Polar Plunge
6
Author Archives: badri
Is Spiritual Power Believable?
Is it to be believed? Lord Hanuman can make himself 100 time larger, if he sees necessary! Bhakta Prahalad prays to see Lord Vishnu and finds him next to him, a travel from Vaikunth (the heavens) to Bhooloak (earth)! Lord Krishna lifts Govardhan Parvat (a mountain with a 22 kilometers in circumference) on his little finger, for weeks, to shelter people from floods. Well, we don’t know about these stories, as we were not alive then.
But here is a small example of what happened in years ago and can be experienced even today.
About 20 kilometers from Pune, on the way to Satara, there is a durgah (Shrine) at a small town called Khed Shivapuri. The shrine is built over the grave of a revered religious figure Pir Qamar Ali Shah Darvesh. It can be identified by a huge tree outside which has hundreds of eagles hanging upside down.
Peculiarly, there is also a 250 kilogram stone in front of the shrine. This stone cannot be lifted or even be moved by any number of people, even the strongest of them. However, if an odd number of men like 7, 9, 11 come together, get their pointing finger below the stone, chant the name “Pir Qamar Ali Darvesh” while lifting it, the stone can be thrown up – as high as 8 feet or above. Louder the chant, the higher it goes. No strength need be applied. If the group is short of odd numbers, fakirs standing by are happy to join in.
The surprise element is if one tries with even number of men like 10 or 12, or with a woman in the group or withtout uttering his name, the rock won’t budge.
Logic fails here.
The story goes that a few hundred years ago, Qamar Ali Darvesh was born in a family famous for their wrestling powers. At a very young age Qamar Ali became the disciple of Sufi saint living in the same area. His brothers excelled in wrestling and teased him for being physically weak and a good for nothing.
Qamar Ali meditated and by the blessings and power he had, he challenged his brothers to use their muscle strength to lift the said stone. The wrestlers could not move it without saying Qamar Ali Darvesh’s name.
Is spiritual power stronger than muscular power, then? I wonder if similar miracles referred to in our Vedas and Puranas (holy books) might not be wrong. Maybe, we are yet to understand a lot of the technology described in these texts.
Written : Badri Baldawa
Edited : Meeta Kabra
Unique In Its Truest Sense
“Oh! The Sun has risen from the West today” is a proverb used when something most unexpected happens. But it is true that there is a place where the Sun never rises from the East. It sounds unbelievable. The place is……
Hold on… … there are more curious characteristics of this place.
It is an accepted fact that Sun rises every morning and the moon every night. However this is a place where Sun and Moon rise and set only once a year!
Standing here, one can see the stars, sun and moon spinning around one “point” straight over one’s head, in the sky. They appear at different locations in the sky as the day progresses but are visible 24 hours (depending on the season).
Not just that, you can go only South from this place! How would a compass behave at this place? It stays confused with the needle going around in circles!
This place is happy with just a latitude as a coordinate, it has no longitude. The local time of any place on earth is determined by its longitude, such that the time of the day is more-or-less synchronised with the position of the sun in the sky. Since there is no longitude, does this place have no time zone either? It is not synchronized with GMT and no time zone has been assigned to it. Use any time zone that is convenient, no questions asked!
At this place, there is no earth underneath but still one can walk along and dance around. There is no land within a radius of about 700 kilometers and 5,000 meters underneath. “Land” is a sheet of floating ice here.
This unique place is The North Pole, 90°N.
We all have learned that the earth spins on an imaginary axis, once a day. North Pole is the point where this axis intersects the earth’s northern most surface. The North Pole is the point from which all the meridians begin, thus no longitude!
In this world, where every country is fighting for a chip of land, this is a vast area which is not governed by any one country in the world. No country owns the North Pole or the region of the Arctic Ocean surrounding it. It is surrounded by five countries Norway, Russia, Canada, USA (Alaska), Denmark (Greenland). Their authority is limited to a 370 km around their coasts. The area beyond that, up till North Pole is administered by the International Seabed Authority.
It doesn’t even have an official marker for the position, as the ice moves constantly. The position is detected by a specific compass.
North Pole experiences only night for half the year, and has day time continuously for the other half depending on whether the pole is facing towards or away from the Sun.
The Geographical North Pole at 90 deg N is different from the Magnetic North Pole. The latter is a wandering location and moves about 45km every year.
I visited this place with my wife, Pushpa in 2009 and experienced all of the above. I stayed there for about a day on the floating ice and was told by the time I left the place, that I have moved a few kilometers since I landed. Unique in its truest sense, the experience is irreplaceable for us! We were the proud first Indians to land on North Pole, 90°N.
Let us not get restricted to popular travel destinations only, opt for unusual. Though looks difficult, they give unique knowledge and unique pleasure.
Experienced and Written By: Badri Baldawa
Edited By : Meeta Kabra
A Fateful Night at High Altitude
Freezing cold made worse by biting wind. Continuous rains. 15000+ feet above sea level. Resultant low oxygen levels and difficulty in. Pitch dark at midnight. A full moon night with the moon no where in sight because of the clouds.
After a tiring drive through the mountains and making sleeping and food arrangements for 90 people who were traveling with me, I had just stretched out in a tent I shared with a few others, readying myself for a few hours of sleep.
I was half asleep. Suddenly there were loud noises of someone crying from the tent in the neighbourhood and murmurs in my own tent.
“Mundraji is no more” informed someone as they woke me up. I rushed to his tent to assess what actually had happened. Within the next 10 minutes I was told, “Naru is breathless and appears to be in a serious condition”. Naru is Nirmala Gilda, my niece. Her husband, was obviously in a state of panic. “Someone save her!”.
Leaving Mr. Mundra’s tent, I rushed to Naru’s tent. I was told that someone had rushed to get an oxygen cylinder for her. Within 5 minutes, another news came in, “Shobhaji fell and has fractured her hand.” She had rushed to fetch the oxygen cylinder and got herself tangled with the rope that keeps a tent erect.
All three events happened in a span of 20 minutes. I was shaken up. I was confused at what was happening and scared of what was in store for the rest of that fateful night. I prayed to Lord Shiva for a few moments. We were right next to Him, after all. We were camping at the bank of Mansarovar Lake, at the foot of Mt. Kailash, his mythical abode.
Lake Mansarovar – a place where no facilities were available, no shops, no habitants let alone medical facilities. This was a trip I had initiated. I had taken a group of 90 people to Kailash Mansarovar Yatra along with Guruji, for a charitable cause.
We had nine qualified, helpful doctors in our group including Dr. Meena from Nashik who had spent more or less all of past ten days serving the members of the group.
Naru’s breathlessness was due to high altitude. We were at a height of 15,060 ft, which does not suit everyone. Immediately, a landcruiser was arranged to take her to a lower altitude. Mrs. Shobha also was sent in landcruiser to a lower level for treatment at a place where provisional medical facilities were available. Actions were prompt and brisk.
Right at the beginning, in the briefing sessions, all members were told that they ought to report even if they have minute symptoms of sickness. Those few who reported slightest sickness were promptly treated. One person who had acute altitude sickness had to be sent back to the base. Another person who had mild symptoms of sickness was held back at the same place for another day for further acclimation and was then escorted to join the group the next day. Arrangements for such emergencies were well taken care of.
Mundraji had been unwell for 3-4 days. But neither he nor any body else reported the problem, probably presuming it was of no major consequence. On that fatal day, he suddenly collapsed. It is assumed that it was a massive heart stroke.
Mansarovar is in Tibet. As it is a sacred place, his family, who was accompanying him on the trip, agreed to have the funeral there itself instead of getting him back to India. It took a full day to complete all the formalities. Guruji was present all the time. We could see the smoke from his pyre blowing towards the sacred Mount Kailash.
We found consolation in the fact that Mundraji was lucky to have survived till he reached Mansarovar and his last rites could be performed at such an auspicious place.
Though Mundhraji’s demise was something none of us could have helped, I still feel guilty and often wonder if there was anything I could have done for his survival. The burden of that event I still bear on my heart and soul .
I guess this event is an eye opener to anyone travelling to high altitudes, “do not ignore, even mild symptoms, of any illness and report to the organisers immediately”.
Written & Experienced : Badri Baldawa
Editor : Meeta Kabra
Visit To Bandit-Land
“You have an option, riskier though. Go off the main highway, take the first left. The narrow, unpaved road will take you to the village where dacoits live. Take a right there and right again. Hoping that the dacoits won’t harm you, you will join this highway again. This would mean an additional drive of 25-30 kilometers and an extra one and a half hours,” said a truck-driver with his truck in a long, stagnant queue ahead of us. We were in the Chambal Valley area where bandits were very active creating fear amongst people in the entire region.
I was on a pilgrimage from Mumbai to Badrinath with my wife and the kids, by car On that specific day in 1986, we started from Nashik early in the morning and wanted to break for the day at Gwalior. We were on the Indore-Shivpuri stretch where we found ourselves in a traffic jam. The queue was almost 5 kilometers long. Most of the vehicles in the queue were trucks carrying merchandise. Passenger cars, like ours, were not very many.
Given an opportunity, the bandits were known to loot vehicles that passed over the bridge we were stuck at. Armed Police patrolled this bridge. Yet, loots were a common occurrence. Just the previous night, a vehicle was rumored to have been robbed. Since the driver resisted, he was beaten by decoits. To sympathise with that driver and demanding a better police protection, the trucks went on strike. There were no signs of the strike being called off as the dialogue with the authorities was yet to begin.
I wanted to get to Gwalior in time so that we could rest well for the next day’s long drive to Nainital. I spoke to a couple of local drivers to ask about alternative route. One of the drivers suggested that a private passenger car could use a diversion that would bypass the queue as well as the bridge. The only problem was that it would pass through the village inhabited by the famous dacoits of Chambal. I was also told that they were only interested in vehicles with merchandise and don’t normally harm families.
I had to decide whether to wait in queue which could last overnight or go back to the earlier town or take the risky diversion. I chose the diversion – a calculated risk.
I did not tell my wife and kids that we were heading in a bandit zone so that the situation wouldn’t get worse because of panic. I center locked all doors and windows and told them not to open them even if someone asked them to. The road was rough, full of crater-like holes. Slowly and steadily, we moved.
In the village each and every man had long and thick moustaches and bushy beards. Every one had a black, thick, woolen blanket and a gun hanging on a shoulder. There were a few children around the age of 10-12 years. They also had a blanket and gun. Chanting prayers we crossed their village. I guess the name of the village was Rampur.
Suddenly I found hundreds of them on either side of the road. It was a weekly market day. They were there for their weekly purchases. None of them harmed us and very soon we joined the highway, on the other side of the bridge! Once on the highway, I told my wife and children what that was all about.
We reached Gwalior well in time to have our dinner. A safe passage! I don’t know whether I should have avoided that diversion. But one thing is for sure, it created a thrill to remember!
Writer : Badri Baldawa
Editor : Meeta Kabra
Volunteering Seva Serves Dual Purpose
I happened to visit Asharfi Bhavan, an ashram (hermitage) in Ayodhya. The ashram conducts many activities like teaching Sanskrit, operating two gaushalas (cow sheds), maintaining a temple, serving free food to poor and visitors, etc.
The most impressive activity was that Vedas and Puranas (ancient scriptures and texts of Hinduism) are taught to students in Sanskrit – a language being forgotten soon. In fact, they are creating future teachers and pundits in Sanskrit. The students are given books, clothing, accommodation and food free of cost. To run the operations Guruji went around the country year around to make discourses – a source of valuable donations. Yet, the Ashram was always short of funds and they had to borrow to run the activities.
The Ashram property was in desperate need of repairs, repainting and renovation. The class room roofs had leaks, the students slept in rooms that were almost open to air. In winter, even at a temperature of 5 degrees centigrade, students slept without proper bed or blanket. In rains, they spent more time cleaning up rainfall that came through the ceiling and walls than studying. Some of them did not even have a proper, single layer of clothing whether to protect them from winter or monsoon.
Guruji never asked for donations. I thought it was an opportunity for me to assist. I got the rooms repaired and had some sweaters sent for the students. But that was barely enough. In October 2009, I suggested, “I would like to assist the Ashram in all possible ways, but I have my own limitations. An alternative is to appeal to others for charity. But I am not good at it. Instead, let us provide some service which the devotees want. Whatever savings we make from those services could be used for the requirements of the Ashram.”
Guruji asked, “Do you have any concrete ideas?”
“A pilgrimage to Kailash-Mansarovar (KM) is considered a difficult journey. Many devotees are anxious to accomplish this yatra (journey – in this context a holy journey) at least once in their lifetime. But they are worried as they consider it life-threatening. Visiting KM remained as a dream to most of them. I have been to Mansarovar and have done the Kailash Parikrama in 2004 too (a journey around the mountain). I am aware of some of the major difficulties one would face in that journey – they are manageable. With your blessings, we can convert the dreams of devotees to reality. A group of people can be taken to this journey. With your pravachan (spiritual discourses) and satsang (virtuous company) in the journey, it would be of more interest to them. Savings from this event, could be used to meet some of the problems Ashram is facing.”
Guruji said, “Even I am keen to visit Kailash Mansarovar. Many of the disciples here too. There couldn’t be anything better. But only thing is you will manage everything. I agreed. I made necessary inquiries and it was decided in November 2009 to have the KM yatra in August 2010. The initial target was to take 50 people. I guessed even if we add Rs.10,000 per person as for services and try to save on costs, there could be a net saving of Rs.7-8 lakhs.
The response was excellent. We accepted 100 applicants out of which 90 members joined the 2-week yatra. We then also extended the pilgrimage to Muktinath, another difficult 4 day trip from Kathmandu. There were another 90 applications for Muktinath.
On the way, Guruji gave his discourses wherever possible and a grand Mritunjaya Yagna was performed at the bank of Lake Mansarovar. The next day, the climate deteriorated. The members, except those who went forward for Kailash Parikrama, got a day more to spend at Mansarovar and continued to have Darshan. (There were a few unfortunate events the burden of which I still bear on my heart and soul but will write about it separately)
After completing Kailash-Mansarovar and Muktinath yatra. we presented a cheque of over Rs. 22 lakhs to Guruji the funds saved out of the event. Appreciating the efforts, many offered direct contribution to Guruji These contributions helped the ashram in clearing most of its loans. It also provided for the necessary repairs and completing certain renovations of the ashram premises, which had been long overdue.
This event gave great satisfaction and confirmed that even for charitable purposes, we can collect funds by providing a service (Seva) instead of asking for donations. Seva can serve dual purpose. It can bring in contributions and also meets the needs of served.
Writer : Badri Baldawa
Editor : Meeta Kabra
Family Misadventure
I got the impression from my studies in school that the foreign invaders had mainly two difficult and tricky routes to enter India – Khyber Pass and Rohtang Pass. A pass is a narrow path at a high altitude that lies between two mountains. I wanted to visit them to see how difficult they were in reality. Khyber pass is presently between Afghanistan and Pakistan and hence not easily accessible. However, I could visit Rohtang Pass .
Around 1986 I decided to take my family for an adventure vacation. I selected Rohtang Pass. My wife Pushpa and our three children Meeta, Seema and Anand, in the age group of 7 to 12, were excited and were looking forward for a week’s fun and pleasure.
Rohtang Pass is a dangerous narrow passage at a height of 13,000 ft between two tall mountains of about 15,000 ft. It is a dangerous and tricky route as the very name ‘Rohtang’ suggests ‘pile of corpses’.
We took a train from Bombay and drove to Kulu and then Manali. I engaged a popular travel agent for all arrangements from Manali. I chose April in anticipation of finding snow around. It was just the start of season and we were amongst the first tourists that season that wanted to use tents. The tents were at a beautiful location at the bank of a river that ran next to a mountain. There was a water-fall very close to our tent. It was a romantic atmosphere.
We were all very hungry and anxiously waited for our food. Due to some problem, the cook hadn’t arrived. One of the other staff members cooked some food. After 9 PM, we were served some tasteless boiled rice and daal. None of us could eat.
By then it had begun drizzling and soon it started pouring heavily. Heavy wind added to problems and the temperature started dropping below 5 degrees C. There was no power or lanterns and the candles would not survive to the wind. We were drenched even in the tent due to heavy showers.
The facilities were inadequate to survive the night. Sleeping bags did not reach. I was frustrated and had a heated argument with the tour operator. I lost my patience and decided to quit the place, without realising how to move out of that isolated location.
In the heavy rain we started walking through the pass. There were no habitants for a 2-3 kilometer stretch. No vehicles either. We were all shivering from the cold. I fell short of ideas.
Just then we saw an army vehicle approaching from behind us. We signaled the driver to for help and guidance. He said there was no facility around that place which could provide shelter to us for a night. He was on duty and didn’t have authority to pick anybody up in his vehicle unless his boss granted permission.
Though he had a walkie talkie, he didn’t want to disturb his senior as it was past 10 PM. I requested him to, at the very least, drop us till their camp site so that we could somehow manage from there. Looking at a family with children, he picked us up and dropped us near the entrance gate of their army office. He told us to take shelter under a shed near the entrance gate till the rain stopped and then find our a way to Manali. We were not adequately geared to stand to the cold weather.
When we have many problems at the same time, the major one dominates over the minor ones. Finding shelter was the dominating problem right then.
I requested the security guard for permission to speak to the officer in-charge. When I explained the situation to the officer, he spared one of his jeeps and instructed the driver to drop us to a hotel in Manali. He was a God-sent for us.
We reached the hotel past 1 AM and at last had a cozy sleep.
I learnt the lesson, however popular a travel agent might be, we should be prepared and equipped to face contingencies on our own.
Written : Badri Baldawa
Edited : Meeta Kabra
It’s All About The Attitude
“The one who does not make a mistake is God. The one who makes mistakes and realises the mistake, is human God” meant the shop keeper Kewalbhai, when he said in Hindi “Jo bhool nahin karta wah Bhagawan hai. Jo Bhool karke maan leta hai bhagwan jaisa insaan hai”.
I was with my best friend Kishore Bhatia and his wife Neelu in Rishikesh on 27 March 2015, a place I love to visit for a peaceful and pollution free break. We observed that the shop owners in the area around Geeta Bhavan lacked courtesy.
In one of the shops, Kishore asked for a blue shirt. He did not like the shade that was shown to him and Neelu requested if she could see some other colours. This supposedly was reason enough for the shopkeeper to be upset.
He argued that he did not show other colours because he was asked for blue. He spoke in a manner that made it seem like Kishore had committed a crime by asking for a colour of his liking. He then went on to practically throw a few shirts before Neelu whereas he could have politely shown the other shades. I did not like the shop keeper’s attitude. I got into an argument with the shop keeper for his behavior, making me lose my peace of mind.
That evening, as we calmed down like the surface of the river in front of us, we analysed the incident. We realised that though the shopkeeper’s attitude was not right, we weren’t right either. By getting into an argument for someone else’s mistake and improper attitude, I created an adverse impact on me.
Next day, I went to the shop-keeper and said “I feel bad that I had an argument with you yesterday. Let us not discuss who was at fault. Let us forget that incident as I have realised that the arguments could have been easily avoided.”
He got up from his chair as if an electric shock passed through his chair. He held my hand and apologized for his attitude the previous day.
“Jo bhool nahin karta wah Bhagawan hai. Jo Bhool karke maan leta hai bhagwan jaisa insaan hai” said the shop keeper Kewalbhai. (The one who does not commit mistakes is God. The one who does a mistake and realises it, is a human God). He started praising me as he held my hands firmly for quite a few minutes.
He further said, “You are a good human being. I want to give you something”. I was relieved and happy. I wondered whether he would extend a gift from his shop! Instead, he gave me a gift of his sincerity. He gave me a printed card and said “if you ever have a problem with your teeth, touch the problematic tooth with your finger and chant the mantra written on the card just once. You will be relieved immediately. He similarly gave tips for other problems.
He asked me to join my palms together so that he could read my hands. Two corresponding lines, one one each palm, formed a curve like a half moon. Next, he checked the levels two prominent lines on my two little fingers.
The levels didn’t match; there was a difference of about 1 to 2mm. The shop keeper said, “ just now, you have an upset stomach. You don’t have proper appetite either.” Sure enough, he was right. I had a mild stomach ache.
He took out a black cotton thread, chanted a mantra mentally and tied five knots. He looked at my face and added another two. This time when I held my palms next to each other, all three lines matched perfectly. The difference had gone! Suddenly my stomach ache disappeared too and I felt normal.
I wondered why I argued with such a helpful and talented gentleman. Had I controlled myself for a minute, I would not have harmed my peace of mind.
This incident taught me once again: “I have a particular attitude towards life, others have their own. If I understand this, I can protect my peace of mind.”
Author: Badri Baldawa
Editor : Meeta Kabra
My First Midnight-Sun Venture
“It must be a fairy tale” I thought, when our Geography teacher in school said “North Pole and South Pole have 6 months day light and are dark for 6 months. I wanted to experience it before I believed it.
I planned my first overseas vacation with my wife in 1983, when I was in Dubai. First thing which came to mind was to visit the Arctic region in North Pole where the sun shines at midnight.
There was no internet and WWWs at that time. None of the travel agents, either in Dubai or India, had any clue as to where and how to reach the place. I decided to plan my trip by myself. I was reasonably sure that the midnight sun could be experienced from one of the locations in the northern part of the Arctic region.
By the time I reached Oslo on 23 July 1983, I was pretty sure that my best shot was from a place called North Cape in Norway. It was the northern most tip of Norway, a distance of about 2,000 kms to the North of Oslo. Out of this, a distance of 1,200 kms up to Narvik was accessible by train. The rest had to be covered by road.
We hired a car to start our journey from Narvik to North Cape. I guessed, at the average European highway speed, it would take about 7-8 hours to cover the distance of 800 km. I was shocked and was not prepared to believe when the rental car agent said it would take us 2-3 days to reach. I was determined to visit North Cape to fulfill my childhood ambition.
The road was very narrow, just about 7-8 feet wide for two way traffic. If there was even a small car approaching from the opposite side, one of the cars had to back up to a point where overtaking was possible. The winter snow fall made the road rough and worn out. The drive had to be as slow as 10-20 kms per hour most of the time compared to the average 160 in Europe
There were innumerable large lakes on the way. Since there were no bridges, at times, we had to drive around the lake for a long distance of about 20-25 km – a distance which would otherwise have been just half a km if there was an accessible road/bridge.
The drive though had a unique scenic beauty about it. It ran along the coast of the Norwegian Sea. On one side, just at the edge of the road, the land had suddenly sliced down, at timed as deep as 200ft. At the bottom of the sliced land, there was frozen seashore and then a vast view of the sea and horizon with a rare view of ice slates at the sea shore. On the very edge of the top of the sliced land, was the narrow road we were driving on. On the other side of the road there were a series of high mountains or valleys with unique views at every turn. A drive of a lifetime, indeed.
To save time, we had pre-packed lunch and dinner in the car itself, instead of taking stops. A cup of coffee with khakras, chips and similar snacks kept us going. We had tea/coffee at the gas stations whenever we stopped for gas.
We finally reached North Cape on the afternoon of 25 July 1983. That was my life’s longest continuous drive, a non-stop drive of 46 hours without rest or sleep.
We spent watching the sun through the night. The temperature was around freezing point
North Cape was a totally isolated place. We could see the sun moving from one place to another in a circle, all the time right on our head. It was a slightly hazy day, but we were lucky to have occasional clear sky. It was bright white till the evening. In the evening it started turning a little yellow. At midnight, it was bright orange with multi-coloured clouds – a mesmerizing view.
Midnight Sun at North Cape 11 pm to 1 am
At the observation point, there was a post office and 3 telephone booths. We purchased a few post cards from the post office and posted them to the dear ones. They had a machine which stamped our passport “North Cape – July 26, 1983 00:55”.
We were quite excited and thought of calling dear ones from there. The tariff was very high and there were no cell phones at that time. We decided to restrict calls to our parents and children to inform them that we have ultimately reached the place where we planned to be.
We inserted Kroner in the first booth, but the credit failed to appear on the screen. We realised it was not working. We tried at the second booth. This machine also swallowed a Kroner without giving any service. Unfortunate.
We still tried phone at the third and last of the booths. As we inserted a Kroner, there was no response. Disappointed, I banged the box. Surprise! I saw quite a few Kroners coming out of the machine! I collected all of them, and dialed our landline in Dubai. As it was ringing, I inserted a coin, the coin came out but I could here the voice on the other side. Eureka!
We took complete undue advantage of the free calls. Hoping for further gain, I banged the first two machines, they were dead. They did not throw out any coins like the third darling.
Overall, we were richer by a few Kroners by the time we forced ourselves to leave the place! It is true the sun shines at midnight!
Experienced and Written By: Badri Baldawa
Edited By : Meeta Kabra
Are We Over Protecting Our Children
In our social system we tend to over-protect our children. Protection and care to a certain extent up to a certain age is welcome. But protecting beyond a limit and age, could harm their confidence. A specific incident during my visit to the Scandinavian region was when I realised this.
I was driving with my wife in Norway. That was the longest, continuous drive of my life. A drive of 46 hours without sleep and just two small breaks for refreshments.
We were driving on a single, narrow, risky road in the Northern most part of Europe. We noticed a youngster standing by the side of the road asking for a lift, pointing towards the direction we were proceeding. We were happy to pick him up. He was a 15 year old German, traveling alone from (then) West Germany. He would travel by public transport if available. We were in leanly populated areas where public transport was almost non-existent. Wherever public transport was not available, he would rely on help from the passing by vehicles for drops.
Our destination was Nord Cape. Soon he was friendly and part of the relevant conversations on the way went like this:
Me: Where are you headed to?
He: To Nord Cape to watch mid-night Sun.
Me: Oh! We too. We can drop you right there.
He: Thank you. But I will get down at the next town. I will work for a couple of days in a restaurant or a shop there, earn some money which would take me to reach my next stop.
Me: But then why don’t you come with us as we can take you to your ultimate destination.
He: No. I want to see and experience the places, earn myself and then spend.
Me: Oh! How much money did your parents give you when you were leaving home.
He: What? …..pause….. just equivalent of an American dollar.
Me: What? Just a dollar, for you to go right upto Nord Cape and watch the mid-night Sun.
He: Yeah. Why should my parents give me money? I am capable of managing and earning for myself to spend on my holiday.
It was an eye opener for me. No doubt we are emotionally attached to our kids to ensure that they are comfortable, safe and secure. But then, by providing all the emotionally dictated needs are we depriving them of the experience they would gain otherwise?
This incident encouraged me to permit my son a month long vacation overseas by himself when he was about 15. I am sure that must have helped him build his confidence, consciously or otherwise, in his hectic travels later in his life for education and for business.
Experienced and Written By: Badri Baldawa
Edited By : Meeta Kabra