One of the most beautiful sunsets I' ve ever seen...that too from my office toilet window!
This is why I carry my camera with me everyday:)
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/shweyta/album?.dir=/c215
Enjoy!
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
Of big cities and big calamities...
As I type this, I am back at my desk from an hour long fire-evacuation trip, which took the whole office down 28 floors, through the fire staircase. Not to mention, this has been my first fire-evacuation experience ever, but its strange how the experience varied from what could have been an unofficial holiday back home, in India.
The fire alarm set off and we were asked to evacuate the office. Before leaving my desk though, I did think if I should take my marble Taj Mahal and 4 pairs of shoes with me ( just in case the fire got our office too). Common sense prevailed and I did'nt bother. Everyone went down the fire staircase, giggling and joking most of the time. It was strange as the whole office has never left work together, so at first it seemed like a leisure excursion, sort of an alternative version of the birthday-lunches we have at work often.
Once down, we crossed over to the other side of 7th Ave. as per fire regulations and looked up, craning our necks to see if the 41st floor was ablaze. No sign of fire, atleast from the outside. Five huge fire trucks and atleast 20 fire-men in sight though, 2 of whom were busy posing for photographs with tourists. Must be tough, having to be a hero and a celebrity all at once.
The New York spirit revealed itself again; the posh new Bank of America across the street, threw open its doors for us; the manager saying "It's cold out there, come on in, we have a huge lobby." We gladly accepted.
My more fashionable colleagues took off to Macy's, some left for an early lunch, newly married Manhattan-ites went home for bonus-time with spouse and some of us just stood there, taking in the whole scene, cracking more jokes and ogling at the good looking fire-men. Finally, the fire men were out of the building, in a matter of an hour and we were allowed to go upstairs using the freight elevator. Work, of course resumed to normal, as if nothing had happened.
It's been a year and a half since I moved into NYC and I ve come to realise that calamities in this city are as big as the city itself; by magnitude of intensity.
From the 2003 Blackout, routine fire evacuations in the office building, deaths in the subway (Raj was delayed for school yesterday since a homeless guy collapsed with a heart attack and died in the N train) to the ubiquity of ambulance/ fire engine sirens, that the city is known for, the intensity of accidents in NYC is nowhere near normal. Yet, what you perceive as normal is merely what you experience on a day-to-day basis...the events I have listed above have all been witnessed by me, since I moved here...
Would it then be "normal" to say that I feel immune to most of them now?
The fire alarm set off and we were asked to evacuate the office. Before leaving my desk though, I did think if I should take my marble Taj Mahal and 4 pairs of shoes with me ( just in case the fire got our office too). Common sense prevailed and I did'nt bother. Everyone went down the fire staircase, giggling and joking most of the time. It was strange as the whole office has never left work together, so at first it seemed like a leisure excursion, sort of an alternative version of the birthday-lunches we have at work often.
Once down, we crossed over to the other side of 7th Ave. as per fire regulations and looked up, craning our necks to see if the 41st floor was ablaze. No sign of fire, atleast from the outside. Five huge fire trucks and atleast 20 fire-men in sight though, 2 of whom were busy posing for photographs with tourists. Must be tough, having to be a hero and a celebrity all at once.
The New York spirit revealed itself again; the posh new Bank of America across the street, threw open its doors for us; the manager saying "It's cold out there, come on in, we have a huge lobby." We gladly accepted.
My more fashionable colleagues took off to Macy's, some left for an early lunch, newly married Manhattan-ites went home for bonus-time with spouse and some of us just stood there, taking in the whole scene, cracking more jokes and ogling at the good looking fire-men. Finally, the fire men were out of the building, in a matter of an hour and we were allowed to go upstairs using the freight elevator. Work, of course resumed to normal, as if nothing had happened.
It's been a year and a half since I moved into NYC and I ve come to realise that calamities in this city are as big as the city itself; by magnitude of intensity.
From the 2003 Blackout, routine fire evacuations in the office building, deaths in the subway (Raj was delayed for school yesterday since a homeless guy collapsed with a heart attack and died in the N train) to the ubiquity of ambulance/ fire engine sirens, that the city is known for, the intensity of accidents in NYC is nowhere near normal. Yet, what you perceive as normal is merely what you experience on a day-to-day basis...the events I have listed above have all been witnessed by me, since I moved here...
Would it then be "normal" to say that I feel immune to most of them now?
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