3 Weeks in
3 Weeks in
n
yc
01
first look
Empire State on the left, Vessel and Hudson Yards in the middle, the Hudson to the right with the piers along its edge. I landed on the evening of the World Cup final, and the sunset sitting on the skyline lifted the flight off me. Buildings stacked so close they read as one long grid standing up.
Empire State on the left, Vessel and Hudson Yards in the middle, the Hudson to the right with the piers along its edge. I landed on the evening of the World Cup final, and the sunset sitting on the skyline lifted the flight off me. Buildings stacked so close they read as one long grid standing up.
In NYC, the eye goes up before it goes out. The skyline isn’t scenery. It’s the plan the city is built around.
In NYC, the eye goes up before it goes out. The skyline isn’t scenery. It’s the plan the city is built around.
02
the grid
Manhattan is enormous, but somehow it becomes readable when you walk it alone. I started noticing the system everywhere: on the map, at bus stops, at every corner. The city had a logic to it. Streets one way, avenues the other. You start reading it instead of following it.
02
the grid
The city becomes readable when you walk it alone. Streets one way, avenues the other. What changed was the mindset, not the map. There’s a moment when the numbers stop being numbers and start being places, and after that the city stops feeling foreign. You start reading it instead of following it.
Manhattan is enormous, but somehow it becomes readable when you walk it alone. I started noticing the system everywhere: on the map, at bus stops, at every corner. The city had a logic to it. Streets one way, avenues the other. You start reading it instead of following it.
03
The food read
Most of what this city eats is borrowed, but coffee + bagels feel like an American day start to me. The default rhythm is icy drinks, cold, canned, to-go. Vegetarian options land easily because of the vegan wave.
Every cuisine’s already on the plate, so what the city chases is specialty. Bungalow, by Vikas Khanna, opens its reservation window for seconds a day and shuts. Americans, travellers, food critics all trying to get in. I couldn’t either. Ghee in Miami, another Michelin Indian kitchen, left the same mark. India’s being read differently right now, and it shows on tables like these.
Coffee stops were my kind of thing. I realised Americans love sugar. The long queues for gelato/frozen yogurt made the case for me, and I gave in nightly, ending most days with a gelato in hand to keep the NY feel going.
Coffee stops were my kind of thing. I realised Americans love sugar. The long queues for gelato/frozen yogurt made the case for me, and I gave in nightly, ending most days with a gelato in hand to keep the NY feel going.
My love for Harry Potter took me to the Broadway show. The whole act was phenomenal and worth every dollar. The kind of production that stays with you. My other read of the summer: everyone carrying a portable fan on the go, because Americans really can’t stand the heat. I bought one too by the end. Being part of the culture, ironically!
My love for Harry Potter took me to the Broadway show. The whole act was phenomenal and worth every dollar. The kind of production that stays with you. My other read of the summer: everyone carrying a portable fan on the go, because Americans really can’t stand the heat. I bought one too by the end. Being part of the culture, ironically!
My love for Harry Potter took me to the Broadway show. The whole act was phenomenal and worth every dollar. The kind of production that stays with you. My other read of the summer: everyone carrying a portable fan on the go, because Americans really can’t stand the heat. I bought one too by the end. Being part of the culture, ironically!
Shakira at Barclays opened the trip. Immersive visuals set the stage before she walked in, and Ed Sheeran dropped in for one song mid-set. Charlie Puth was at Hudson Yards, the full skyline behind him, on a weeknight. NYC casually just hands you these moments.
Shakira at Barclays opened the trip. Immersive visuals set the stage before she walked in, and Ed Sheeran dropped in for one song mid-set. Charlie Puth was at Hudson Yards, the full skyline behind him, on a weeknight. NYC casually just hands you these moments.
04
The streets
5th Ave, SoHo, Madison, West Village, and East Village are where the money sits, and the show windows are where you feel it first. The product becomes the whole facade, lit, moving, arranged to hold you a second longer than you meant to stay. I was taken aback for a while, all that luxury was built so large that it started to feel like a spectacle.
5th Ave, SoHo, Madison, West Village, and East Village are where the money sits, and the show windows are where you feel it first. The product becomes the whole facade, lit, moving, arranged to hold you a second longer than you meant to stay. I was taken aback for a while, all that luxury was built so large that it started to feel like a spectacle.
The 5th Ave Apple Store carried the same feel, all glass and mirrors, open floor, sunlight, aluminium, greens soaked through it. The store is the product. I’d hoped to reach SF this trip and didn’t. Apple Park is still on the wishlist.
The 5th Ave Apple Store carried the same feel, all glass and mirrors, open floor, sunlight, aluminium, greens soaked through it. The store is the product. I’d hoped to reach SF this trip and didn’t. Apple Park is still on the wishlist.
Graffiti runs across the whole city, less vandalism, more a language the streets grew into in the birthplace of hip-hop. Back in India, you don’t see a wall claimed like that. Here it reads almost as culture, a city that lets you express.
Graffiti runs across the whole city, less vandalism, more a language the streets grew into in the birthplace of hip-hop. Back in India, you don’t see a wall claimed like that. Here it reads almost as culture, a city that lets you express.
Downtown carries the heaviest history in the city. The World Trade Center, the Twin Towers’ ground, the 9/11 Memorial. This is the part of Manhattan the whole world already has an image of. The Oculus sits there too, the transit hub, along with the Stock Exchange and the Charging Bull.
Downtown carries the heaviest history in the city. The World Trade Center, the Twin Towers’ ground, the 9/11 Memorial. This is the part of Manhattan the whole world already has an image of. The Oculus sits there too, the transit hub, along with the Stock Exchange and the Charging Bull.
Miami’s Design District was pure exclusivity. Walking it felt like stepping into a parody of luxury. Ocean Drive I’d only known through GTA Vice City, and standing on that lane for real had a strange, mystical pull.
Miami’s Design District was pure exclusivity. Walking it felt like stepping into a parody of luxury. Ocean Drive I’d only known through GTA Vice City, and standing on that lane for real had a strange, mystical pull.
05
The cost
NYC runs 2 to 3x what things cost back in India. Most travellers I know would pick Europe first for the same money, not because it’s cheaper but because it opens up wider. Within the US they’d take Mexico, Hawaii, San Diego, LA, Vegas before this. Those places let you rewind.
Miami was two days, and I tried to optimise it. One day for deep exploring, one for the beach, the pool, and the mesmerising greens at 1 Hotel South Beach. That was the luxe pit stop of the whole vacation.
None of this makes NYC a lesser city. It just makes it a specific one, iconic, always running, and expensive to spend real time in. (can be quote st.)
None of this makes NYC a lesser city. It just makes it a specific one, iconic, always running, and expensive to spend real time in.
None of this makes NYC a lesser city. It just makes it a specific one, iconic, always running, and expensive to spend real time in.
06
The places that stayed
The places that stayed
The Morgan Library held me for three hours. J.P. Morgan’s own library, Renaissance to its bones, marble pillars, tiered bookshelves you look up at, tall windows with stained glass catching the light. I’d studied these styles in interiors. Standing inside one is different.
The Morgan Library held me for three hours. J.P. Morgan’s own library, Renaissance to its bones, marble pillars, tiered bookshelves you look up at, tall windows with stained glass catching the light. I’d studied these styles in interiors. Standing inside one is different.
The Morgan Library held me for three hours. J.P. Morgan’s own library, Renaissance to its bones, marble pillars, tiered bookshelves you look up at, tall windows with stained glass catching the light. I’d studied these styles in interiors. Standing inside one is different.
The NY Public Library I went to for the Rose Main Reading Room, though it began at Astor Hall, the entrance built 125 years ago. Then the Gottesman Hall, where the artifacts are kept, and the preservation itself began to feel like an art. Charles Dickens’ writing desk is there. I read his stories as a kid, and there it was. Nearby, a small illuminated viewer held a rendering of 5th Ave from 1879, and beside it the maps that plotted how New York, and much of America, was first imagined into place.
The NY Public Library I went to for the Rose Main Reading Room, though it began at Astor Hall, the entrance built 125 years ago. Then the Gottesman Hall, where the artifacts are kept, and the preservation itself began to feel like an art. Charles Dickens’ writing desk is there. I read his stories as a kid, and there it was. Nearby, a small illuminated viewer held a rendering of 5th Ave from 1879, and beside it the maps that plotted how New York, and much of America, was first imagined into place.
Stepping inside the Empire State Building was its own kind of quiet. The crown lights are the iconic part, and they change for whatever the city is marking. Green the night Spain won, which I saw myself. Red and blue in the Spidey films.
Stepping inside the Empire State Building was its own kind of quiet. The crown lights are the iconic part, and they change for whatever the city is marking. Green the night Spain won, which I saw myself. Red and blue in the Spidey films.
Summit One Vanderbilt is an experience on its own, and then it’s the view. For a second up there I couldn’t feel my own senses. The skyline does that from that height.
Summit One Vanderbilt is an experience on its own, and then it’s the view. For a second up there I couldn’t feel my own senses. The skyline does that from that height.
The Grand Central Terminal still stops you, the facade alone, the kind of building that’s been the backdrop of a hundred films.
The Grand Central Terminal still stops you, the facade alone, the kind of building that’s been the backdrop of a hundred films.
The JP Morgan building downtown is the other one I just stood and watched. Foster and Partners designed it, and it shows. An all-electric headquarters that reads as iconic from the street. I’ve always admired their design sense.
The JP Morgan building downtown is the other one I just stood and watched. Foster and Partners designed it, and it shows. An all-electric headquarters that reads as iconic from the street. I’ve always admired their design sense.
The 9/11 Memorial is the one that stays. Water runs 24/7 into the footprints where the towers stood, then down into a centre that never fills. The emptiness is the point. A void chosen, because some losses cannot be filled, only held.
The 9/11 Memorial is the one that stays. Water runs 24/7 into the footprints where the towers stood, then down into a centre that never fills. The emptiness is the point. A void chosen, because some losses cannot be filled, only held.
07
Niagara
It started with an overnight bus, NYC’s skyline from New Jersey at midnight, then one of the most beautiful sunrises I’ve seen, the sky running pink into violet the whole way, then the falls.
Up close to Horseshoe Falls, the mist hits with real pressure. For a few seconds you can’t see, can’t film, just feel it. The energy is dramatic. A rainbow sits in the spray most of the day.
Up close to Horseshoe Falls, the mist hits with real pressure. For a few seconds you can’t see, can’t film, just feel it. The energy is dramatic. A rainbow sits in the spray most of the day.
The falls sit right on the border, so the ferries go in from both banks into the same water, blue ponchos from the US, red from Canada. An outlet river, powering and feeding two countries at once.
08
What I miss
I miss the intentionality of the mornings there. I still kept a routine, coffee first, start the day when I wanted, but the vibe underneath it was different. A holiday head, and an eye that stayed open for whatever was next. That energy held, and in the last week, knowing it was ending, it only sharpened.
I miss the intentionality of the mornings there. I still kept a routine, coffee first, start the day when I wanted, but the vibe underneath it was different. A holiday head, and an eye that stayed open for whatever was next. That energy held, and in the last week, knowing it was ending, it only sharpened.
Some things I only noticed by living there. The churches, the scale of them sitting in the middle of an ordinary street. The cemeteries too, running on for acres. Beauty and weight in places I wasn’t looking for either.
Some things I only noticed by living there. The churches, the scale of them sitting in the middle of an ordinary street. The cemeteries too, running on for acres. Beauty and weight in places I wasn’t looking for either.
What I’m taking home isn’t the itinerary. It’s a reminder of how much I like being dropped somewhere new and left to figure it out. Some cities you visit. A few hold you. The ones that hold you are the rarer thing, and the ones worth building toward.
What I’m taking home is a better understanding of what gives a place its character. New York made me notice the systems, rhythms, and people that shape a city. Some things only become clear when you spend enough time somewhere to let the place speak for itself.
03
The food read
Most of what this city eats is borrowed, but coffee + bagels feel like an American day start to me. The default rhythm is icy drinks, cold, canned, to-go. Vegetarian options land easily because of the vegan wave.
Every cuisine’s already on the plate, so what the city chases is specialty. Bungalow, by Vikas Khanna, opens its reservation window for seconds a day and shuts. Americans, travellers, food critics all trying to get in. I couldn’t either. Ghee in Miami, another Michelin Indian kitchen, left the same mark. India’s being read differently right now, and it shows on tables like these.
Coffee stops were my kind of thing. I realised Americans love sugar. The long queues for gelato/frozen yogurt made the case for me, and I gave in nightly, ending most days with a gelato in hand to keep the NY feel going.
My love for Harry Potter took me to the Broadway show. The whole act was phenomenal and worth every dollar. The kind of production that stays with you. My other read of the summer: everyone carrying a portable fan on the go, because Americans really can’t stand the heat. I bought one too by the end. Being part of the culture, ironically!
Shakira at Barclays opened the trip. Immersive visuals set the stage before she walked in, and Ed Sheeran dropped in for one song mid-set. Charlie Puth was at Hudson Yards, the full skyline behind him, on a weeknight. NYC casually just hands you these moments.
04
The streets
5th Ave, SoHo, Madison, West Village, and East Village are where the money sits, and the show windows are where you feel it first. The product becomes the whole facade, lit, moving, arranged to hold you a second longer than you meant to stay. I was taken aback for a while, all that luxury was built so large that it started to feel like a spectacle.
The 5th Ave Apple Store carried the same feel, all glass and mirrors, open floor, sunlight, aluminium, greens soaked through it. The store is the product. I’d hoped to reach SF this trip and didn’t. Apple Park is still on the wishlist.
Graffiti runs across the whole city, less vandalism, more a language the streets grew into in the birthplace of hip-hop. Back in India, you don’t see a wall claimed like that. Here it reads almost as culture, a city that lets you express.
Downtown carries the heaviest history in the city. The World Trade Center, the Twin Towers’ ground, the 9/11 Memorial. This is the part of Manhattan the whole world already has an image of. The Oculus sits there too, the transit hub, along with the Stock Exchange and the Charging Bull.
Miami’s Design District was pure exclusivity. Walking it felt like stepping into a parody of luxury. Ocean Drive I’d only known through GTA Vice City, and standing on that lane for real had a strange, mystical pull.
05
The cost
NYC runs 2 to 3x what things cost back in India. Most travellers I know would pick Europe first for the same money, not because it’s cheaper but because it opens up wider. Within the US they’d take Mexico, Hawaii, San Diego, LA, Vegas before this. Those places let you rewind.
Miami was two days, and I tried to optimise it. One day for deep exploring, one for the beach, the pool, and the mesmerising greens at 1 Hotel South Beach. That was the luxe pit stop of the whole vacation.
None of this makes NYC a lesser city. It just makes it a specific one, iconic, always running, and expensive to spend real time in.
06
The places that stayed
The Morgan Library held me for three hours. J.P. Morgan’s own library, Renaissance to its bones, marble pillars, tiered bookshelves you look up at, tall windows with stained glass catching the light. I’d studied these styles in interiors. Standing inside one is different.
The NY Public Library I went to for the Rose Main Reading Room, though it began at Astor Hall, the entrance built 125 years ago. Then the Gottesman Hall, where the artifacts are kept, and the preservation itself began to feel like an art. Charles Dickens’ writing desk is there. I read his stories as a kid, and there it was. Nearby, a small illuminated viewer held a rendering of 5th Ave from 1879, and beside it the maps that plotted how New York, and much of America, was first imagined into place.
Stepping inside the Empire State Building was its own kind of quiet. The crown lights are the iconic part, and they change for whatever the city is marking. Green the night Spain won, which I saw myself. Red and blue in the Spidey films.
Summit One Vanderbilt is an experience on its own, and then it’s the view. For a second up there I couldn’t feel my own senses. The skyline does that from that height.
The Grand Central Terminal still stops you, the facade alone, the kind of building that’s been the backdrop of a hundred films.
The JP Morgan building downtown is the other one I just stood and watched. Foster and Partners designed it, and it shows. An all-electric headquarters that reads as iconic from the street. I’ve always admired their design sense.
The 9/11 Memorial is the one that stays. Water runs 24/7 into the footprints where the towers stood, then down into a centre that never fills. The emptiness is the point. A void chosen, because some losses cannot be filled, only held.
07
Niagara
It started with an overnight bus, NYC’s skyline from New Jersey at midnight, then one of the most beautiful sunrises I’ve seen, the sky running pink into violet the whole way, then the falls.
Up close to Horseshoe Falls, the mist hits with real pressure. For a few seconds you can’t see, can’t film, just feel it. The energy is dramatic. A rainbow sits in the spray most of the day.
The falls sit right on the border, so the ferries go in from both banks into the same water, blue ponchos from the US, red from Canada. An outlet river, powering and feeding two countries at once.
08
What I miss
I miss the intentionality of the mornings there. I still kept a routine, coffee first, start the day when I wanted, but the vibe underneath it was different. A holiday head, and an eye that stayed open for whatever was next. That energy held, and in the last week, knowing it was ending, it only sharpened.
Some things I only noticed by living there. The churches, the scale of them sitting in the middle of an ordinary street. The cemeteries too, running on for acres. Beauty and weight in places I wasn’t looking for either.
What I’m taking home is a better understanding of what gives a place its character. New York made me notice the systems, rhythms, and people that shape a city. Some things only become clear when you spend enough time somewhere to let the place speak for itself.
AN OBSERVATION STUDY
AN OBSERVATION STUDY
by Akshita Sodhani