Wisely foolish

"Its wise to stay foolish-the wise is who struggles to make a choice out of all options, the fool can only be rewarded with no options but one choice."

--
Vinay

Current mode: bhag dk bose dk bose dk bose ! 

Billion medals

Miles away from India, on a usual afternoon at lunch came a question from an European friend which was blatant and non sarcastic- "So how does a country with one billion people manage to win just 6 medals"

I look at him with absolutely no remorse and answer firmly " Yes, I think we did very well, we exceeded expectations" and from here on it just went on to be a monologue.

Did you ever wake up to a day where you may get watersupply for only 40 minutes in 24 hours? Did you ever catch a local public transport where getting on to it within those five seconds of its stop with thousands of other likeminded souls is as challenging as Usain bolt running for those 9.63 seconds with just seven more competitors. Everyone in that bus/train is a Bolt ! Did you ever experience temperatures soaring more than 40 c with no electricity when you needed it the most?

Did you ever wake up to a day when you are told that if you did not excel in your academics that you would be on the streets begging along with the helpless? Did you ever live in the fear that the place where you just  shopped all that you wanted, watched a movie and had an icecream might actually be your last appearance to the world?  Did you ever hear of  riots, curfews & discrimination?


Did you ever wake up to a weekend at all? Did you ever see people keep their shops open on all seven days of the week till its dark for their hard earned bread?
I respect those countries which try to answer these questions everyday and  still manage to play their national anthem at various events. Yes I know you will point to China now, kudos to them, but did they ever see unlimited number of cultures, languages, religions coexisting in one land and playing by the rules of 'democracy'. Did you ever manage 10 people from different backgrounds at office without starting politics? Yes, billion different people with thousand different backgrounds gave birth to a political class.

Now tell me with all this if we still manage 6 medals and you manage 1/3rd of ours then its my turn to ask with as simple life as yours with 24 hours of water, beer, electricity, buses and trains that run half empty with a choice to live your life before you choose to work and spend your weekends with all the different passions that you may have dreamt during the week, who is the winner?

After all, billion people manage to smile at the end of the day when they return home clearing the ‘ 24 hour hurdles race’worth a gold ! Yes we win billion golds everyday !

And the lunch ended.

"I know your anger, I know your dreams"

The scene

This scene from Lost is a crazy moment. When I saw this one last yr, it stayed with me. It is difficult to explain this moment, I literally feel like this at every station now, especially when the weather is cloudy and I have had a bad day at work !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QH-aHRfErQ

Really liked the 17th episode , season 7 . Dont know what happened after that.. but well thought out script for an episode..very true and universally applicable.

Phase 1 over n out

and to open a blog after 4 months makes me think If I had anything worthwhile to jot down in recent times . But let me give this a shot :

1. Arrival @ swiss - from Airport to office , new people, different work culture, unusual temperatures

2. From Hotel to Aubonne - a country side swiss accommodation, initially was reluctant

3. Shift from Aubonne to Lausanne - happened on 23rd Dec off to Munich on the same day

4. Dacau - This will leave an impression for the rest of my life - A cold chilly morning to start with , ending with somber mood in the evening with lessons to take away for life - Nazism you make me feel that I'm truly blessed

5. Office - big bosses ,meetings ,screwed up waiting to run away !

6. Rome - Yes, I want to to go back to this place . This is truly an eternal city. I somehow feel man evolved from here.Roaming like Romans do, getting lost and meeting Kunal after 6 hours in the city of Rome at Spanish steps without phone, internet - I guess we were truly blessed by the Pope at Vatican in the morning for this to happen. Over to new yrs

7. Poker, bowling, barbeques, beach volleyball, casinos entered life and ofcourse the Zurich trips to meet friends - amongst all this there were few dull weekends

8. Grand reunion - 5 of us - you cant feel more home than with your friends - The first swiss trip

9. Paris - this trip had lot of things to talk about and will go down as one of those episodes in season 8 of "Kids here is the story of "How I did not meet your mother at Paris""

which reminds me -- my next blog would be a continuation of this.

Overall - I got what I wanted during this phase of my life . For now looking forward to India :)