I reached the southeast corner of the park. I found a row of shops,
including a store called ‘T-Mobile’.
- The T-Mobile salesperson offered me a SIM card with a 3G data
plan, ‘If you take a two-year contract, l can also give you a free
iPhone.’
‘I’m not here that long,’ I said.
I agreed to rent a touchscreen phone along with a voice and data
plan.
‘It’ll take twenty minutes to activate,’ the salesperson said. I left the
shop and walked back north towards Central Park. I had not eaten
anything for hours. I scanned the various cafes and delis, each
displaying their lunch specials. Most dishes cost close to ten dollars
each. A van parked outside Central Park sold bagels, a doughnut
shaped bread stuffed with cream cheese or other fillings. It cost only
three dollars, including a cold drink.
I got a bagel with cream cheese, tomatoes and onions. A giant-sized
Coke came along with it.
I sat on an empty bench outside Central Park and watched tourists
walk past. New York City looked beautiful and clean.The first day you
spend out of India in a developed country takes a while to sink in. The
swanky buildings, the smooth roads, the gleaming shops and the lack
of noise (nobody blares horns for some reason) make you feel like
you have entered a fairy tale where nothing can ever go wrong. I ate
my lunch on the park bench.
A 3G sign on the corner of my phone screen indicated I had
network. I typed in my first Google search: ‘Live music venues in New
York City’.
The Internet worked fine. The search results weren’t fine. Literally
thousands of places popped up. The first link directed me to the
website of Time Out magazine. That site itself had a top-100 list of the
best live music venues in the city. In Patna, you would be lucky to find
one place that played live music. In Dumraon, the only way you could