The following blog post is written as part of Indiblogger’s ‘WeChat’
contest, which is a promotion for the WeChat mobile messaging app. To learn
more about WeChat, check their youtube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/WeChatIndia?feature=chclk
The idea of a common platform where anybody could connect –
past, present or future, alive or dead, real or fictional – is, I think,
brilliant, both as a brand promotion and a general concept. What messages would
you leave to your as yet unborn children or grandchildren? Would Gandhi have
been able to influence the views of Adolf Hitler? What musical masterpieces
would have emerged had A.R. Rahman collaborated with Kishore Kumar, Lata
Mangeshkar & Mohd. Rafi at the peak of their prowess? How many more Meiyappans
& Vindoo Dara Singhs would Sherlock Holmes have unearthed, had he been part
of the investigations in the sordid IPL scandal? The possibilities are endless.
My own personal ensemble cast is an eclectic mishmash of
characters I’ve admired, looked up to, and generally spent a lot of time
thinking about at various stages of my life.
People I would love not just to meet personally, but to put into a closed
room…or more to the point, a virtual platform…and have them feed off each other’s
thoughts and ideas and characteristics.
It begins with Lance Armstrong. As a fan of endurance
sports, he was an icon to me. I watched his Tour De France wins, heard about
his fight with cancer, read his book and like most others, was shocked beyond
comprehension on news of his ‘elaborate & professional’ doping programme. For
a while I disbelieved and willed it to be false, I sympathized with him amidst
the growing allegations and was stunned when I finally learned they were
actually true. Despite all the news & interviews, I’m still dismayed about
the fall of a legend and grappling with the question “Why?” So the Armstrong I
would like to meet is the one before the doping started, when he was still “clean”…whenever
that was.
I would like to have talked to him about the sport, his
career, his fight with cancer, his potential for growth. About human fallacies
and his need…ironical as it may seem…to avoid those fallacies while being the
most pressured to succumb to them. I’m sure he had personal demons, but I would’ve
liked to remind him about his potential for heroism that existed because of
those very same demons. What the world wants…what it needs…as evident by the
fact that we frequently look to sport for our icons…are examples of the triumph
of human spirit. The story of an underdog who never ceases fighting the odds. Whether
or not he would win, whether or not he would dominate the sport as he did, he
was in that enviable position of being a great example, maybe not to the world,
but to a few who would, inevitably look up to him even without the 7 yellow
jerseys. I would’ve liked to tell him that it was better to fail and still lift
the hearts of a few, than succeed and force millions to rethink the very
concept of sporting icons. To rue their folly of believing that great men can
actually be more than just men.
Which brings me to the second person I’d invite to the chat.
Someone at the opposite end of the spectrum from Armstrong, a nobody who lives
his equally tough profession, and does it with integrity and honour, a man
called Tsewang. Tsewang is a member of the Changpa tribe of Ladakh, a nomadic
wanderer who roams the high slopes of mountains feeding his livestock on the
sparse grasslands that dot the region. It is a life of endurance, but unlike
the modern endurance athlete, it is neither glamorous nor temporary. Constant
movement, long tough treks, biting cold and harsh environs are a daily affair.
And Tsewang doesn’t just love his profession, he lives it. He is so proud of being a Changpa, that when
his legs have failed him and his children have taken over the livestock in his
old age, he’s erected a tent in the compound of his concrete house and lives
there permanently. Being tough is, for him, not a lifestyle choice or a means
of proving something. It is just who he
is. And the hard times, the obscurity and meager possessions have not affected
his integrity and honesty one bit. I would love for celebrities, sportspersons,
adrenaline junkies and travelers to spend a few hours with this simple soul to
understand what a life well-lived truly means. Armstrong, for one, could certainly take
lessons on focusing on the sport and being an ambassador, instead of craving so
much for the top position.
The third person I’d invite is straight out of the movies.
And I mean literally. He needs no introduction to anyone who’s been around
since the Doordarshan days, and like me, is also a bit of a sci-fi nut. He’s
got the unique opportunity by means of his…umm…varied ancestry…to be able to
look at humanity from an outside perspective with near total detachment. While
he’s no stranger to emotions, he’s imbued with the sense of logic to be able to
analyze them and see them for what they are. Ever since I saw the first set of
gum-booted, yellow & red clothed men & women who boldly went where no one
had gone before, I was hooked. The idea of living in a constantly moving home,
to be able to visit different worlds and interact with the inhabitants, and yet
not have the baggage of being attached to any one of them…that touched a chord
deep inside of me. And among all the characters, Spock was a constant favorite.
Besides being one of the coolest
characters of the lot, he epitomized friendship, loyalty, intelligence and
steadfastness. I know I’m making him sound like a Labrador retriever…but still…he
was man you could trust, a man for a tight situation. A firm believer in both logic
& the power of technology to change lives, I can’t help wondering to this
day the rate at which humanity would have progressed if we were able to
conveniently set aside all conflicting emotions and pursue with single-minded
dedication that which enriched us. A grey world perhaps, but it would be a
highly evolved one for sure.
It’s probably evident from the previous paragraphs that I
have a fascination for exploration, travel and deep space. With all the progress
that science & technology has made today, I maintain that the two areas as
yet unexplored are the workings of the human mind and the vastness of outer space.
Though a lot is known about them, we are nowhere close to plumbing the depths
of either to really find out how they work. So if we have someone like the Science
Officer of the Starship Enterprise, one of the most widely travelled and
brilliant minds in popular fiction ever in our chat, what better than to enrich
humanity by pairing him with one the most brilliant minds alive today? Referred by many as the most intelligent man
since Einstein, and arguably the best theoretical physicist and cosmologist
ever, Stephen Hawking is next on the list. While he would be able to chat with
Armstrong as a former athlete (he was on the rowing team at Oxford before the
motor neuron disease hit him) and author, a chat room would not suffice to hold
the combined grey matter with him & Spock put together. Imagine the satisfaction of having theories on
black hole radiation, gravitational singularities, time running backwards, dark
matter and quantum physics being validated by someone who spent his life
stepping through black holes into parallel universes. Imagine the gains that the
human race would make! We would finally know the validity of the theory of
relativity, and if we’re lucky the formula for beaming someone on board a
moving vessel…or a static vessel, for that matter… and even…gasp…achieving trans
warp speeds! It would be like an orgasmic explosion of science! One small step
for WeChat (and for Vulcans), a
mega-humongous infinity spanning leap for Mankind!
The fifth person I’d like to add to the group, one who would
benefit hugely from the combined presence of Armstrong, Tsewang, Spock &
Hawking…and he might even give me a signed photograph and mention me in the
credits of his next book, thus fulfilling my life’s objective…is Bill Bryson.
The famous, rollickingly funny American author, possibly the closest to British
humour that Americans…or any other species, for that matter…could produce, and
one of my absolute favorites. As someone
once said, and I paraphrase, travel never seemed funnier than when Bill Bryson
was doing it. Douglas Adams was a close second for this spot, but then he’s
already written the most definitive guide to the galaxy yet, so it makes Spock’s
presence a bit redundant. But Bryson…this would be uncharted territory for him.
If he could make international bestsellers on notes from small islands and little
walks in the woods, it boggles the mind to think what he could do with the rest
of the universe. That aside, a little
nugget from Wikipedia is that Stephen Hawking was “increasingly irritated” when
asked to explain his ideas clearly in non-technical language for “A brief
history of time”. The mind, once again, boggles to think what would happen if
Bryson started to explain concepts from his general science book “A short
history of nearly everything” to Hawking. His reaction might even move Spock
enough to raise an eyebrow. Bryson and Armstrong could compare notes on their respective
travels…drug-fuelled and otherwise…in France, and he might just be tempted to
decide if something funny could come out of spending a winter in sub-zero
temperatures in Ladakh amidst grazing sheep and yaks after speaking with
Tsewang. For all you know he might even credit WeChat in his next book or two for
giving him this life-changing opportunity, thus surpassing their wildest
expectations for a promotion. And I could read all about it on my new MacBook
Air! If that isn’t a win-win situation for everybody, I don’t know what is!
So there you have it, my dream team of real & fictional
personalities that define all of my major interests in life…endurance, sports,
travel, literature, outer space and science fiction…brought together by WeChat’s
amazing new app. That you can know all about here.
That’s it for now. Until my next post…Live Long &
Prosper!!
Comments