Operation NYU Exit Continues, Brunch with Amy, Arrival in Westport, Connecticut

Sunday, August 6, 2023

New York City

Operation NYU Exit Continues, Brunch with Amy, Arrival in Westport, Connecticut

I awoke on Sunday at 4.30 am in my Manhattan apartment. I still cannot get over my good fortune in having such a beautiful apartment at my disposal. It is a darling space: a large living room-cum-kitchen that is sparsely but adequately furnished and stocked, gives way to a bedroom and bathroom within. What is most stunning about this venue are the views, of course, and they change at different times of the day depending on the level of natural light (or lack of it). When the sun goes down, the lights in the city come on and the place is illuminated like a Christmas card. It is thoroughly bewitching.

I was hungry when I awoke and, rummaging through the cabinets, I found crackers that I ate with peanut butter. A little later, I ate a bagel with more peanut butter. I had to eat these items to fill and sustain myself although I knew I would be having brunch with my friend, Amy, later in the morning. Amy was teaching a yoga class till 10.30 am and told me she could meet me at my office at NYU at 11.00 am.

I decided to get cracking myself to take advantage of the hours before her arrival to put the finishing touches to the clearing out of my office. Yes, it is the end of an era for me and I am glad I went about it in a systematic fashion. Are there more things I would have liked to take away from my office to India? Of course! But I have to be practical and ruthless and realize that there is only so much I can cart away and I do not want my apartment in Bombay (large and spacious though it is) to became an accumulation ground for more clutter. So, I am reluctantly getting rid of a lot of stuff. I am carrying two lamps back to Bombay (if you can believe it): a banker’s lamp for my desk and another rather nice one for my verandah where I would like to have softer light than is currently being provided by overhead lighting.

So I showered, cleaned up the apartment, put the towels I used into a bag to bring them back to Connecticut to be laundered, packed up all my items in my sling bag and left the apartment at 10.00 am. Since it was a Sunday, I’d have liked to have gone to Mass—but I had no idea where any church was located, what time the Masses were, how I could possibly manage to get there on my overused knee and with the load I was carrying. So I decided to drop the idea of Mass.

A Visit to the Church of St. Agnes:

So, I was delighted that en route to Grand Central Terminal, while walking along 43rd Street, I actually passed by the Catholic Church of St. Agnes. Of course, I did not get a Mass (as the last one was already done at 8.30 am), but I was able to enter a really beautiful, serene space and make a fervent visit. Above all, I thanked The Lord for the gift of the Manhattan apartment and the generosity of my friends, Mary-Lauren and Brett, who gave me the keys and made my life so easy in the past few days by offering the convenience of their Manhattan setting. I had also graduated from St. Agnes’ High School in Bombay—so this saint is a kind of patron saint for me and I thought it significant that happenstance brought me to this church.

On the Subway to Manhattan:

I was halfway on the subway to Manhattan when Amy texted me to inform me that she was done with the teaching of her class and was heading to NYU to meet me. There was no Security presence on Sunday and I had to use my key fob to enter the premises. There was not a soul in the entire building as I made my way to the sixth floor and entered my office for the very last time. Once inside, I quickly went over the last tasks I had to do by way of tying up all loose ends together as it were, I had a heavy, full-sized suitcase packed with my stuff plus a number of bags containing books. I was really grateful for Amy who told me that she would help me transport my bags and baggage to Grand Central Station after brunch, as I simply would not have been able to manage entirely on my own (particularly since my knee was playing up so badly).

Brunch at Fred and Wife Freda’s:

Amy arrived in about half an hour (by which time I had completed the entire task of clearing out my stuff). What I could not take with me, I left behind with labels saying “Junk”. I told Billy, my colleague, that he could dispose of them as he saw fit. Gosh! What a huge task it was! But then, compared with the clearing of a four level home that I had undertaken in one month in Connecticut last November, it was not really much at all!

Amy googled good places to eat Brunch near NYU and came up with the Grey Dog on University Place. It was a really beautiful morning in New York City and the weather was perfectly conducive for browsing at a street market (which is what we did). However, as I was reluctant to do too much walking, we went in search of the café. We ended up at Fred’s Wife Freda, a really weird name for a café, but it did specialize in brunch.

A quick look at the menu led both of us to choose the Rosewater waffles with Lebanese labneh (yoghurt), fresh berries and honeyed syrup. Amy had a cold-brew press coffee and I chose to wait until we finished to go to Amorino’s to get myself a hot chocolate. This used to be my guilty pleasure when I was teaching in buildings that required me to walk through Fifth Avenue or University Place to get back to my office. The waffles were very tasty and yes, we did ask for more syrup as there wasn’t nearly enough served with our dish; but it was delicious. After we settled the bill, we strolled to Amorino’s where Amy got me a hot chocolate (which was wonderful of her).

Leaving New York for Connecticut:

With brunch accomplished, Amy and I decided to get going back to Connecticut. Amy said she would accompany me in the Uber as far as the station and would put me in the train before leaving. I felt highly indebted to her and wondered what on earth I could ever do without friends!

I called for an Uber on my phone, got one in 5 minutes, after we had brought my stuff downstairs to street level. The Uber arrived and we were off. I had hoped to get the 2.02 pm train but the driver did not even know where he was going and we lost a lot of time. We ended up taking the 2.34 train but it was fine because we had enough time to find our platform, load my items in the train and leave.

By half past three, I was at Westport station in Connecticut, where Leslie was waiting for me. She then helped me get my items into her car and in no time we were at her place. I was deeply relieved that I had finished this major assignment that had been dangling like a sword above my head. Once we arrived at Leslie’s, she settled me back with a cup of lemony tea and some cookies and we sat chatting about all my escapades of the past few days. She also walked me around the house showing me all the controls of things I might need to use. I spent a while unpacking and putting my clothes into the closet and making myself feel at home.

Dinner at Leslie’s:

Dinner that first night at Leslie’s was a salad, spinach tortellini served with a delicious zucchini-tomato sauce that Leslie had made and some roasted broccoli. A very delicious quickly improvised meal indeed! We sat watching TV as Leslie is avidly following Trump’s indictments as covered by MSNBC and also filled me in on some of the salient features of the issues.

I was, understandably, pretty tired by the end of the day and ready to get to my bed as soon as possible as I craved rest. And that was exactly what I did!

Until tomorrow…cheerio!