You are crazy to do this!

With friends like these... How many times we have said this expression in joy of having such friends and embarrassment of being the victim of a prank? There is never a shortage for tales to support this fact. The latest I come across is a tale of a man from France and his bunch of friends from India. So our protagonist the French man, lives in Paris, and is a school teacher. It is a wonderful job. Let me be clear. I am not about about the satisfaction of dispensing wisdom to the seekers of knowledge but about the vacation days in an academic year. No matter where or what you teach, there is a lot of vacation time for you. I am not sure about the salary but none of us can match this field in terms of vacation days.

So our French man has recently opted for a co-location scenario and ended up with having an Indian as a room mate. This presented a good opportunity to learn from a different and rich culture. Luckily for him, his room mate is an enterprising person. Before long, he added a lot of friends from India to his list of friend. As he was acquiring more and more friends from India, the summer vacation was approaching. While he was contemplating the best places to visit in the world, India was also shortlisted. With strong recommendation from his new friends, the French man finally decided to choose India as his summer destination. All his Indian friends reassured him about the best time he will soon have in India. So, he booked his tickets to Mumbai. He earmarked a few places with almost negligent outline of a plan. He decides improvise it on ground. Then the day approaches faster than he envisaged. The French man is flying to India the next day. He and his Indian friends are drinking. They drink a lot to the point his Indian friends could hold it inside them. They blurt out. "My friend... you are crazy to go alone into a country you have no idea about".

All is well that ends well. The French man has already seen Bangalore, ate in Frazer Town, took a shower in Cubbon Park (thanks to the monsoon season)and enjoyed the local bar where the music was too loud even for having a conversation while sitting right next to each other. As I write this, he continues his adventure and is somewhere in Tamil Nadu having more fun. But with friends like these, he could also have dropped his plans for visiting India.

Tags: Musings,France,India,Vacation

-->