The snow flakes didn’t come down on Christmas Eve last year, the frigid drafts didn’t blast through the concrete mazes, the temps didn’t let their guards down as the weather tycoons negotiated a last minute deal with the Imperial Sun - enough to turbocharge a fleet of million human engines to rev on the NYC streets. It was a perfect setup; the lull before the impending tsunami. The psychedelic Red and Green lights - visible even to the color blinds beamed from the towering Empire States and majestic Grand Centrals of the world; even the jaw-dropping modern marvel called the Occulus glittered in electric blues. Swells of festive spirits streamed through the famous 5th Ave, amalgamating in front of the Rockefeller Center to behold the “The Christmas Tree” that goes up every year - a time honored NY Christmas tradition. What they were oblivious to at the time was whether this time honored tradition will hold up to its bargain in the Christmas of 2020.
It was obvious that Humanity that paraded on the streets of NYC, much like rest of its global counterparts were aloof and blind-sighted by this looming catastrophe that had already planted itself in the unhygienic wilds of Wuhan. And so NYC cruised on the fast lane unaware of the head on collision with a fast mutating genome sequence that would decapitate its dogged spirit. Just like everyone we had no godly clue this city of dazzle and hope, immersed in festive joy was about to do a volte-face and turn into a den of darkness and despair. We had no inkling that the lively spirits of Big Apple would be converted into dreadful morgues teeming with graves. America was about to be fortified into a tormented bastion of disease and suffering and NYC would emerge as its messy epicenter. Humans of New York were about to be slowly transformed into "Suffering" Humans of New York. May be, just may if the heavens and their generals had warned us of a dire disaster ready to strike in a few months time, we would have extended our short-changed reservations into a longer stay. Mankind would have scurried for cover but the Premier and Generals in China had other more sinister ideas. What is agonizingly evident now was joyously secretive back then. The alarming signs were not there yet, the whistle-blowers were crushed so the leaks never happened even as China surreptitiously allowed millions of its citizens to sneak out of their sovereign limits into Europe and North America. And worse they roamed unchecked unknowingly passing their deadly inheritance to anyone in close proximity. And so we headed back to Maryland, ignorant of the unlikelihood of being back to the greatest city on the planet anytime soon.
And then few months later, true to unspoken provenance, the pandemic arrived in NYC not from China but from Italy which by then had emerged as a major hotpot in Europe thanks to immense but unsolicited Chinese goodwill. Once it made landfall in NYC, it spread like wild fire, mutating its genome expressions from one human to another. What were once gleaming streets of NYC were now haunted streets flanked by ghostly skyscrapers; a possibility only viable in someone's scary dreams now lay threadbare as a stark but tragic reality. The flashing billboards and psychedelic lights that used to beam down on vibrant tourists and local, now appeared dimmed. Amidst all this, NYC lifeline - its subways continued to operate but fast turned into a frightening den of infestation as more people jostled to find a seat in a reduced schedules and subsequently found their cellular defense getting breached. Thats when nostalgia wallops me with a thorny cane - this is the same subway I have taken for last two decades every time I visited NYC. Whether I was visiting my cousin who lived in a sprawling penthouse on 69th and 5th very close to Central Park or my other cousin who lived in Brooklyn. Even during my long engagement at JP Morgan Chase in Jersey City where I hustled between Maryland and New York, we would often hop on to the Path Train from Newport station at night and get down either at 33rd street to behold the Empire State building or disembark at the new WTC station to vast ramparts of the Giant Occulus, where a few minutes of leisurely stroll would put us in front of the mesmerizing views of Hudson.
The moon-haloed walks along the shorelines of Hudson sprinkled with aspiring joggers and avid tourists would always invariably perk our moods. The long spells of fixated sky-gazing would occasionally get broken by a passing patrol boat or a dinner cruse ship. The resplendent skyscrapers on either sides of Hudson would brighten up the floating firmament. But now perhaps it finds itself besieged in tattered ruins covered with blood and flesh of primates and sapiens. With second and third wave in sight, a brooding skepticism gives way to ill-perceived prognosis. Is NYC on the road to recovery. We still don't know. Fraught with all the deep scars and the fresh wounds stemming from irreparable losses the city suffered or harrowing recollections of their ordeals at home or hospitals, the city like any other would have emotional tales buried deep in their hearts. Something that would be to difficult to dislodge anytime soon.
Having started my incubation period in the bosom of New York, the emotional connection has always been there and personal too. I was there when 9/11 happened, taking a class of undergrads, my faintest recollection is that I had scampered to my nearby rental apartment to watch the horror unfold in-front of my eyes on TV when the second tower went down. The recent protests on the streets of Manhattan against the gruesome murder of George Floyd showcased the strong resilient spirit that city prides on. In no uncertain terms, the city just like other bigger cities like Washington DC declared that it was ready to wage a war on the streets against any form of racial discrimination. The protests were occasionally marred by rioters and looters who black-faced the genuineness of these protests with their poor judgement of actions. What did worry me though was large congregations and gatherings for days and weeks that would have spread the virus many folds and the city that was still on the road to recovery may have suffered a setback once again. NYC has historically endured some of the worst human disasters in the last two decades but it has sprung back up just as quickly.
