mean really big – and rather empty for a Monday evening, although it was a holiday. In fact, it seemed like it was Gangbanger night – we saw at least three couples where the guy looked like a Drug lord, and the woman looked like his Moll – maybe I’ve been watching too much of The Wire on Netflix that I’m imagining Drug Lords where they may not exist.


Poulo and Smitha had a really full visit – they saw all the sights New York has to offer, including the night-life, and their kids had a good time too. The house is so quite now it’s almost depressing. We have guests scheduled to visit starting the first week of June, so it’s not going to stay like that for long!