What next?

In Iceland, I have been fortunate to meet a lot of wonderful people from various countries. It would be appropriate to mention here that, this sparsely populated country, having a scary name is home to people of as many as 100 nationalities with Poland leading the stack with 7000 people. Around 100 Indians are also working or settled in Iceland.

Let’s continue, among the people I met, Richard, a self retired business consultant from US, stands out. He retired at 38, and since then has been living by the interest on his deposits. He’s now 48 and now follows his passion, TRAVELLING. Believe it or not, he has traveled 72 countries* and plans to have traveled the world when he reaches 70. Just for the record, I love traveling too, and I have seemed to realize that driving is one of my passions as well, as long as the drive is not from IIITM to Gole ka Mandir or City Center or to the small maze like roads of crowded Bada!!!!!

I met Richard through a friend, I met at the meditation center where I go every Sundays. The moment I knew about Richard, I became envious of this guy and really wanted to meet him. He was to leave for US the day I met him, so we had the conversation on the way to the airport (the international airport is around 40 minutes drive from Reykjavik). So to start the discussion, I told him that I would like to have a life like his, retire at 38, after earning a lot of money and then travel around the world. He replied, “Sure, it’s a free world you can choose whatever you want to do in life. Work hard, when you have to, say no to people who pay you less and burn the midnight’s oil for the people who pay you well. Work hard but most importantly, work smart”. He continued, “I’m so passionate about traveling and sometimes I don’t seem to get all the comforts as it’s a fact that, when you travel Morocco, Algiers even with all the money, your journey is not as comfortable as it can be France or Italy. But then came the bitter self confession, he said, “Since traveling is my first love, I can’t seem to get any serious life partner even with all the money that I have”. He laughed, and continued, “I want to have a partner who is as crazy as me, who can get going for a 2 months trip to Africa or to Siberia at a 2 days notice. Who can walk on the sands of the Sahara or the glaciers of Iceland, and who is at ease at Chicago Airport and even comfortable at the Panama airport as well”. He said, “Ankit, this life, I know would seem to very fascinating for a youngster like you, I love it, but I doubt you wont. I don’t have a family and Im 48. I love myself, I would love to have multiple copies of my genes (exactly his words) in the world when I die and I don’t want to do have the copies mixed with a whore genes. And since, my passion, traveling seems to take my energy and time, I can’t have a family”. Just then I realized that my mood had changed, from being a self retired passionate traveler at 38 to being a grandfather at 60!!!

But today, I write this blog confused, as what kind of life I would want to choose. Life is unpredictable, it doesn’t always give you a choice, rather you are forced to walk the road which is available. But what would I do, incase I have a choice. I don’t know, maybe I would know when its time to know.

* He told me the secret behind 72, there are 40 countries in Carribean and he has visited each one of them and most of the countries in Europe and some in Northern Africa. So, incase even 72 seems difficult, its not that difficult. He hasn’t visited any of the big countries till now, apart from US, Canada, Australia and Brazil. India is left. He owns a home in US, UK and Israel.