Phoenix

phoenix... i've been fascinated by that word... "A legendary Arabian bird said to periodically burn itself to death and emerge from the ashes as a new phoenix; according to most versions only one phoenix lived at a time and it renewed itself every 500 years". i had to travel to phoenix for a week at a very short notice to attend one summit. i was foolish not to carry my driving license with me. however, i did not feel that pinch as we had to spend most of the days at work and also the weather was extremely hot, could not have dared to venture out. touching part of the whole trip was the drive from hotel to airport on the last day of the stay!

i had asked for the transport to be available by 6:30 am. i was late as usual, reached the front desk only at 6:50 am, thought that i would have to pay extra to the driver for keeping him wait. interestingly there was no vehicle waiting...

after waiting for about 15 minutes one interesting guy showed up... he offered to carry my check-in baggage to the vehicle, that was my first surprise! i would never expect such thing especially in usa. he started with my surname, saying that he was contemplating that i must be from asia... india, pakistan, nepal or bangladesh. i confirmed to him that i am from india. he was overflowing with warmth! he loves india and a big fan of indian music. he was very appreciative about various indian actors and musicians. he also was humming old songs from old hindi films.

i got curious to know about his origin and how he developed a taste for india. he was born in somaila. when he was a teenager he managed to convince his dad to take him to india, in '80s. they visited bombay and few other places. he used to have a good collection of indian music. i was amazed by his respect to indian traditional values.

during the conversation he talked about the importance of retaining the traditional and cultural values. he sounded very upset when he talked about the current trends in indian movies. showing off too much skin... incomprehensible lyrics... adulterated music tunes! it made me think, 'how many times do we care about the rapidly changing value system?... someone far from east africa and living in usa is worried... do we bother?'

the trip came to an end as we reached the airport, but his thoughts kept on lingering in my mind... i do not know what is indian!!! one may presume that so & so is only indian, but the reality is that the other extreme is also indian...