Quo Vadis
Quo Vadis… is an existential question… Where am I going…?
It allows me to take a stock of where am I… where am I heading … and where do I want to be headed to… this question had been bothering me for quite some time… ever since I read this phrase for the first time, courtesy my friend Raja. And today when I saw ROCK ON for third time… something struck my chords (literally that is), lubricated my thought process… and made me think… where I am, where am I heading and where do I want to be headed to.
Where am I… well I am all alone in one the most dangerous part of the globe called Kandahar… undergoing new experiences everyday… the last being meeting a person, whose both hands were amputated after a bomb explosion… and who writes with his legs… and has devised his own style of writing Dari and Pashto… both being hard to write languages, otherwise. This place has taught me so much… like Cairo… helped me in developing new perspectives… new insights… and most importantly building new momentums. Someone told me a story… of how his friend went to India… and didn’t have money to buy medicine… and how a medicine shop-owner said… that don’t worry take the medicine and pay later… that you are a Pathan… and who can be more trustworthy than them. The narrator then blinked… he said India is the only place in the world where we are respected… I was numbed and touched… I thanked that medicine shop owner… and I am proud of my people’s ability to be humans… when world around… people are being branded as terrorists… based on their religion and ethnicity.
Where am I headed…? I really don’t know… what I know… is that every brush with new cultures… I change as a human being… for example… a small change… Cairo has changed me… from being aloof to secular… and not just an armchair or intellectual secular… which hardly matters… but emotionally secular. I still don’t know, as to where am I headed… or what I would become…after this stint… but that I would relish whatever I become… after this stint. I am overwhelmed by the hospitality, genuine warmth that people have showed towards me…
And that brings me to the most important question… where do I want to head for.
Do I want to achieve big things… no… I don’t want to be rich… I don’t want to be high and mighty… I don’t even want to be some well respected intellectual… when I look into the depths of my heart… I find small wishes… small dreams… and let me just write them here and now… lest I am blinded by the world I am living… which lays so much stress over material success… of whether I walk or breeze pass in a luxury car… whether I have a happy home in a middle class locality or a house in some up market locality….
First… believe it or not, I want to learn Salsa with my wife… Why Salsa… I really don’t know… I just want to learn it… did I ever try… well I remember meeting a Columbian Girl, once… Natasha… who tried to demonstrate few steps of this magical dance… much of why I want to learn Salsa… emanates from there… Natasha was full of life and oodles of attitude… she didn’t fall for my flirtations… he he he!
Second… I want to visit a few places in the world- Barcelona (my dream city), Salaar Uyuni (salt flats in Bolivia… which due to its height and rarified air… give the illusion as if you are walking in the sky), Ethiopia (I want to hire a canoe on Lake Tana and visit the rock churches all around the place) and last but not the least… Armenia (I heard its name, firstly, when it was fighting with Azerbaijan for Nogorno Karabak… then when I saw … Kim Kardashian… perhaps, the sexiest women alive… Armenia is famous for its beautiful countryside and old churches)
Third… a very small dream, of becoming a good swimmer… I mean I know swimming… but have problems in coordinating my breathing while swimming… I just want to overcome that… because of this… I fear water… was not able to snorkel in deep water in Sinai… had to swim along the edges of Cleopatra Bath in Siwa Oasis in Egypt… Swimming opens a plethora of opportunities considering that two-third of the world is water…
Fourth… I have tried it many times… and due to constant failures, am led to believe that I am not cut out for it… I want to learn Guitar… why… I just don’t know… I mean I can play simple tunes… like “Tujhe Dekha to ye Jana Sanam” etc… but then these tunes are rote learned… some day, I will try it again… or at least buy one very expensive guitar… which would, perhaps, force me to try it until I succeed. (And here is the reason as to why ROCK ON made me write this blog)
Last (or perhaps not the last, but certainly the most important wish)… I wish to travel with my sons… all alone… just with them… to inculcate in them the magic of traveling, of how traveling is the celebration of being human. when I close my eyes… I dream of that temple in Gangadevsthan that provided me a refuge for an entire night… I was a Hindi speaker… and most of them there were speaking Marathi… and yet I was welcomed… a far cry from the hatred that I keep on hearing about. I dream of Amboli… how I stayed in a hut belonging to a tribesmen… giving him 100 rupees… for a bed and dinner… my idea of Bed and Breakfast… in a place that is no-where…. I dream of Jaigad… the spooky fort… that provided me refuge… or Jaitapur and its Custom outpost… of meeting a couple of kids in Saint Simeon in Aleppo, kids who offered me figs and tea… who welcomed me in their homes… they didn’t know me… they didn’t even know where I was from… all they knew was that I was a human being… old enough to be their father… their uncle… of meeting people in Al-Qasr… of sleeping in White Desert… of seeing Desert Fox…
Yeah… this is what I want to do… I don’t want to be rich, powerful, influential… these things only make you believe that you are happy… but chasing these small dreams make you really happy
So… Quo Vadis
It allows me to take a stock of where am I… where am I heading … and where do I want to be headed to… this question had been bothering me for quite some time… ever since I read this phrase for the first time, courtesy my friend Raja. And today when I saw ROCK ON for third time… something struck my chords (literally that is), lubricated my thought process… and made me think… where I am, where am I heading and where do I want to be headed to.
Where am I… well I am all alone in one the most dangerous part of the globe called Kandahar… undergoing new experiences everyday… the last being meeting a person, whose both hands were amputated after a bomb explosion… and who writes with his legs… and has devised his own style of writing Dari and Pashto… both being hard to write languages, otherwise. This place has taught me so much… like Cairo… helped me in developing new perspectives… new insights… and most importantly building new momentums. Someone told me a story… of how his friend went to India… and didn’t have money to buy medicine… and how a medicine shop-owner said… that don’t worry take the medicine and pay later… that you are a Pathan… and who can be more trustworthy than them. The narrator then blinked… he said India is the only place in the world where we are respected… I was numbed and touched… I thanked that medicine shop owner… and I am proud of my people’s ability to be humans… when world around… people are being branded as terrorists… based on their religion and ethnicity.
Where am I headed…? I really don’t know… what I know… is that every brush with new cultures… I change as a human being… for example… a small change… Cairo has changed me… from being aloof to secular… and not just an armchair or intellectual secular… which hardly matters… but emotionally secular. I still don’t know, as to where am I headed… or what I would become…after this stint… but that I would relish whatever I become… after this stint. I am overwhelmed by the hospitality, genuine warmth that people have showed towards me…
And that brings me to the most important question… where do I want to head for.
Do I want to achieve big things… no… I don’t want to be rich… I don’t want to be high and mighty… I don’t even want to be some well respected intellectual… when I look into the depths of my heart… I find small wishes… small dreams… and let me just write them here and now… lest I am blinded by the world I am living… which lays so much stress over material success… of whether I walk or breeze pass in a luxury car… whether I have a happy home in a middle class locality or a house in some up market locality….
First… believe it or not, I want to learn Salsa with my wife… Why Salsa… I really don’t know… I just want to learn it… did I ever try… well I remember meeting a Columbian Girl, once… Natasha… who tried to demonstrate few steps of this magical dance… much of why I want to learn Salsa… emanates from there… Natasha was full of life and oodles of attitude… she didn’t fall for my flirtations… he he he!
Second… I want to visit a few places in the world- Barcelona (my dream city), Salaar Uyuni (salt flats in Bolivia… which due to its height and rarified air… give the illusion as if you are walking in the sky), Ethiopia (I want to hire a canoe on Lake Tana and visit the rock churches all around the place) and last but not the least… Armenia (I heard its name, firstly, when it was fighting with Azerbaijan for Nogorno Karabak… then when I saw … Kim Kardashian… perhaps, the sexiest women alive… Armenia is famous for its beautiful countryside and old churches)
Third… a very small dream, of becoming a good swimmer… I mean I know swimming… but have problems in coordinating my breathing while swimming… I just want to overcome that… because of this… I fear water… was not able to snorkel in deep water in Sinai… had to swim along the edges of Cleopatra Bath in Siwa Oasis in Egypt… Swimming opens a plethora of opportunities considering that two-third of the world is water…
Fourth… I have tried it many times… and due to constant failures, am led to believe that I am not cut out for it… I want to learn Guitar… why… I just don’t know… I mean I can play simple tunes… like “Tujhe Dekha to ye Jana Sanam” etc… but then these tunes are rote learned… some day, I will try it again… or at least buy one very expensive guitar… which would, perhaps, force me to try it until I succeed. (And here is the reason as to why ROCK ON made me write this blog)
Last (or perhaps not the last, but certainly the most important wish)… I wish to travel with my sons… all alone… just with them… to inculcate in them the magic of traveling, of how traveling is the celebration of being human. when I close my eyes… I dream of that temple in Gangadevsthan that provided me a refuge for an entire night… I was a Hindi speaker… and most of them there were speaking Marathi… and yet I was welcomed… a far cry from the hatred that I keep on hearing about. I dream of Amboli… how I stayed in a hut belonging to a tribesmen… giving him 100 rupees… for a bed and dinner… my idea of Bed and Breakfast… in a place that is no-where…. I dream of Jaigad… the spooky fort… that provided me refuge… or Jaitapur and its Custom outpost… of meeting a couple of kids in Saint Simeon in Aleppo, kids who offered me figs and tea… who welcomed me in their homes… they didn’t know me… they didn’t even know where I was from… all they knew was that I was a human being… old enough to be their father… their uncle… of meeting people in Al-Qasr… of sleeping in White Desert… of seeing Desert Fox…
Yeah… this is what I want to do… I don’t want to be rich, powerful, influential… these things only make you believe that you are happy… but chasing these small dreams make you really happy
So… Quo Vadis
3 comments:
You are indeed blessed having felt it all in your present sitation ... young, healthy and sound in your mind. The realisation dawns upon each one of us quite late .... probably in the dusk of our lives or even death bed! Just chase your dreams ..... and Hey! Watch "Dasvidaniya" .... a heart warming, simple hindi film based on a very similar concept.
ممتاز
who is this natasha???
Natasha... tumhari class wali Natasha... Mona Kamel ke yahan mile the.... aur usne Salsa ke kuch steps sikhaye the
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