Vegas baby!

There is not much that can be said about Vegas, that has not been said before. But having been there fore the first time last week, it is almost worth repeating it all over again. Vegas is simultaneously an embodiment to the success of human endeavor while being a symbol of the excesses that the very same success can bring about.

Vegas is a large city, the most populous in all of Nevada with more than half a million people. Yet when one talks about Vegas, one refers to the 4 mile stretch of land that lies just north of the airport - the Vegas strip - which is home to the probably the heaviest concentrations of hotels, casinos and other tourist attractions. And nowhere is the sharp contrast of a place and its surroundings more palpable than this stretch of land in Vegas. One could argue that the Manhattan in New York presents such a dramatic study in contrasts. But unlike the purity of Vegas, Manhattan is more of a mixed, fluid form of excess. In New York, you will see the worker squeeze past the tourist, the eye-sore next to the latest high-rise.

Vegas doesn't brook such differences. Everyone there is present for just one goal - to have fun. And no matter what that definition of fun is, Vegas is glad to cater to it. Once you are on the strip, it is difficult to imagine and world outside that has other, different demands.

Las Vegas is situated in a desert. One has to but drive a couple of miles east of the strip to see the hard baked earth and its thorny vegetation. On the strip however, the hotels do not even have the small card that says "Save water if you can - reuse towels". Forget conservation, but the lack of acknowledgment of the realities of its location is the cloak that Vegas cheerfully covers itself in, in its pursuit of fun.

The hotels are another study by itself. What would you say of the Venetian, a hotel that borrows so heavily from Italian architectural elements, shamelessly pandering gondola rides to the masses. Do you decry the death of a certain royalty with the jean clad in the marbled halls of the hotel, or do you stand in adoration of the gaudy tribute to the times of yore? What about the tropical forest in the middle of the Flamingo hotel - worry about the waterfalls or just enjoy the paradise walled in concrete?

When a place deviates from its natural center, there are always repercussions. The fact that Vegas has been able to take us so far from reality, for so long, is in itself a tribute to a certain obstinate inertia of human nature. I loved our time at the Sin City, but in a time of duress, it does well to reflect upon the nature of extremes. And no place to do that better, than Fabulous Las Vegas!