Off to Syria and Jordan- Part One.... Comfort Zones and all that

Some words just cling on to your memory…. During the process of my growing up…. I was an avid fan of Indiana Jones… and used to imitate and enact him during my lonely hours. I remember in one of his movies…he is standing amidst of Blacks and Berbers in an African souq and asking aloud

“Does anybody over here speaks English”

This dialogue reverberated within me for years… I used to wonder- how it would be like to stand instead of him, surrounded by people unknown and trying to find your way out.

Traveling beyond your comfort zone is difficult, if not in reality then in the mind. However, everybody has his or her own set of comfort zone… for someone it may just be his city… and for some other it may be the entire world. The idea is to keep expanding it, the more you expand it… the more you feel empowered and emancipated.

I remember when I used to take some personality building classes at Career Launcher in Gurgaon for prospective MBA students… there I met a very meek and timid boy, who lost his father at a very young age and was brought up by his mother in very difficult circumstances- who dreamt to stand on his own in the ruthless world and used to think that MBA was his passport for doing it. After conducting a mock interview, I realized, what he needed was not any career counseling but a total personality re-engineering. I was sure even if he did his MBA, he would still not succeed because he did not have any courage to stand up and be counted.

I called him back after all the mock interviews were over and told him that I would be conducting his next interview after a week, and that I wanted him to do one practical exercise… I told him to pack his backs, today- and not tomorrow- take 500 rupees in the pocket and head alone…without any company to Agra… stay there for three days, see Tajmahal, Fatehpur Sikri, Agra Fort, Sikandara and then after seeing them all come back. I told him that I have no way to ascertain if he does it all alone, I told him that I do not even have any means to force him to do it all… and yet as a senior, as a teacher…I place my trust on him… as I am sure it will help him.

One week later, I met him again… till then, he had gathered all his courage and done the trip all alone… and he was a changed person now… he was speaking more confidently and cheerfully…he had a sense of achievement, a sense of accomplishment…

What happened…? I believe that he just expanded his comfort zone… earlier his comfort zone was limited to the four walls of his house… and suddenly he was thrown into the big bad world and still he survived… he realized that beyond the confines of his house, there is a huge world out there to be reclaimed… to be experienced…

Coming to Egypt did something similar to me… earlier when traveling within India…I was never gripped by a fear of the unknown… for I was traveling in my own country… between my own people… people who will understand me… who will help me… and even if they don’t then help is one phone call away…

And then I used to take a hard look at my globe-trotting friends and feel jealous at the ease they use to hop from country to country… I was so ignorant… I did not know as to what is the difference between immigration and emigration, between passport and a visa (really so, I laugh at my ignorance now… but that was it… everybody develops with time and covers up his Achilles heel)

When coming over to Egypt… I developed cold feet and wondered how I will complete all the formalities and how would I survive… Thanks to my wife, I completed all my formalities and survived (My wife, strangely, is cool in such circumstances… she has amazing levels of confidence… I believe 5 years in sales teaches you to be a survivor)

So coming over to Cairo, dismantled my self doubts… but then was another set of self doubts settling in… as to how will I survive on the roads of Cairo…without any inkling of the local language… slowly but surely I learnt to survive there also… I realized English is on the way to become a global language… and quite a few people in Cairo understood most of the operational words of English… and learning a few words in Arabic was never a problem… Another self doubt sprung up, thereafter… as to how will I survive in the hinterlands of Egypt… where people do not speak or understand English. For a long time, therefore, while visiting hinterlands of Egypt… I just preferred third party operated tour, but soon gathered enough courage to travel places alone… I traveled the Sinai desert all alone… then the Western Oases alone… and mind you these are the places which are not even visited by hordes of tourists…

Slowly but surely I have developed very high degree of comfort level for Egypt…. It now seems to be my own country in all the respects… also regarding international travel; I have developed a high level of comfort level… And yet sometime I wonder … what if I am thrown into a sub-Saharan country without my official capacity. Say in Congo where, my Friend Paritosh tells me, an absolute anarchy prevails… (Actually I envy Paritosh for having seen such countries…soon he will be going to Sudan and Angola… yesterday I was telling him… the last 500 years were dominated by Europeans… because they took the challenge of finding sea-routes to newer vista…. Before that the 500 years were dominated by Arabs… because they established land routes between the far flung economies, despite the challenges thrown in by difficult terrains… I, therefore believe the next few years will be dominated by forces who invest in these untapped areas… who take the challenge of doing business in such hostile areas… who discover the economic potential of these places… did somebody say China!!!!!!!!)

Now is the time to expand my comfort zone even further…. Very soon I will be roaming in the expanses of Syria and Jordan… more about it later.