I still remember the day I landed in Dublin Airport, all tired with the 4 hours wait at the Bangalore Airport and the 16 hour sleepless journey. I had no strength left to even pull out the trolley from the stack of trolleys at the airport and yet a faint smile appeared on my face, This is it I thought. This is what I came here for. To experience the comfort of being out of the comfort zone. Being born as an Indian male is the most embarrassing thing sometimes. You don't really get to know the truths about certain things. Mothers pamper you the most, followed by sisters trying to hook you up mentally with all the neighborhood girls, you just think that all you need for the rest of your life is a girl who will take care of everything for you. For the past one year, I kept thinking to myself that I was always a day scholar, never experienced hostel life, never moved out of the house for more than a few months, what do I really know about being independent? What do I know about being self made? What do I really know about myself and what I am capable of? When things go out of control, am I really ready for those changes? Now, is the time I thought to myself, to make some changes to the epicenter of my pampered ego.
I wasn't ready as I came out of the airport. I was travelling from Bangalore which was at 35 degrees, to a place which rained whenever it wished to and enjoyed freezing me at 8 degrees. I was freezing and just had a pullover. Dumb Me! I was greeted by a friendly Taxi driver who drove as fast as he could, but spoke as slow as I wanted him to because it was tough for me to follow the accent. All my life I thought swearing was a bad thing until I realized it's not a big fuckin deal! Nobody gives a fuck, and everybody minded their feckin business here.
Everyone acknowledged the presence of everyone else at work, like they knew everybody. It was a cultural shock for me, cause women say hello to you first, and my friends back home would go "Maga, who is that girl? Give me an intro" and I would be "Errr...Maga, let me get introduced to her first". You hold the door for someone who is coming ahead of you, or behind you, and I think to myself, I have banged my head at the door so many times in the office in Bangalore because of the guy who didn't care who was behind him. You say thank you to the bus driver while you get off, and why not, he drove you safely following the traffic rules. You cleaned the table with a paper napkin if your food fell and that would be at McD as well. The person at the cashier wished everyone a great weekend with a smile and you feel Yeah you deserve a break as well don't you? The way you drink beer, some pints of Guinness, and the way you laugh your gut out at jokes, makes me want to admire this place. The way you treat everyone like an equal and lose the status - the oblivion bubble you live in. Yes there are some junkie downsides to it too, but I just stated a few simple things which has changed a lot of my perspective about living in general. It would take a long time for people to adopt this in India. Imagine if you said hello to a stranger in India, even at your office, you would be looked at with suspicion. Now try that with a girl and see what happens.
The point I'm trying to make is, you can learn how to cook if you never did, you can learn a language which you never knew, you could judge a prime minister when you are not one, but if you don't let go off a few things in your own life, mainly your ego, you will never grow up, you will only grow old.
I wasn't ready as I came out of the airport. I was travelling from Bangalore which was at 35 degrees, to a place which rained whenever it wished to and enjoyed freezing me at 8 degrees. I was freezing and just had a pullover. Dumb Me! I was greeted by a friendly Taxi driver who drove as fast as he could, but spoke as slow as I wanted him to because it was tough for me to follow the accent. All my life I thought swearing was a bad thing until I realized it's not a big fuckin deal! Nobody gives a fuck, and everybody minded their feckin business here.
Everyone acknowledged the presence of everyone else at work, like they knew everybody. It was a cultural shock for me, cause women say hello to you first, and my friends back home would go "Maga, who is that girl? Give me an intro" and I would be "Errr...Maga, let me get introduced to her first". You hold the door for someone who is coming ahead of you, or behind you, and I think to myself, I have banged my head at the door so many times in the office in Bangalore because of the guy who didn't care who was behind him. You say thank you to the bus driver while you get off, and why not, he drove you safely following the traffic rules. You cleaned the table with a paper napkin if your food fell and that would be at McD as well. The person at the cashier wished everyone a great weekend with a smile and you feel Yeah you deserve a break as well don't you? The way you drink beer, some pints of Guinness, and the way you laugh your gut out at jokes, makes me want to admire this place. The way you treat everyone like an equal and lose the status - the oblivion bubble you live in. Yes there are some junkie downsides to it too, but I just stated a few simple things which has changed a lot of my perspective about living in general. It would take a long time for people to adopt this in India. Imagine if you said hello to a stranger in India, even at your office, you would be looked at with suspicion. Now try that with a girl and see what happens.
The point I'm trying to make is, you can learn how to cook if you never did, you can learn a language which you never knew, you could judge a prime minister when you are not one, but if you don't let go off a few things in your own life, mainly your ego, you will never grow up, you will only grow old.
