This morning as I got off the F train at Second Avenue, I witnessed a curious religious stand-off. On the First Avenue side of the token booth area, there was the usual collection of little old Hispanic ladies primly gripping their copies of Watchtower and casting slightly superior gazes at the commuting damned. On the Allen Street side, however, things were livened up considerably by a trio of Hare Krishnas — or members of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, as they are more formally known — who were ringing bells and chanting cheerlessly in the morning cold and damp.
Of course no one went near either group, but it was sort of fascinating to watch these two diametrically opposed clumps of religious fanatics go about their business, ignoring each other as carefully as passers-by ignored them.
Also published on Medium.