It's a small world after all

December 14, 2006:

I thought I was in New York but why did it feel like Mumbai?

It must have been the aggressive cab drivers who kept trying to run me over every time I tried to cross a street. Or was it the street vendors on Times Square who had interesting and exotic merchandise that they were selling. No, no .. I think it was the throngs of people with battle-hardened faces storming down the roads with a mission! Was it the sights, sounds and smell of the place? The incredibly fine cuisine? The dogged determination and resilience of it's population?

I can't quite put my finger on it but folks who have been to both these cities will know what I am talking about. There is an uncanny similarity between these two cities that are situated a world apart. And it is not the roads and building that make them look similar but it is the heart and soul of the two cities that seem identical.