It was a business trip to meet industrial customers of Western India. Cement, Textiles, Chemicals, Fertilizers, Pharma, Rubber, Power, Metals - you name and I can now smell them all even from a distance.I flew down to Jaipur and the trip started from there. Joining different team members on the way, I had to cover ten cities in two weeks, so I didn't stay in one city for more than a day. Except for a couple of train journeys, I mostly took the road, travelling through some of the most rustic parts of rural India.
It was of course a huge learning opportunity for me to understand the business, interacting directly with customers. But this post is not about that. I seem to have discovered the child back in me during this trip and this post is about that. I may not do anything about it for some more time, because I still haven't solved the riddle of how or why I should retain things in me that I feel are not of any use to this world, but at least I was happy that the child in me was still alive.
Almost all of these factories had huge lawns covering a wide landscape, and I felt like playing in those lawns; I don't remember when I last felt that. We visited Nirma factory, and I wanted to sing the Nirma song, but you know, I was on a business trip. We visited Chittorgarh, and I wanted to visit the fort, but no one seemed to be interested. There were these cooling towers in the plants that had water dripping down like a waterfall, but no one was playing even in those. Oh yes, this was a business visit, I was not supposed to play in those either.
Ah, am I talking about being a child and such things too often now? Am I beginning to lose track? Am I starting to feel individual happiness is the way to collective harmony? Come on, it can't be.
Ok, we will leave that for now. The most wonderful part of this trip was interacting with the rural people of Rajasthan. So naive, so unsophisticated. We stopped at many roadside shops and had authentic Rajasthani food. I may have liked the food even better if I was not running temperature, but I surely enjoyed the food getting served by them. Wish I could just become one of them! But wait, I still haven't figured out how to be useful to this world by being one of them.
May have been for business, but this was a great trip nevertheless!
Gopa, I re-posted this :-)
ReplyDeleteBesides talking about childlike enthusiasm, your post covers all the five senses! - the sight of the lawns, the smell of the industries, the sound of the Nirma song, the touch of the waterfall, and the taste of the local food :-)
ReplyDeleteNice! :-)
During my language classes in school, for just a simple line of poetry, the teacher would go on to explain so much that I would sometimes think, "Are you sure the poet would've meant so much in that one line?"
ReplyDeleteI surely appreciate your sharpness, but the buildup you've given for this silly post is a little too much :)
:-))
ReplyDelete