Someone being nice to you is a miracle these days......Someone who is a complete stranger being nice to you is a bigger miracle these days......Someone who is a complete stranger in a foreign land being nice to you is the biggest miracle these days? The "don't trust strangers" refrain that we hear from our very young days in school probably makes it this way. But my story is a miracle because I felt it at that moment given my circumstances....so, let me rewind to the month of May this year when this happened.
Traveling with young kids is a big responsibility. You can't just up and go. You need to plan your day much better when you travel with kids....well, knowing me I would have planned anyway, but kids are a good excuse as any. So, we were in Paris this May and I had planned every day with great degree of "research". Which metro to take, how much distance to cover, which places to see and and in what order of priority, blah blah.....every minute detail or so I thought. www.rapt.info gives you all the info you need. And hey, everything worked to plan and we finished an exciting week in Paris.
This was the day to head back home. The flight out was at around ten in the morning. My "research" had revealed that from where we stayed it would be best if we boarded the train from Stade de France to reach Charles De Gaulle by 8.30 am or so. Well that would be much better than going back into town to board from Gard Du Nord, because I thought that was the longer route. I told my wife how my "research" had helped me find a new route that was much quicker and shorter and was really pleased with myself. But as luck would have it, when we reached Stade De France, the train station was deserted.....the information booth was closed....the ticketman was missing ........ I was forced to go to the ticket vending machine for us to get our tickets to the airport. The ticket vending machine was no rocket science..... I was confident of choosing the right ticket and getting my family safely on the train to the airport. I had used the machine earlier in the week and though I had some difficulty with it accepting my card, I was able to buy tickets with cash. Confidently I stepped up, chose the ticket options and the machine told me that I had to pay Euro 27. I pulled out two notes of Euro 20 each only to realize that the machine accepted coins or card.....no notes, please!! I had just emptied out my coins with the taxi driver...Not enough coins!! So, time to try the card. And as my worst fears came true, the machine refused to recognize the card. Not a person in sight...a deserted train station....not a cab in sight....middle of nowhere...two kids and four suitcases.....that is where my "research" had landed us. I was breaking into a sweat....my usually unflappable wife was getting worried too....that was a sign that I had really screwed up. I had a silent prayer on my lips.
Just as it seemed we were stuck in no man's land, I hear a voice...."Aap India se ho?"....."Are you from India?"....it sounded like Hindi, close to Hindi or was is some version of Hindi? Well, if it wasn't Hindi, I could still understand it. I turned to find a person appear out of nowhere. He had a grey shirt and an almost grey pant....he wore a cap and had a bag slinging across his body. He had South Asian features? I was just relieved to see someone in that place at that time. I explained my predicament, he swiped his card...it worked, bought us tickets...I had 2 notes of Euro 20 and some coins adding up to 5 Euro. I needed to pay him Euro 27, he plucked the Euro 25 out of my hand...said that was fine and rushed into the station. As he was stepping in, he turned back and shouted directions about which platform we should go for the train to the airport. Then, he disappeared into the station. Disappeared into an empty station? The station was now as deserted as it had been when we first reached here.
The good Samaritan who came out of nowhere.....I am not even sure I thanked him well enough, everything was a daze. I still owe him a big thank you...I owe him 2 Euro....but, he showed me that a good human being can be a miracle worker for some one else...This is certainly a miracle story for me and my family....Was it one man's goodness or was it something more? I'll never know, but I'll never forget too. This is my way of remembering my miracle man!! Thank you!!
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Monday, July 19, 2010
My Scatterbrained Generation...but, who am I to say!!
I read an article this weekend about the "breaking news" culture in news production and dissemination. About how issues debated fiercely a year ago have no recall value today. Well, is it an issue with the news production company or does this mirror the tastes of the audience? Are we increasingly becoming a scatterbrained generation that is easily distracted?
When was the last time you did something for the first time? This resonates with our generation that loves innovation and newness.....but hey, not everything is accomplished by doing something for the first time...Isn't excellence achieved by doing the same old thing for the hundredth time? But who am I to say.....I am writing this blog because i wanted to do something new?
How many times have we provided feedback to our co-workers or friends that they are not good at multitasking? How can a generation that encourages multitasking as a core competence get back in return concentration and attention? Well, concentrating on that one important thing could get us somewhere instead of doing the hundred that gets you nowhere. But who am i to say..... I should be spending time with my daughters instead of typing this out on my rickety keyboard?
Talking about daughters reminds me.....my daughters want a new Barbie and I wonder what happened to the last toy we bought? It lies forgotten and neglected in the bottom draw. Do we focus more on acquiring new? Do we live in a world that has forgotten the old? Thanks to Apple and Microsoft and everything high tech, man is keen on pushing the boundaries, but is this also leading to a generation that is irritated with the old, that does not remember the old, that does not value the old? But who am I to say....when was the last time I called up my old friends and talked to them?
All the world philosophies talk about the the stillness of the mind, about being in the present, about deep listening. When I look around , I see the opposites. I see a father talking to his daughter...but is also fiddling his blackberry. I see a mother feeding her baby....but is also watching the television. I see everyone doing multiple things. I see every other person feeling neglected. I see emotional breakdown. I see a generation that is fragile. I see a generation that is distracted. I see a generation that fails to concentrate on the one thing that can make it happy.
Breaking news: We are conditioned to be distracted. You will forget you even read this in 10 minutes. You will be on to the next breaking news....move on....my musings are no breaking news in any case.
When was the last time you did something for the first time? This resonates with our generation that loves innovation and newness.....but hey, not everything is accomplished by doing something for the first time...Isn't excellence achieved by doing the same old thing for the hundredth time? But who am I to say.....I am writing this blog because i wanted to do something new?
How many times have we provided feedback to our co-workers or friends that they are not good at multitasking? How can a generation that encourages multitasking as a core competence get back in return concentration and attention? Well, concentrating on that one important thing could get us somewhere instead of doing the hundred that gets you nowhere. But who am i to say..... I should be spending time with my daughters instead of typing this out on my rickety keyboard?
Talking about daughters reminds me.....my daughters want a new Barbie and I wonder what happened to the last toy we bought? It lies forgotten and neglected in the bottom draw. Do we focus more on acquiring new? Do we live in a world that has forgotten the old? Thanks to Apple and Microsoft and everything high tech, man is keen on pushing the boundaries, but is this also leading to a generation that is irritated with the old, that does not remember the old, that does not value the old? But who am I to say....when was the last time I called up my old friends and talked to them?
All the world philosophies talk about the the stillness of the mind, about being in the present, about deep listening. When I look around , I see the opposites. I see a father talking to his daughter...but is also fiddling his blackberry. I see a mother feeding her baby....but is also watching the television. I see everyone doing multiple things. I see every other person feeling neglected. I see emotional breakdown. I see a generation that is fragile. I see a generation that is distracted. I see a generation that fails to concentrate on the one thing that can make it happy.
Breaking news: We are conditioned to be distracted. You will forget you even read this in 10 minutes. You will be on to the next breaking news....move on....my musings are no breaking news in any case.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Games people play
This is the age of physic Paul, the clairvoyant octopus that can predict football matches. I heard somewhere that if one were to place a ten dollar bet on each Paul prediction, by the end of the world cup, one would be richer by close to ten thousand dollars!! This entertaining octopus story apart from being an advertisement for football, brings up questions about life itself - are we just stage actors in a huge preplanned drama and is it possible someone somewhere has a script? Maybe, Paul had a sneak peek into that script? Is that script what we call destiny? Does the script change dynamically depending on what the actors do? Is this a big soap opera on someone's 42 inch plasma TV? Is this a video game on someone's new Play Station....Are you a graphic image in a high resolution environment.....well, maybe ....... maybe not....but it is intriguing to say the least. Do you have the controls for this game or are the buttons being pushed elsewhere? Let me know when you find out....
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