4 April
2014
26 February
2014
Why I don’t mind my crazy travel schedule
This week, I had to dash to DC for a few hours for a last minute engagement. Landed at National airport on time and hailed a cab to go to the city. We had barely left the airport when the cab driver looked at me and with a heavy accent asked me if I was from India. I know there is an inherent irony in an Indian guy claiming somebody else having an accent 🙂 In any case, I replied in the affirmative and the following very interesting conversation unfolded…
Me: “You know, I come to this city at least 20 times a year. I always meet cab drivers from Ethiopia or Eritrea. You don’t seem to be from there. Where are you from?”
He: “Afghanistan”
Me: “Afghanistan?”
I was surprised. I wanted to discuss politics in Afghanistan but was wondering how to ask him – not knowing what his reaction might be.
Instead I asked “Do you know Ahmad Ali”?
Me: “I think he is a singer from your country. He has an amazing voice. He sings in a language I cannot understand. But I love the tunes”
He still did not know what I was talking about. So I gave a few more details…
“He plays the harmonium with his left hand on the reeds. Also, he always sings in a suit. With a tie on”.
He looked back and yelled: “You are talking about Ahmad Wali?”. I suddenly remembered – indeed the name was Ahmad Wali. He pronounced Wali in a slightly different way but I was more taken aback by his loud voice. You could see that he was excited.
He: “How do you know about Ahmad Ali? By the way, that language you cannot understand is called Pashto”.
I figured that must be the name of the language that Pashtuns speak in. “Oh! I am not sure. I think I came across a video of him in YouTube and then I searched more video and songs of him”.
In the next five minutes, I finally understood why he was so excited. The cab driver knew Ahmad Wali personally! They learnt music together!! They went to Habibia High School together!!!
Fascinating story! Both of them escaped from Afghanistan around the time the Communist coup took place followed by the Soviet Invasion. They went to Pakistan and then to India. He was in Delhi for a year and then immigrated to US. Later I found out from Wikipedia that indeed Ahmad Wali had gone to India on a forged passport and then immigrated to Germany. Evidently, while in Afghanistan, he was a cop!!
Back to my cab driver, he fished out a CD from his glove compartment and then put it in the car stereo system. You could hear a young kid singing in a very beautiful voice. “Is that Ahmad Wali when he was a kid?”, I asked. “No!”, he retorted, “that is me”. Evidently many many years later he went back to Afghanistan and went to Radio Kabul office. They pulled out his old songs that had aired and made a CD and gifted it to him!
We discussed at some length how many of today’s musical instruments in India have common roots with the instruments in Afghanistan. He had some very interesting stories also about how those instruments were initially discovered. I was a little incredulous but it was not entirely outside the realm of possibility.
Unfortunately, our trip came to an end. I did not get a chance to ask him why did not try to follow music as a profession in US (as Wali did in Germany) and why he is still driving cabs well into his sixties.
In fact, I wanted a picture of him but there was a long queue of people waiting to jump into the cab moment I got out. I asked him for a card – he did not have any. So I gave him mine – hope he will write back…
5 February
2014
Pine Mountain again
5K run in the forests of Pine Mountain. Today I waited for some morning light so I could see where I was running. The trees were beautiful – completely drenched in overnight rain and with a slight wind rustling thru the leaves. At one point, it was so quiet except hundreds of birds tweeting that I stopped running and sat there for ten minutes just to hear the birds. I could figure out nine different bird sounds…
Now coffee, breakfast and then back to the team meetings…
4 February
2014
6K in dark Pine Mountain
Karthik and I got out in the cold dark roads of Callaway Gardens at 6am for a 5K run. Myself in layers, earmuffs, headgear etc wondering why did I forget to pack in the gloves. He, in shorts and half shirt. No caps either! You want to guess which one of us studied in Wisconsin? 🙂 Btw, we landed up running 6K since we got lost on the way 🙂 🙂
28 January
2014
Degrees of separation…
Sharmila sent me a picture of snow starting to accumulate in Atlanta. I was missing the cold and snow so much that I had to sent her a picture of my poor condition as of now (we get this afternoon off during the company event). She is not talking to me now!!
Forget six degrees of separation… Right now we are separated by sixty degrees to be precise 🙂
23 January
2014
Texas!!
Finished up couple of days in Texas. Work wise, it was a little frustrating – but I guess this comes with the territory. On the other hand, there were always old friends to network with during downtime. This being where we lived for thirteen years, there were a lot of old connections to try and catch up. Was able to catch up with a couple in Houston and a couple in Dallas. Will write about them during the weekend. It was great for me but I am sure they did not find me that exhilarating what with me being a lot tired after the business meetings…..
15 January
2014
That is an interesting placement…
15 January
2014
Again, why?
13 January
2014
Early morning sky
13 January
2014
Backpacker of 89 countries.. and counting…
Another goal fulfilled – quite accidentally and again thanks to Facebook – during this trip to India was to meet up with my friend Shridhar Sethuram. We studied MBA together in IIM-A and frankly I would not say we were very close those days. However, it is his arc of life after the MBA days that has fascinated me. He has achieved a lot that I have been dreaming for some time. I have been trying to look for an opportunity to be in the same city as he for quite some time. Finally, managed it in Bombay. He was gracious enough to join Sharmila and myself for breakfast at the Executive Lounge in JW Marriott.
I cannot recollect ever going to meet a friend with paper and pen in hand. I had my questions ready. It was more of an hour and half of interview than meeting really. I also brought Sharmila since I thought he shared with me the same traits that led her to call me “quirky”. Her verdict, at the end of the day, was that Shridhar is myself on steroids 🙂
We were scheduled to meet at 7:30am and he showed up on the dot at 7:30. When thanked for showing up on time (I did not want to miss a single minute of my time with him), he pointed out that he has trained himself to be on time – everywhere, without fail. Sharmila looked at me and rolled her eyes 🙂 (major source of argument at my home – I insist on being on time always 🙂 ).
We have all learnt geography in our elementary schools. And sitting in those classes, we often thought dreamy eyed about visiting those esoteric country names we had to learn about. Except, Shridhar actually did it. Fascinated from elementary days geography, he started visiting different countries every year after we left school. Every year, he takes time off multiple times, brings his backpack out and hits the road. Evidently, he never plans out his visit – just shows up in the country with the visa and starts asking around people and uses buses, autos, bikes whatever he can. He has so far covered 89 countries. Is planning to hit 100 soon. One marvelous thing I learnt : “What if you cannot get any local help?”. “Rajib, anywhere you go – even in the shadiest areas, people always – ALWAYS – want to help you. Especially, if they realize you are not from their parts of the world”. “How about local language?” “We figure it out”. That has to be the greatest sense of adventure of all.
The pictures from his backpacking can be found at his blogsite http://www.backpackthrulife.com
One virtue Shridhar said backpacking has taught him is the sense of simplicity. When your entire life has to be packed in a bag, you quickly can get rid of the “extra” stuff in life and get tremendously focused. He goes around in Bombay (he works in an investment firm) in his bicycle!! (Not the motorized kind!!)
So, I asked him if there was anything he picked up locally that has stuck with him. “Dancing”, he said. It would appear that both of us were blessed with two left legs when it came to dancing. And both of us have been to more Latin countries more number of times than most of our friends. While, I stayed away from the dance floor, he saw that as a hindrance to understanding local people. Got himself a teacher and now has been dancing for six years!! I think I am going to still take a pass on that one 🙂
And thus the morning rolled on… from his marathon runs to yoga practices to meditation. About thirty minutes were spent on exchanging our views on the “Art of Living”. We jousted on the concept of classes for Yoga (I am against any form of group classes – I believe that when a student is ready, he or she will seek his or her guru). We delved into the essence of spirituality versus religion, the true purpose of Yoga – stretching or meditation, value of poetry versus music and such topics that most people would be utterly bored by.
But for me, I finally met somebody that I have immensely admired and would absolutely love to take a few steps with in this short life.
Do you think backpacking in a new country with Shridhar should be added to my bucketlist for the sabbatical year that is coming up?
