1. Do not put a baguette in a bag full of other groceries. This would cause the said baguette to split into two and fall on the ground mid-way between the grocery store and your apartment.
-First Occurrence: Day 2 of stay
-Frequency of baguette drops till date: 3
2. Do not leave the house with promises of returning early. This almost never happens.
-First Occurrence: Day 1 of Stay
-Frequency of broken promises till date: 3456
3. Ask for directions and prepared to be surprised. Every time. For the uninitiated, the warmth with which the Spanish people direct you to your destination is just short of a hug.:)
-First Occurrence: Day 1 of Stay
-Frequency of being directed by happy passersby till date: 50
4.Do not say no to Sangria. That's Sacrilege.( Not for cultural reasons , but you'd be a fool not to have it)
-First Occurrence: Day 7 of stay
-Frequency of saying no to sangria till date: 3
5. Do not venture out to look for a Ferreteria ( Hardware Store) on a Saturday afternoon at 2 pm. You'd find it but it would be shut. (The same can be generalised for other small specialised stores)
-First Occurence: Month 2 of Stay
-Frequency of failed ferreteria searches till date: 1
6.Jaywalking works.
-First occurrence (involuntary): Day 3 of stay
-Frequency of jaywalking incidents till date: 500
7. Tapas is not Dinner and will never be. Do not confuse Tapas with a full meal. It isn't. I've learnt the hard way, so I suggest plan a meal before or after Tapas in order to satiate those hunger pangs.
-First occurrence: Week 1 of stay
-Frequency of feeling hungry after tapas outings till date: 10
8. Talking to taxi drivers is fun. Particularly in your limited Spanish.
-First occurrence: Hour 1 of Stay
-Frequency of fun conversations till date: 12
9. The sun never sets in Madrid. Not so much literally, but the parties start at 2 am and end at 7 am or even later..(unfortunately I haven't been around to usher in the end of the dancing). Dinner starts at 10 pm. You have 24 hours for everything, except sleeping.
-First Occurrence: Day 1 of stay
-Frequency of late days till date: 70
10. Dogs are everywhere. In streets, in shops, in restaurants. For someone who is petrified of dogs ( although I must admit my neighbors dog Laila has begun to grow on me)that is NOT good news.
-First occurrence: Day 1 of Stay
-Frequency of encounters till date: 88
Friday, November 20, 2009
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Notes on Mortality
Commercial Pursuits seem to be in vain really. Mortality being imminent, why on earth do we need to go on and engage in these apparently officious and ostentatious activities that seem to do no-one any good really. Of course, I’m saying assuming everyone engages in commercial pursuits that have the sole objective of enhancing and aiding their hedonistic desires.
Do we need to live life in such a way that we make lives of other people better? Other people who are significantly worse off than we are, and there are a lot of those in this world. Or do we just go about our own lives, trying to achieve the best for us, monetarily, socially, emotionally, spiritually? Of course, if we are to become apostles of the school of thought that says “yes” to question number two, then the normal construct of the society and commerce is adhered to. However when I am inclined to swing to question number one, I feel, that if everyone had the same thought, there would be a total breakdown of the system and of course, that would be really really bad. So I guess, being pragmatic is not ideal if I want to live in the affirmative with respect to question number one.
Having rambled on so far, the lessons to be learnt from the imminent mortality briefly mentioned above, should certainly be highlighted now. The years given to us are finite, but rather than count the number of moments that life gives to us, we need to look at the number of moments we give life to. Hell, do what we must-commerce, charity, travel, …name it. But do it right.
This was so not what I intended to get to when I started writing, but writing is like traveling into the unknown. You know where you start, but you never known where you end. -Amen
Do we need to live life in such a way that we make lives of other people better? Other people who are significantly worse off than we are, and there are a lot of those in this world. Or do we just go about our own lives, trying to achieve the best for us, monetarily, socially, emotionally, spiritually? Of course, if we are to become apostles of the school of thought that says “yes” to question number two, then the normal construct of the society and commerce is adhered to. However when I am inclined to swing to question number one, I feel, that if everyone had the same thought, there would be a total breakdown of the system and of course, that would be really really bad. So I guess, being pragmatic is not ideal if I want to live in the affirmative with respect to question number one.
Having rambled on so far, the lessons to be learnt from the imminent mortality briefly mentioned above, should certainly be highlighted now. The years given to us are finite, but rather than count the number of moments that life gives to us, we need to look at the number of moments we give life to. Hell, do what we must-commerce, charity, travel, …name it. But do it right.
This was so not what I intended to get to when I started writing, but writing is like traveling into the unknown. You know where you start, but you never known where you end. -Amen
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