The stars seem farther without the stairway

By John Laxmi

NEW YORK, SEPT. 14. A marketing brochure, describing the World Trade Center, used to contain this cute warning: ``At night, please don't touch the stars!''

The celestial stars continue to twinkle over New York city, but the terrestrial stairway to those stars, the World Trade Center, is gone. The World Trade Center towers were, of course, the tallest buildings in New York City, that original city of skyscrapers. Along with the Empire State Building, the twin towers gave New York City's skyline a signature look. Many later- built structures are taller, like Chicago's Sears Tower and Kuala Lumpur's Petronas Towers. I have visited these and other tall buildings in many parts of the world, but New York City's twin towers have been, and will remain, the most special to me.

Of course, destroyed yesterday were more than mere buildings. Thousands of innocent lives were lost, the world's financial capital was paralysed; America's defence headquarters was hit and the entire civilised world was shaken by mayhem unfolding on live television. But the buildings were special too. New York's twin towers were owned and managed by The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, an unusual local government body in the U.S .

A joint venture between the States of New York and the adjacent State of New Jersey, the Port Authority also owns and runs the region's three major airports (JFK Airport, the Newark Airport and the LaGuardia Airport). The towers cost around $400 million in the 1970s. Ten days ago, the Port Authority sold the twin towers to a private real estate developer named Larry Silverstein. This was the deal of his life. Silverstein made an immediate payment of $616 million and agreed to pay $3 billion in lease payments over the next 99 years, in return for rights to manage and rent out the towers. Today, Larry Silverstein is devastated.

I've had my share of intimacy with the twin towers. As the twin towers were being completed 25 years ago, in 1976, I had just started to work in an office on the 11th floor of The Express Towers at Nariman Point in Bombay. In 1984, I got a job with Morgan Stanley at their headquarters in mid-town New York. During my career as an investment banker, I had numerous occasions to visit the World Trade Center, but never got the chance to have an office there. Ironically, in 1996, Morgan Stanley merged with Dean Witter, making Morgan Stanley the single largest tenant at the World Trade Center, occupying 19 floors. I still remained in Morgan Stanley's mid-town headquarters, my dream of working at the Trade Center remaining unfilled.

From a distance, the towers are two parallel pillars, awkward and almost arrogant. But, step up close to them and you will be captivated by the gleaming, smooth, sinewy metal and glass walls. If you stood close to the walls and looked up, the precisely straight beams were like arrows headed straight to heaven.

I have always considered it one of the most pleasant and proud chores to take friends and relatives visiting New York around to the city's many attractions. Going up to the top of the world trade center was always a favourite highlight. The view from the top was, of course, the ultimate treat. At the ground level, the lobby was huge, with very tall ceilings, probably over 50 feet high and brightly lit by natural light streaming through transparent glass walls.

The elevator ride was always a thriller. It took just 55 seconds - yes, seconds - to climb up the 110 floors. The elevator walls had ``Welcome'' signs printed in many languages, including ``Swagatam.'' These were huge elevators; each could carry as many as 30 visitors. Once you reach the top floor, you strolled around starting from the east side, through the north around to the west. Spectacular sights awaited you from the top of New York's throne.

To the east, the boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn sprawled out beyond the glistening East River. You could see the Verrazano Bridge and, on a clear day, even see flights into and out of the JFK airport. To the north, you could see the entire concrete jungle of Manhattan, including the older glory, the Empire State Building. Walk west and you could survey the Hudson River and beyond into New Jersey's rolling terrain. Walk around to the southern corner and the Statue of Liberty lifted up the torch to you, toasting liberty and freedom. The twin towers housed over four hundred different businesses, many fancy restaurants and conference centers. There were mundane pizza shops; there was the Akbar Restaurant and there was ``Windows On The World,'' the fanciest restaurant, on the 107th floor.

Several of my friends worked in these towers. I've spent hours and days on deals with the lawyers of Brown & Wood, a major Wall Street law firm located in the building. So too have I spent lots of time bashing with bankers at Fuji Bank and Sumitomo Bank, also tenants in the towers. I was thrilled to hear that many of my Fuji Bank friends fled to safety, on time. But my neighbour's brother is missing. He used to work there. I haven't heard of many other friends.

Troubled, I pray for survivors, looking up at the twinkling stars above. The stars look troubled too, searching for two missing towers. Two gentle fingers from the civilization below that used to caress the stars by night.

(The writer is a freelance writer and an adjunct faculty member at New York University; he was an investment banker with Morgan Stanley and Citigroup until 2000.)

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