Like Vinny from the movie, my cousin Chinnah is quite a character. A very affectionate person, he surely leads an eccentric life. He and his charming wife, Isabel, live in a small apartment on West 51st right near Broadway and all sorts of fun stuff to do in New York City. Chinnah and Isabel would take us on walking tours. They took us to Macy’s—I remember being scared of getting lost in it. I stuck to Isabel, much to her amusement. A true New Yorker, she couldn’t understand my fears. But I had never been in such a huge, crowded shopping center before. Later that day we went to an artist’s fair that was set up just near Lincoln Center. Isabel bought me a lovely hand-tooled hand bag to make up for having laughed at my fears of getting lost in Macy’s!
I’ll always remember my first taste of a live Broadway show. Chinnah took me see Cats. I had always loved that poem and was intrigued about how a full length musical could be made out of it. I guess I must have had my mouth hanging open all the time! Some of the cats ran through the audience, much to our delight. After the show we went to a Thai restaurant and to my surprise I found that I liked the jellyfish curry after all. I shall never forget my first experience of seeing a live Broadway show, and eating jellyfish.
