What a strange place, I thought, glancing at a vagrant with a jolly countenance, accompanied by a dog, greeting passers-by; a boy spreading a blanket over his girlfriend, who was curled up on the busy pavement; and a hopeful man with a cardboard sign stating that he is in the fourth stage of pancreatic cancer, amid high-rise buildings and chic crowd—the highlights of New York City. A few days prior to my visit, I had stumbled on an article that recounted the lives of homeless millennials, and here I was on a wintry night, flanked by them.

By a crosswalk where I had been waiting, a man appeared before me and remarked, with gleaming eyes and assumed familiarity, that he was “embracing movements” in a fast-paced urban milieu. At the adjacent subway station, I was amused to catch a glimpse of a group of drunken revellers baring bosom and buttocks to each other with humour, in a New York minute.

It was the night of Halloween; moving past Daenerys Targaryen, a man clad in a black bath towel, some vampires, and discarded postiches, I was convinced that the city dwellers did not entirely lack the ardour surrounding the festivity. Miniature dogs crossed streets with their pretty guardians. A man spat compulsively as he walked. One by one, the shops shut down, diminishing the horizontal city lights. As the vehicular movement was receding and people were making their way home, a bunch of youngsters hauled a trolley full of fast food down the sidewalk, for the homeless.

It was not the Times Square or the Empire State Building which captivated me that night, but the multitude of such diverse people. I wondered why the acquaintances whom I had met during my sojourn in New Jersey, which is not very far from New York City, suggested that I visit the most populous city in the United States, as they sang its praises. Is it distraction in the form of ceaseless movement of assorted masses which people seek, drawing them to a metropolis such as the New York City, or is it that people like to be associated with a place full of tall structures and fashionable people, perhaps to boost their sense of self?

Disparity exists here, too.