Thursday, August 16, 2012

But I had packed for Snow Capped Mountains.

So all set for the holiday. This is the big one. One of those, that was a childhood dream. And you probably have been saving up to make this happen for close to..lets say a few years now. The flights were booked 6 months back. In very modest terms a fortune, is what you'd be spending in making this dream come true. That of course leaving aside the months and months of time and effort that you've put in researching, deciding and planning the places you wanna see. How you wanna do it. What you wanna do first, and what you wanna do last. You even bought a pocket dictionary last month, to help you haggle with the cabbies and the shop keepers. Oh yes, less said the better about all the shopping plans. The die hard foodie that you're known as, local cuisine has been on your mind since day one. Specialty restaurants, road side cafes, pubs, bars, exclusive parties... (including driving directions to all of them). Planned to the T. 

Snow capped mountains. That's all there is in your thoughts. Oh how beautiful they're gonna be... You imagine the chill in the air and the warmth of your fancy jackets. And hmmm... you realize  you're gonna look good in the black leather one... Duck feathers on the inside. Ah.. its gonna be paradise....

D day arrives. You launch outta bed. Rush to the airport. Get on board. Next stop - Zurich !!!

Flight lands, you get out and... wait a sec! Its bright and sunny and unbearably hot. Where am I??? No sight of the alps... Ah.. Wrong flight? Wrong ticket? Wrong Country? A slip in planning? Or may be the pilot just thought it was funny, to the take the flight off course! But whatever the reason, you have now landed in ... mmm ... Ah..  Rome. Wait a sec... ROME??????

There's no way out ... You have to spend the time in Italy, you had planned for Switzerland. Its over... Your dreams are dashed, your plans have hit the trash, your money gone in the air.

You start planning about getting back home... Check into a hotel room, disappointed. You sit on the bed and sulk....

"But I had packed for Snow Capped Mountains." "But I had packed for Snow Capped Mountains."

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That's pretty much what life is. Dreams and plans for the future take over your present. And make you a machine that's just living with the promise of those dreams coming true. 

More often than not, our flight too will land somewhere we dint expect it to.

But are we gonna sulk in our hotel room, that snow was what you had carried clothes for. Or are we gonna go out... And see Italy. Bask in its beaches, see the Vatican, pick up an apparel or two from Milan, take a gondola ride in Venice and god knows what not!

Are we gonna shut ourselves from all the opportunities that the situation holds, just because this was not what you had in my mind. 

More often than not, that's what I end up doing. 

And more often than not, I don't even give my present a chance to may be prove that its better than my past and its better than what I wanted it to be. 

Life is beautiful... I belong here.