EXCERPTS FROM MY LIFE//UPPER WESTSIDE INDIAN
We were in Times Square eating Thai food the night before. Because the Indian restaurant we wanted to eat at was closed, we settled for something different. There weren’t many people in the restaurant. Only us and a couple on a date sitting at a table across. The lighting was dim, as shadows occupied more than color optically. It was beginning to snow but we were plotting plans for the next day.
“What you tryna do tomorrow man?” asked my guy O.
I told him it’d be pretty dope to go to the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History. I mentioned how much I loved Neil DeGrasse Tyson and how profound of an impact Cosmos had on my existential crisis. The waiter brought out our food and refilled waters as the conversation carried on. Young Kev and I parted ways from Obed as the snow picked up. He went back to his place in Manhattan and we took the subway back to our Air Bnb in Brooklyn. When we got back, the place reeked of marijuana smoke from the guys staying on the floor beneath us. I ate my snacks and drank my Gatorade from the deli down the street as I passed out.
The next morning, I woke up and it was a winter wonderland. I looked out my window and saw snowcaps atop buildings in the vicinity. It made me feel like a kid again. I couldn’t believe out of all my years of living in New York during my childhood, I had never seen snow in the city. As young Kev and I got ready, I hit Obed to touch bases. Due to our dinner circumstances last night, we decided to meet at an Indian joint a block away from the American Museum of Natural History for lunch before going to the Hayden Planetarium.
Kev and I arrived 30 minutes before Obed. The restaurant was tiny, but we were seated up front. We told the waitress we were waiting on one more before we’d order. The subway ride and the walk through the snow built my appetite up, and because we didn’t eat Indian last night, I knew exactly what I wanted. Although I was set on ordering Chicken Tikka Masala, I had my head down browsing the menu for appetizers and maybe even a desert. I don’t often eat deserts, but here I was in New York City after all. Kev nudges me and tells me to check my phone. Just as he does so, my phone lights up with a notification from him. It was a text that read Neil just walked in. I responded to him in confusion. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. I could not mistake that voice for anybody else. Neil DeGrasse Tyson was sitting at a table behind me talking that talk!!!
A few minutes later Obed walks in and we fill him in. He’s sitting at an angle where he can naturally see Neil without making things obvious. He spots Neil in disbelief. I was still in shock, too. I texted my girl at the time that Neil was behind us eating. It was unreal, even til’ this day. We order our food and have great conversation over Indian. Every so often I stopped talking to hear Neil speak, and what made the experience more authentic was he was speaking on some ultra-intelligent-nerd-type tip. The few occasions I eavesdropped on his conversation he was speaking of weather on Mars, how extremely cold space is, and the possibility of finding extraterrestrial life in a nearby solar system. Neil was sitting that close to us, at a table with 8 or so people.
As fate would have it, we finished our meals at the same time. While we are putting our coats on getting ready to walk to the American Museum of Natural History, Neil is walking out as well. O stops him and asks if we could get a photo. I shake his hand and Kev snaps a photo of us together. Shit was unreal. We were just talking about him less than 12 hours ago, and now we’re communicating with him in person. How many Cosmos watchers and Startalk Radio listeners can say they shook NDG’s hand??
Off the hype of coincidental occurrences and exceptional company, I walked with my guys to the Hayden Planetarium vowing to never forget that one time we got upper westside Indian.