City Series – New York City

A city beckons….

Each week, we would be taking our readers on a trip to an ambitious city that has the potential to convert your dreams into reality. So, join with us, each week, on our column ‘A city beckons’ to know what makes a city magnetic!

Our colourful and wanderlust-quenching series begins with none other than the ‘Big Apple’ or New York City; it is important to note that New York City is different from New York State, here the former is a state with an area of 54,555 square miles and the latter is a city of 472 square miles in the same state. Or rather we can say that our journey is to the home of the famous Theodore Roosevelt, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Herman Melville and Billie Holiday.

A quick ride from the iconic copper structure will bring one to the mainland, only to be blanketed by a colourful tapestry of ethnic diversity. Universities such as Columbia, Pace and New York University (can rightly be considered as mini-cosmopolitan cities themselves!). Furthermore, place like Little Italy and Chinatown will definitely open your eyes to whole new worlds!

With multiple movies immortalising the Statue of Liberty on Ellis Island as a beacon for freedom and liberty, it certainly stands as a true metaphor for those arriving to the city to free them selves from the shackles of ignorance at the numerous renowned educational incautions located in the city. The ever-growing bustling student population of Fordham University, Stevens Institute for Technology and CUNY (City University of New York) is testament to the marked contribution of the city to the advancement of technology, science and arts. Now to satisfy the inner science enthusiast in you, you can either try to get into one of these universities or maybe head to the New York Hall of Science or Tesla Science Centre.

Now for all those books buffs out there, the third largest library in the world or the New York Public library would certainly cater to your tastes! On the other hand, after being enamoured by the characters roaming around the walls of The Rose Main Reading Room and if you wish to get a degree by exploring those characters in detail, you always have options like Concordia College, The Eugene Lang College for Liberal Arts and Barnard College.

 If you are more of the Drama Queen (or King), you can always immerse yourselves in the numerous performances conducted at various points in Broadway. This famous road in Manhattan also answers your night life musings in the form of the famed Times Square. 

With performers like Robert Downey Jr, Scarlet Johannsson and Alicia Keys calling New York City their home, you too can try to nurture your creative talents at The Julliard School, which however has an extremely stringent acceptance rate. There also schools like The Manhattan School of Music and The New School for those artistically inclined individuals.

Of course, a voyage to New York City would be incomplete without acknowledging its significance as the Financial capital of the world by walking along the streets of FiDi or the Financial district located in lower Manhattan. Undoubtedly the intensity and might of the ‘Charging Bull’ is enough to motivate one to plan their financial trajectories!

And finally as Alicia Key would say ‘There’s nothing you can’t do, Now you are in New York!