Smiling Salesman

First published on November 28, 2012--Here it is again. I remember this incident like it was yesterday.  Remember his face like I saw him this morning.  And the joy that spread his face when I took this picture still makes me all happy and want to be the nicest person in the world!!  Thank you sir!! We should all smile, we never know how it is helping someone!!

We were headed to Tak Tseng: The Tiger's Nest.  One of the oldest Monasteries in Bhutan.  

It was nearly 3000 ft above the sea level.  From ground to the monastery was about three hour gruesome climb.  As is always the case, there were vendors selling goods at the base.  

I have learnt to identify things that we must spend money on and those that we should leave alone.  This year my goal was to 'not shop'.  Mostly, I have realized, I spend just as much time in looking for gift as in enjoying my break.  This break was meant to take me deep within.  So my goal also was to not buy gifts for anyone, to not talk to many people, just be alone, not email, no phone calls, no connection with the world.  All of it proved difficult, but useful in the long run. But I reduced my email checking considerably, only spoke with 2-3 ultra important people who would not let me alone, during this time. I had left my check-in bag at Singapore and carried only a hand-luggage to Bhutan.  Half of which was filled with paper and books to read.

I did not realize not buying gifts would prove so difficult.  I would look at things, and then come back a dozen time to buy them and at least two times I would return with the good in my hand.  But at least ten times I resisted the urge to buy.  It was a great exercise for someone like me, who spent many hours on looking for gifts. Among other things, this time, a resolution and carrying only my hand luggage proved helpful.

I have also realized that souvenirs often cost more (in time and effort) than what they mean to who you present them to.  So, this year....I knew whatever I bought would either be for other people, or something I could not do without.

There was one such a thing they were selling at the base.

A walking stick.  

I have climbed a few of these 'high up' places, so I know how important a stick is.  As I started looking at them, about three people rushed with their sticks towards me.  The sticks were very nicely shaved and sanded.  Very smooth, and very strong.  

'Buy from me, from me' all three said. Two women and one man. 

I have to admit though that the vendors were not as aggressive as I have seen in other countries.

Then this woman came up to me and said, 'buy from me, the other two are together, I am alone.'

That one line made the decision for me.  This man tried smiling, cajoling, but I leaned toward the woman who had said, 'buy it from me, I am alone.'

The man, with a child-like round face, responded with a pout.  I felt really bad for turning his smiling face to a pout.

'I am sorry, I am sorry' I told him, 'Ok promise I will try and buy something from you when I return.'

But he would not look at me.  My last image of him, before I headed towards the monastery was that of a face that was 'sad, forlorn, disappointmented.'

I felt bad, but needed only one stick.  And I had to be ruthless to stick to my 'no frivolous buying policy.'

I met some of the most interesting people on my first hike up to Tak Tseng (I went twice).  I will write about those people in another post.  

On my return, I saw him sitting with his goods.  The moment he saw me, he tried not smiling, but ah a pure heart-- how could a pure heart not smile?

'See I told you, I will buy something from you, but not until you smile for me.'

'Yes, yes, smile for me, a bigger one...'  

He gave me an ear to ear smile....and that is when my camera went, 'Click'.

Fiji, Frangipani & Fraility

Looks like this will be published on Friday the 13th--Oh well....

Frangipanis exist in India as well but I noticed them in Fiji.  It is hard to describe how exquisite they are.  How lovely they smell and how short they live.  Unlike roses or sunflowers or carnations or other flowers that we bring into our house to bring a bit of color and fragrance and freshness, frangipanis do not fit into a vase. Well, they have no stalk.  Often people bring them in and leave them floating in a bowl.  

The garland is made of pink and white frangipani---I found a young girl playing with it at a festive ceremony...

The above two pictures are stolen from the net.  Don't they make a great conversational piece.  This is so common in Fiji, especially at hotels. I used to do it in my house as well, sometimes..

Not only does it brighten the room and bring color and fragrance in, it creates a piece of art, a conversational piece.  

Flame tree, my apartment compound in Fiji, right across from the Government building, very close to the Parliament. Flame tree, which we had in our house in Delhi, produces truly red, flame like trees.  These blossoms have no fragrance but man, are they stunning to look at. I remember looking down at them from my neighbours second story building, and looked like it was a gigantic bouquet.  Like Frangipani though, they are frail, they bring such beauty but last a very short time.  And like frangipani they cannot be brought to a vase.  You have to let them be, and they last longer, and are happier....

This one is stolen from the net.  But see, this is how flame trees can look like bouquets.  Oh to have grown up with this in your front yard?  Yes, that's me!!

Such beauty --such daintiness--and such frailty--Frangipanis wither in a short time.  The fragrance they provide is truly strong and gives you a whiff of heaven.  That is what heaven  must smell like, perfumed with this gentle divine smell that relaxes you.  But frangipani is also frail.  Dainty and frail.  It crushes easily.  Simple, sensitive, and sensual.

I often thought of Fiji that way. I still remember my first day in the country.  I stepped out of the airport and it was ganska värm--quite warm -- I stared at the coconut trees --a very small population rushing about its work. A few cars, compared to scores of them that we saw in Pennsylvania streets.  A gentility washed over me. 

For the first week I stayed on a high.  Another country, another life, now it all starts. 

A week later, I woke up in the middle of the night and asked myself, 'What in the world have you done'.  Library was not that good, I was away from any sort of intellectual, academic community.  I mean there were professors but that conversation about 'ideas and new theories in the field' was missing. Things were substandard and while in general I love developing countries and their gregariousness, it felt like professional suicide. In addition, I was away from everything I knew.  

There was some political turmoil already in the air.  Less than a year later there were talks of a coup.  And then two months later, there was one. It happened silently.  No violence this time. At least no visible one.

A year later I had a burglary in my house.  That left me disoriented for the rest of the stay in Fiji.  A sense of frailty --a sense of fear came back in.  It affected my career, my writing and my living--my attitude towards life.  And a bag of fear was created around my body.   But I kept moving.

I have often thought about my life in Fiji. It was beautiful, perfumed with frangipanis and made me feel like an almost celebrity.  People knew me and would call out my name, even though I did not know who they were. I did not remember them, but they remembered me.  Often so many students who had never taken classes with me would address me by my name.

Having taught in Fiji for a few semesters I earned myself a sabbatical, which I never used.  Till this day I regret it.  But at the time I was almost going to leave academia. Go back to school, do a masters in immersive media and simply move on to another related but highly creative field ---

For reasons that I cannot list here--there are too many--I could not. The one major reason was ofcourse money.  I did have plans though. I was going to return to my MA that I had admission to in Canada, in about two years. Its been 9 years and I am still here.

Money and confusion affected the decisions regarding career. Now at this stage, mid career, it all feels too silly. 

While there are days that I regret continuing with academia, even though I love teaching, and my students nominated me for the best teacher award and I have been given other awards etc. --I also know I have learnt a lot. I could certainly do without all that I have learnt.  That is true, including the language which will be useless to me outside of the country and certainly outside of Scandinavia (Don't get me wrong I love the place and the people here).  Had I gone towards my dream, I would have felt a sense of certainty inside.  And a sense that I had a purpose. Something that having a community, family and ongoing-long term friendships can provide, but nothing compares to having your own family and hopefully in what you consider your own country.

As much as I love that I have so many cultures within me, I also mourn the mono culture that provided a GPS for life.  That GPS saved time --over fretting---why, when, where, what...all those existential questions that linger---

Whenever I get tired and do not want to think--there is a silence that I seek from all the clutter of my mind.  Often times, I have used Fiji has a metaphor for life.  Its Fiji, you know, a place people know to be lovely, like paradise. I am told that souls from beyond want to come to our world, to experience love, life, pain and pleasure.  It all can be performed like perfumed frangipanis.....but it is all still very frail.  I often think of the way Spielberg uses human bodies to show fragility of life. One shot and life goes out of a stunning --beautiful woman whose face could have launched a 1000 ships.

So yes, life's like that. A bit of Fiji, with much of frangipani, precariously hanging on the uncertainty and frailty that is our existence---

Celebrating a Decade: Stockholm Snapshots!- 5th Most Popular

Last posted as recent as May 26, 2019, this post is originally from 2011, when I was still new to the country.  And believe it or not, I am still as fascinated by the country as I was when I came. I will say though that I know I have to move on--and should be thinking about it soon.

Regardless, here are some shots from Stockholm.  The reason this post has been reposted in such a short period of time is because this is the fifth most popular post on the blog.  Obviously, it is because of the pictures.  But hey, the blog gets some more eyes, if not readers!!


Not sure how but this post got posted as being from September 1, 2018.  But it is actually from January of 2011, if I remember correctly.  I was still very new in the country.  And its lights and sights excited me.

Strangely enough, they still do!! The joys of being an outsider, we never become blind to the beauty around us.....for its always new, like the world to a child. 

________

In the middle of January, I had to be in Stockholm. A friend who I knew from Fiji, and had live in Europe for the last 2 years, was heading home (Fiji). She stopped in the capital for two days. Two days, many sights to see. Inches of snow on the ground and the fact that this was my second time in the city made it difficult to reach places in time. But we had fun in the mean time looking around.

A shot from Hermans. All vegetarian restaurant in Stockholm. Highly recommended. The lights on the left upper corner of the picture are the lights from the restaurant reflected in the pic. I always enjoy taking pictures of reflections, especially through windows that allow for an overlap of the scene through the window and parts from the surrounding of the photographer. Merges the two worlds. Always creates an interesting effect.

Entrance of Vasa Museum. Vasa is a ship, that never really sailed....

A model of Vasa in the Museum.  Notice the ornate work on the side of the ship. Vasa (or Wasa) was a Swedish Warship that was built from 1626 to 1628. On August 10, 1628, after sailing merely one nautical mile the ship foundered (go down/ being lost in the sea).  In the 17th century, most of the bronze cannons were salvaged, and Vasa was forgotten.  However, in the 1950s she was located again, in a busy shipping lane just outside the Stockholm harbor. She was salvaged with a largely intact hull on 24 April 1961.

Vasa was housed in a temporary museum called Wasavarvet ("The Wasa Shipyard") until 1987, and was then moved to the Vasa Museum in Stockholm. The ship is one of Sweden's most popular tourist attractions and has since 1961 attracted more than 28 million visitors.

Vasa was built top-heavy and lacked sufficient ballast. Despite an obvious lack of stability in port, she was allowed to set sail and foundered a few minutes later when she first encountered a wind stronger than a breeze.

This picture is of the real ship. Show how much intricate work was done on the ship. A ten minute movie at the Museum details the restorative process. I was half asleep when I was watching it, but clearly remember that the only gold item they found on the ship was a ring. The short documentary is really amazing to watch, of how many people got together to restore Vasa to its original glory, where it brings back people to the times gone by!! I remember feeling like a midget standing next to it. What if it never sailed, it gives such a joy to the eye and provides labyrinths for our imagination to run wild!

Entrance of Ethnographic Museum in Stockholm

My friend P, at an exhihit/set up in the ethnographic museum. This set up is to show how in the 50s people sat around in their living rooms, huddled around a radio listening to a show on culture. I think we can still use such shows. In general I find Swedes pretty well informed about the world. In a conversation, when asked what are the first things that come to mind when you think of Asia, or say India to be specific, the answers have often been, 'technology, population, democracy, diversity, and yes poverty' But poverty is not the first thing that is mentioned. Which shows that they have a more holistic view of the world in general, and are not simply biased by one sided coverage of places and events.

Afternoon sun, benign but welcome...

A teepee outside ethnographic museum. I wonder if teepees were just in North America, or if they were also used by other populations under similar climatic conditions by other populations?

I found this fascinating. These were just stickers about Native Americans on a poster. So many of these tribes are just footnotes in anthropology books now.

Outside Hermans: A visitor from Fiji.....what does it feel to be ankle deep in snow instead of the Pacific. She kept commenting how even in Switzerland one never saw snow for a long time on the streets. She was fascinated with it. I like it too, but it stays too long. So I kept joking, why don't you take it with you....

Cooks and caretakers of Lao Wei. Possibly the best Chinese but Vegetarian restaurant. However, the staff is mostly Thai. All of them nearly fluent in Swedish, have spent the last 15 years of their lives in this multicultural city.

A picture I took on my way home from Stockholm. Home is only a few minutes walk away from the final bus stop. There is something about the light in Sweden. It makes things and places seem magical. Only if it were not biting cold, I would sit outside and just breathe in its beauty.....