According to Dewdrop Dream’s tag, I must pick up the sixth picture in my sixth photo folder and post it here with a brief description/explanation. Here you go:
[Credits: OJ and her then fairly new Canon Powershot.]
It was Christmas Eve 2005. I was scheduled to leave America in 6 weeks and was in New York for one final fling with the city. The weather was cooperative and this picture was taken at dusk, atop the Empire State Building. For some reason, I can clearly remember wearing a green foam Statue of Liberty hat and swigging Minute Maid lemonade. New York has always held my attention. My heart, not so much. Love was for other places. Syracuse, Boston, Philadelphia. Real places, with memories I can grab by merely closing my eyes. But when I do think of it, this is how I want to remember New York in my mind’s eye: coming alive under a twilight sky, one busy and strangely detached December, as I looked at oft-viewed people and places with the eyes of a girl departing.
Wisdom Wears Neon Pyjamas 
That looks very pretty … you can almost imagine yourself as the empress of some vast twinkling kingdom looking below from her palace 🙂
You’ve sure travelled a lot… wish i could lay claim to that! I’ll prolly hound you for travel advice though 🙂 Which city do you love best next to Bombay?
that’s a beautiful pic, OJ.
NYC was the first city I fell in love with too – and the love was not coloured by books or movies or people there. It was love at first sight, step, smell and mile.
I would give anything to be able to see this veiw again, this time however, Nino helded firmly by my side.
NYC…is also one of my favorites..infact the fisrt time i set foot in the city, it reminded me of bombay….similar pace, sights and even smells….
i got quite homesick actually!
beautiful shot OJ…..
What a lovely picture…
Btw, did anyone else think that the words ‘Dewdrop Dream’s tag’ is a tongue twister?
That is one hell of a pic… I’m looking at it now and wondering why I never feel inspired to take my camera around the city during winter. Maybe coz I love the fall in nyc so much?
My first time in NYC was spent with my mouth open.. made me feel like I was a country hick….it still has the same effect on me sometimes….
I did! 🙂 the tongue twister part I mean! 🙂 (dewtrop tream tag comes more naturally !)
The pic`s awesome! Have quite a few pics of the view from the Empire State Building too. But never seen anything more beautiful than this! I`d like to believe its because of the difference in the camera and not the photographer :p
ahh what do I say about my city. I am facing the east river as I write this. The lights blinking dimly on the highway, joggers, cars, children playing hockey. It doesn’t have the comfort of home but it has none of its anxieties either. NY ignores me and I, it and we continue on content in the knowledge that neither is indispendable.
Still show even the most stone hearted New Yorker (there aren’t many, it’s a myth) the above view and it’s hard not to be inspired. I’m glad this was your fortuitous photo!
*indispensable! Typing with a cat on my lap. Cat thinks there’s no reason I can’t type with my left-hand. Damn ambidextrous animals.
awww!! i love Bird’s eye view and panning shots… 🙂
😀 @ being referred to as tongue-twister.
DewdropDream: Boston. 😀
Nino’s Mum: And Karanbhai! Don’t forget Karanbhai.
Sukanya: Thenkyoo.
Anamika: Err…no, hon. 🙂 I can say it easily enough. But wait, somebody seems to think so!
Amrita: Maybe. 🙂 After fall in upstate New York, nothing comes close. New England, p’raps, but the Adirondacks and the Catskills are incomparable.
M: I think we all feel a bit like hicks when faced with the mighty City. I’ll never forget the feeling of driving into Weehawken and seeing it loom on the other side of the river.
Piper: Of course. There are no carpenters, only their tools. 😛
girlonthebridge: I hear you, girl. Know that detached feeling. Enjoy your seat-warmers. 🙂
D Rat: Me too.
Beautiful picture, scintillatingly poetic prose!
That’s a lovely picture.
dipali: Nobel-worthy? 😉
brown girls: I had forgotten it existed. It was zipped and safely tucked away, unseen for 3 years. 🙂
But of course! I shall insist on coming to Oslo with you:)
The city looks alive, like it’s waiting for something.
The minute I see a date, my mind races back to what I did or where I was. So indulge me please – Christmas Eve 2005 I was in DC, back home for 3 weeks during our 3 year stay in Bangalore. Not so far away from you.
You dont post often enough 😐
Happy Valentine`s Day, OJ! You guys did it! The SOB has abandoned his vday protest! 🙂
Read this : http://ibnlive.in.com/news/ram-sene-abandons-vday-protest-in-karnataka/85200-3.html?from=search
dipali: How about a trip to Bombay first? 😉
Sujatha: I’m sure so many of us on the blogosphere have been in close physical distance at some point in our lives. That’s a lovely thought, isn’t it? 😀 Makes me recall one of my favorite poems, “Love at First Sight“, by Wislawa Szymborska.
Anamika: Greedy, greedy! 😛
Piper: Happy V-Day, girl. You made my (very early) morning with this news. Here’s to the power of the cheap and cheerful!