Goodbye, New York

I guess I never really imagined that there would come a day that would actually be my last in New York . This Monday, I flew into LaGuardia for probably the last time, after spending a week in California on a trip with my parents (who are visiting the US) and brother, Rahul.

As is usually the case when I fly into LGA, I decided to take a cab into Manhattan and get off at the PATH station near 32nd St. and 6th Ave. I flagged one down and rode in silence until we came to the Midtown Tunnel when I started a conversation with the cab driver about how so many people in the Greater NY area don’t bother getting themselves E-ZPass and instead prefer waiting in long lines at toll booths to pay in cash. The cab driver, who turned out to be Pakistani, started talking to me (mostly in Hindi) about where in India I was from and what I was doing in NY. I came to mention that I was moving to DC in about a week and :

“Oh, you are moving? Is it the same company or a different one?” he asked me.

“I got a job with a different company, ” I told him.

“You know, I once moved to Philadelphia,” he went on. “I stayed there 3 months and then came back to New York.”

“Why did you come back?” I asked him although I knew the answer much too well.

“I missed New York a lot. I actually drove here every weekend! I even did my groceries in Queens!”

I laughed and for a second wondering if I would keep coming back to NY just as often too.

“New York is that kind of a place. Once you come and live here, you don’t feel like going anywhere else.”

I thought about what the driver had said as I got off at 34th and 6th and made my way into the PATH station. It was certainly true. I didn’t feel like leaving New York. I loved every bit of it. My life in New York was nearly perfect. I had made the best of friends and met the most interesting of people. My two rommates – Danny and Sharat – had been perfect companions in addition to being people who exposed me to worlds completely outside my own. I had found the true passion of my life while living here. I had lived in a city that is the centre of America, if not the world. But it’s time to leave all that and say goodbye.

Will I ever get a chance to come back to New York?

I sure hope so.