Another Glorious Day at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and a Book Club Meeting with Fairfield Friends:

Tuesday, August 15, 2023

New York City and Fairfield, Connecticut

Another Glorious Day at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and a Book Club Meeting with Fairfield Friends:

Life here in Westport, Connecticut, has entered a routine phase. I awake by 4.30 am and spend most of my time still in bed as I read or blog or communicate with friends via texting. But by 6.30 am, I start teaching online in India and today, I taught Arjun and Veer. In-between, I helped myself to a cup of coffee to keep me going. After I finished teaching my two sessions, back to back, I made myself some breakfast (muesli with honey yoghurt and milk) and soon got myself ready for my day in the city. I had made plans to meet my docent batch-mate and friend Liz Kaplan for lunch and I would need to time my train to make it on time.

Just as I was getting ready to call an Uber to get to Westport station, Sunil told me that he could run me to the station. Accordingly, we left in exactly five minutes and in less than ten minutes I was at Westport getting my ticket from the machine on the platform. I had a little while to use the restroom at the station before my train (9.40am) came along and I made myself comfortable inside. I used my time on the train to talk to Llew, to my friend Ashley (who has relocated back to Bandra recently) and to wish my friend Delyse a very Happy Birthday.

At 125th and Harlem, I got off the train and decided to do what Leslie had suggested: instead of taking the subway down to the Met, I walked two blocks to Fifth Avenue. From there, I jumped into the M1 bus (that was actually waiting there) and, hey presto, in about twenty minutes, I was being dropped right outside the Met! I simply could not believe that after literally decades of going by subway and then crosstown bus to the Met from 125th, there was a simpler way to do it! Gosh! Live and Learn!!!

Lunch with Liz and George at the Met:

From the get-go at the Met, I was stunned at the number of people that had invaded the museum. Yes, it was a somewhat damp day (although it was not raining) and I am aware that the Met is on the To-Do List of every visitor to NYC, but to see it simply crawling with humanity…well, I have to say that I do not recall ever seeing it so crowded. Tourism, post-pandemic, is certainly back with a bag and the number of global visitors has to be seen to be believed.

I walked in through the staff entrance on the ground floor, had a chance to quickly browse through the Clearance items in the gift-store and then took the elevator upstairs to get to the staff dining hall where I was supposed to meet my friends Liz and George. And indeed within a minutef entering the space, I spotted Liz and had a fond reunion with her. In very little time after that, I made my way to the Salad Bar at the cafeteria and helped myself to the most wonderfully fresh ingredients and two dolmades (Greek stuffed vine-leaves—one of my favorite things to eat). Indeed, I absolutely love the salads at the Met and ate them in-between my tours for 27 years…they were always something to which I looked forward. And now too, whenever I return to the Met, it is to the Salad Bar that I make a beeline to mix my own.

Liz, George and I settled down for a lovely chat over lunch (they too picked salads) and did a lot of catching up. Liz is almost 90 and her daughter is planning a grand family trip to Japan for them in the winter to celebrate her milestone birthday—so she has a lot to anticipate. She moved from giving Highlights tours for which we were all trained together to giving specialty Musical Instruments tours, And since I had never taken one of those with her, I had made a date that I would take her 1.00 pm tour. Accordingly, after lunch, I browsed a bit in the gift shop and then made my way to Velez Blanco Patio for the start of Liz’s tour.

Taking Liz’s Musical Instruments Tour:

Needless to say, Liz’s tour was simply marvelous. I was visiting that part of the museum after ages and had no idea that it had undergone a major renovation and that many of the items had been rearranged. Lis took us brilliantly through the various sections introducing us to rattles, whistles and bells (early Federal era musical toys that were fashioned out of silver, gold and coral) all the way to contemporary musical instruments. Of course, she showed us the Stradivari violins and the Todini harpsichord but in-between, there was a conch shell we saw as well as a Rondador, an instrument I had never seen in my life—not to mention whistling jars! It was a superbly enlightening one hour and I came away having learned so much about the history of global music. Full marks to my friend Liz who made it humorous and showed off her expert knowledge on the subject.

A Hot Chocolate in the Patron’s Lounge:

As Liz was (understandably) very fatigued after giving the tour, we made our way up to the Patron’s Lounge where we settled down on the plushiest sofas to enjoy a much-needed hot chocolate. It is incredibly peaceful up there, on the fourth floor of the Museum, which is a private space devoted only to members and to us, ID-card holders of the Met. The fact that tea, coffee and hot chocolate are available there, makes it doubly attractive.

I was also really sleepy and tired after the tour and could do with a nap. I bid Liz goodbye and thanks and told her to carry on as I lay right there on the sofa and had my customary 20-minute shut eye. It always does me a world of good and, just a little later, as expected, I got my second wind and was ready to roll again.

Seeing the Special Exhibitions at the Met:

This time, I decided to take a look at the special exhibitions at the Met. I chose to see the newest one that has just been installed. It is by the Abstract Expressionist Cecily Brown, a British artist who was influenced early by Maggie Hambling and then moved to the USA. Her canvasses are a riot of color in the Pollock vein although she names Edvard Munch as an influence. Once I read the curatorial notes, I began to get a better idea of her work (in the beginning, I found it hard to respond to) and warmed to her ideas and perspectives.

Then, on a different note, I decided to go and see some of my favorite canvasses in the Met and the museum made it easy as they had a special exhibition entitled ‘Dutch Masters at the Met’ down in the Lehman Wing. There I feasted my eyes on canvasses by Rembrandt, Pieter de Hooch and Vermeer and, of course, I had the best time. Truly, if I could have spent my retirement living in New York City, this is exactly what I would do—haunt the best museums in the world with a vengeance.

Back Home on the Train:

It was almost 5.00 pm and the museum was closing by the time I finished with it. I went straight to the 86 bus stop and then took the Uptown 5 train to 125th Street in Harlem from where I jumped into the Metro-North train and came back home. Leslie told me to get off at Southport station as she was just about to finish library duty and could pick me up. She was already there when my train arrived and we drove back to her place well in time for me to get ready for my Book Club Meeting that was at 8 pm.

Off to my Book Club Meeting:

As decided, I had just finished my shower and was ready to leave when my friend Bonnie rolled up to take me for our Book Club Meeting to Cathy’s house in Fairfield. I am exceedingly grateful to my friends who are giving me rides in this way and making my life fun and easy. In fact, I told her to give me five minutes while I finished reading the last 10 pages of the novel “The Covenant of Water” which is really exceedingly lengthy and which I have taken over a month to read—all 750 pages of it. But it was truly a worthwhile red and at the end of it, when I finished the book, all I could say was “Wow”. Indeed, we’d have much to discuss when we were all together.

We arrived at Cathy’s and realized that Bonnie, Cathy and I were all wearing red and white! Of course, we had to take pictures together. Mary-Lauren and Mary-Jo joined us subsequently. I was really sorry that Amy was not present as she had a family crisis and had temporarily moved away from Fairfield to be close to her parents. We discussed so many things happening in our families and it seemed to me I had never left. How great it felt to be back in the bosom of some of my dearest friends in Fairfield. Of course, we then got down to the serious business of eating as food and wine are essential parts of our Book Club evenings. Cathy had dips for appetizers and an Asian-style grilled salmon with rice studded with golden raisins and scented with cumin as well as a hugely colorful and very delicious salad. For dessert, we had chocolate cups (from The Pantry), a mixed berry salad and macarons. All simply wonderful!

While eating at the table, we found that the book left us a world of ideas to discuss. Everyone had their favorite character, their opinion on the plot and personal aspects of the lives that resonated with the book. Overall, a truly satisfying book to dissect and a really great contemporary novel. We have hopes that it will win the Pulitzer Prize this year.

At the end of the meeting (I can’t believe I did this for 27 years of my life), we all said our goodbyes and Bonnie dropped me back home. It was a really fabulous day and I give thanks that I am able to have a life that is filled with so many varying interests and so many fabulous and fond friends.

Until tomorrow…cheerio!