Keep Falling...

The scene remains etched in my memory like a beautiful dream that I never want to forget… A tuxedo-ed young man drenched in the rain enters a restaurant where his muse is having dinner… with her fiance…

He walks up to her and asks, ‘Would you like to dance?’... she gazes at him... and obliges. Oblivious to the social norms being broken with every swirl, to the extent of seeming insane, the young lovers waltz in total silence. The dance climaxes into moments of intense passion.

No, this is not a scene out of Sachin Bhandary’s life - as much as I wish it were - but something I witnessed as a teenager in a Colaba talkies. Based on a Charles Dickens novel, ‘Great Expectations’, the movie that saw Gwyneth Palthrow torment Ethan Hawke. To this date it reminds me, that there is no feeling as intense, as intoxicating, as that of being madly in love.

To love or not to love, well, is not even the question…..for love itself is the answer…

Who am I to talk about love, you may ask? I am every one. Like most of you, I’ve been in love. Like a few of you, I’ve been in love not once but many times over.

And I’ve been lucky, to have been loved, by some of the most amazing women known to me. But then, I’ve also been a tragedy, losing all of them either to other men or to my own stupidity. There were a few whom I loved for fleeting moments, at a certain place, at a certain time; one who danced like a dream in a far away land.

And, today, I want to remind each one of you that it is important to keep falling

Keep Falling - for Love is a real dream:

Imagine the way you feel when you fall in love! Everything around you seems so beautiful, so dream-like: as if you are floating on a light cloud. That one phone call makes your day. Your otherwise dull, drab workplace starts seeming like a paradise when you bump into the special someone at the coffee machine.

Someone rightly said ‘You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep. For reality is finally better than your dreams’.

Don’t you think it’s worth falling in love for this one reason? To turn this life into a beautiful reality???

Keep falling for love is the best energizer:

Every time I fell in love, I stepped out a better, stronger person. My relationships enriched my life in many ways- one taught me to travel, another to embrace the world without cynicism; few others made me realize that I am an attractive person. However my mother feels otherwise , and she thinks that these pretty girls were actually sympathising with me.

Friends you would have heard that behind every successful man there is a woman, but I feel behind every successful person there is a partner. Dont you agree?

True, mutual love energises partners to become better in many different ways- emotionally, socially, financially, physically and spiritually as well. So, get together with your partner, dream together and bring them to lovely reality. Together.

Keep falling for love makes this life worthwhile:

Imagine this life without love? There would be no soul stirring poetry or sublime rock ballads or even tear-jerker movies which we all love to watch.

Without love, life would be tasteless, materialistic and even trivial. For deep inside, all of us want to grow old with someone and that’s why our hearts sigh with emotion when we spot a graceful elderly couple holding hands in a park.

The naysayers will say there is a corollary to this; that love hurts sometimes, that it leaves a wound that cannot be healed.

But what is a life lead without its fair share of sweet melancholy? Love in all its forms is but what the heart yearns for. Love is the reason why it wants to beat.

The beauty & benefits of love far outweigh the occasional heart break and if looked at in the right way, even these rejections propel us to grow, to enrich our lives.

So, all you lovely people why don’t you go back and give a sweet surprise to your loved one? Today and every day of your life…

And for the ones like me, who have been a victim of serial monogamy … let’s just wait in positive anticipation… And when life offers the chance, don’t worry about whether there is music playing.
Walk up to that woman and ask her…

‘Would you like to dance in this ballroom…..called life?’

The Key to Unravel

19^th January 2010, I was at the Mumbai airport….off to South America- diverse, friendly, culturally-rich and the continent filled with super-hot women… no, that wasn’t the only reason to go there. But in many ways, it was to be an epic trip, backpacking 45 days through Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia.

The guy at the check-in counter grounded my flight of naughty thoughts….’Sir, you will change flights in Paris for Rio. But your passport does not have a French transit visa. Sorry sir, you will not be able to board the flight’

‘YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO BOARD THE FLIGHT!!!’: The ground beneath my feet disappeared. Suddenly the dream felt like a nasty nightmare. There was certainly a mistake- the travel agent had told me I don’t need a visa in Paris since I was to stay within the airport. But, by then it was too late, friends, I could not take the flight that night…

But, I was back within twenty four hours to take the next flight to Paris. Loaded not just with a transit visa but a 90 day Schengen visa. This feat the night before, sympathetically, was considered impossible by the airline staff- they expected to see me after a week.

Friends, there is so much to learn from travel……

So much you know, like:

·         Travel agents know nothing about transit visas OR

·         Booking a Kingfisher flight is not the only way to be sure you won’t reach your destination 

·         Airline staff serves bad news with such panache that you doubt they are actually happy about your hapless situation 

But to travel is to surrender to the uncertainty of life…

And the world is worth surrendering to; isn’t it? From the beaches of Rio to the streets of Paris; from the crowded Kumbh mela to the lonely desert of Patagonia; from watching elephants in Africa to the great wall of China and of course this auditorium in National college. This world is an intriguing place. 

And today let me share three reasons why every man or woman; young or old, ugly or handsome should travel:

1.       Travel,  it just might change your life:

Many heroes of our world found a vision for life during their travels…

One such was Mahatma Gandhi who found his crusade while traveling on that train in South Africa and thank god for that, today, we live in a free country.

Have you found your purpose in life? If not- travel! Because traveling out also means traveling within…

Even Mohammed said- ‘Don’t tell me how educated you are; tell me how much you have traveled’

2.       Travel,  because it is the best teacher you will ever find:

In those twenty four hours after I was denied the flight, travel taught me a wonderful lesson: that if you truly, passionately want something- YOU WILL MAKE IT HAPPEN! Like king khan says: ‘that if you really love something; the universe will conspire in your favour …’.  The universe in those 24 hours conspired to get me the visa and a seat on the next flight, which was overbooked by 7 people. Since, my friends, nine people that night decided not turn up for the flight …

Yes, travel is the best teacher you can ever find. It teaches you to live, it teaches you to give; it scares you; yet teaches you not to be scared, it puts you out of breath. It makes you do things that you would otherwise never do. It teaches you to trust; it teaches you to grow, to be mature…

It has made me learn, that my small house that I share with my beautiful mother- is the only thing for which I need to yearn.

3.       Travel, it will keep you humble:

If humility is a virtue, then travel is a harbinger of it. When you travel you are not a CEO, not an achiever, not rich either- you are just YOU- just another traveler. But that is the beauty of this world, you don’t need to be CEO to be loved nor will your money buy you friends.

You will realize that less is more, a backpack and a broad smile is enough to see you through.

Friends, there are numerous excuses for not being able to travel: no money, no time, too many commitments, I am married and I have toastmasters session on Sundays ….but life is counted not by the number of breaths you take but the moments that take your breath away..

Joshua Fernandez captured the essence of travel beautifully, he writes…

I travel with my voice, I travel with my hope

      That something new, would spring into my horoscope,

I travel to many different places, mix with many races

Know tribesmen by their faces and little girls by their laces

      I travel with or without money, so here’s my testimony

The good, the bad and even the ugly

Every experience is worth life’s journey

For I will always marvel, whenever, whenever……I travel

So friends, lying in my room is my backpack…it has my dreams, my hopes, my worries, my fears….memories that I have collected over years. And pictures of some of hot my ex girlfriends too!

I am ready to get high on this journey called life!

When are you packing your bags? It is about time you travel to unravel the mysteries of life.

And yes, one more thing, I did travel to South America for the hot women!