I started this post as soon as I landed and almost a week later I am still updating this post. So I am sitting here in Denver International airport heading for Dallas. OK back to the post... Have you ever had a conversation that is too good to be true. Well I had ... in the most unlikely place.. 36000 feet above the ground crossing continents.
I could not get to do a online checkin of the flight traveling from Doha to Washington D.C. which happens to be a 14 hours flight. By the time i reached the airport the only aisle seat available was in the last row and all others were middle seats. So i had no option but to choose that seat.I was a bit tired by the time I boarded the flight and was looking forward to catch some sleep and some movies. One thing i was not ready is for a conversation, come on who talks to a stranger sitting beside you in a airplane for hours together.. not me.
Well this guy who sat beside me started by asking if i was from Mumbai, to which i replied i was from Hyderabad, and he said then you must be a software engineer, if you are from Mumbai then there is chance that you are an actor. He said he was a search and rescue pilot and explained his job profile and asked me about my job. He mentioned that he knew very less about India. we were quiet for some time and then it was meals time and he had some wine or scotch or both and then it all started.
He started telling that single malt scotch is the good quality one and it is all about enhancing and remembering the emotions and feelings rather than forgetting them. he was mentioning how scotch prepared at different places and different ways evokes different emotions. Then he turned on to wine and was telling how wine represents the place it was prepared and how drinking wine reminds you of the place it was prepared and he was telling all this in French and Espanol even after me protesting that I don't understand those languages.I could not get to do a online checkin of the flight traveling from Doha to Washington D.C. which happens to be a 14 hours flight. By the time i reached the airport the only aisle seat available was in the last row and all others were middle seats. So i had no option but to choose that seat.I was a bit tired by the time I boarded the flight and was looking forward to catch some sleep and some movies. One thing i was not ready is for a conversation, come on who talks to a stranger sitting beside you in a airplane for hours together.. not me.
Well this guy who sat beside me started by asking if i was from Mumbai, to which i replied i was from Hyderabad, and he said then you must be a software engineer, if you are from Mumbai then there is chance that you are an actor. He said he was a search and rescue pilot and explained his job profile and asked me about my job. He mentioned that he knew very less about India. we were quiet for some time and then it was meals time and he had some wine or scotch or both and then it all started.
Then he went on to computers and was telling how he use dot work on fortran and COBOL and i was like wait you were a search and rescue pilot. Well he also happens to be a second generation programmer. He was talking about how everybody is just trying to make things faster and nobody is thinking out of the box for innovative ideas. He proposed two business ideas which he mentioned that he had talked about in a conference back in 2000 and nobody understood them. he was talking all object oriented stuff but I should admit his ideas made me think.
Then he went on to talk about Indians and said it bothers him that most of us have become very mechanical despite our rich intellectual and spiritual heritage. I was like wait I thought you didn't knwo much about India. Then we went on discussing on what could be the problem and on the other hand I was dying to sleep. He moved on to talked about Yin and Yang and that he has a bit of both. Is there something that he doesn't know!!! Then we talked about karma philosophy, purpose of life and he turned the discussion towards me and asked what am I doing that i think is worthy in my life and asked me why I was doing whatever I was doing. My answers seem to satisfy him and he even admitted that I might be one of the smart people he has ever met, which was a relief after all that killing he did with all those questions.
The flight was 14 hours long and we talked for about 9 hours. Then i excused myself, slept for a while, watched a movie and we said goodbye to each other.
Then he went on to talk about Indians and said it bothers him that most of us have become very mechanical despite our rich intellectual and spiritual heritage. I was like wait I thought you didn't knwo much about India. Then we went on discussing on what could be the problem and on the other hand I was dying to sleep. He moved on to talked about Yin and Yang and that he has a bit of both. Is there something that he doesn't know!!! Then we talked about karma philosophy, purpose of life and he turned the discussion towards me and asked what am I doing that i think is worthy in my life and asked me why I was doing whatever I was doing. My answers seem to satisfy him and he even admitted that I might be one of the smart people he has ever met, which was a relief after all that killing he did with all those questions.
The flight was 14 hours long and we talked for about 9 hours. Then i excused myself, slept for a while, watched a movie and we said goodbye to each other.
