July Fourth

It was the Independence day to the United states of America and what it means is a day to get out and into the quintessential city - New York.

The Crowd in a panorama

New York always fascinates me. I've traveled across the States and have lived in a few of its greatest cities. Nothing enchants like New York does. May be, its the location, the cultural scene, the people or all of the above. But I find the city irresistible almost every time I am here.

The Mounties

So it was to see the crowds, the celebrations and what-not that I decided to visit the city. After that patriotic exercise of shopping for a while in the greatest consumer capital of the world and in the Largest store in the world (that's what the banner in the front said!), took a little rest to go the point of the festivities.

By that time, Times square was all aflutter with the news of the protest at the Statue of Liberty park -  where a lady climbed the pedestal to protest the ICE and the immigration policies. So I was expecting some tighter security all across.

And so looking for a way to the FDR drive, the first thing that I see is the warning that no back packs are allowed and I've had one with 4 books, some food and water bottles. That pretty much was a dampener as I was expecting to return back if not allowed to enter.

As I walk down the 34th street, I can see the crowd swelling - a lot of tourists and New Yorkers too. It was only about 6.30 pm. And not just the crowd, NYPD was everywhere and along with the traffic police and the mounties, it looked like there are more officers than the crowd.

There was a security check - one block before FDR drive and this is where I was expecting to be sent back. But the lady officer was nice and she checked and allowed. The viewing gallery is the raised FDR drive which was blocked entirely and doubles as the viewing gallery as well. There was tremendous amount of people, with music playing and food and water all around. I was sitting in the median with a near perfect view to the East river. But the barges were missing and nowhere to be seen.

Night Falls

The Barge

I was sitting next to this guy with a tripod with Camera and a selfie stick with a cell phone as well. He was wearing a star and stripes bandana and seem to be flustered that there are no barges. Started complaining that Macy's were cowards as they seem to have catering to the Brooklyn hipsters (his term, not mine) and moved the barges down the river. He seem to have watched the Liberty protest in TV and was saying some things about people flooding in the borders and Macy's giving them jobs and now the barges are moved to Brooklyn and he doesn't have a view of the fireworks etc. I was wondering whether he realized that I am a brown-skinned guy fitting his description of the immigrant or that rant itself was directed at me. However, he seemed like a nice guy and not to have realized that I can be that immigrant.

However, the barges came into sight after a while and were positioned just across the river from us. We could see at least three of the barges with Macy's logo on it and our bandana guy was calling everyone in the world that he got the perfect position in the world to watch the fireworks.

It was still 2 more hours to start and everyone seem to be having a good time. I picked up the book I got that day ('The Scarlet Pimpernel') and started with the reading. There were multiple renderings of 'God bless America' going on around and chanting of waves of 'U S A' filled the air.

The Fireworks itself - when it started - immediately became a nostalgic affair. I started thinking of the school holidays when we use to go to the Sivakasi Bhadrakaliamman temple grounds - during the 'Aaram thiruvizha' (literally, the sixth day of the festival) - to watch the fireworks display. All the major fireworks in Sivakasi will be there led by Anil, Kaka families and it used to be a great fun to wait and see that. Of course, the innocence of those days is lost but the memories linger a little still.

The fireworks itself lasted about 30 minutes and the synchronization from the barges was absolutely fascinating to see. They were exactly in sync and the red, blue and white theme was being done well. The smoke and the familiar smell of sulphur was in the air almost immediately but it was fascinating nevertheless.

After a late night walk in the city - people were still partying in the streets and there was a traffic Jam on the 34th street at that time - caught a train and was back in no time.