Countries and namesakes

The best memories of Vaishno Devi trip apart from the world class Charas I has to be the wonderful time spent in the van. We were 11 guys traveling and hence we tool 2 vans. The first van had 6 guys and all the cameras. The second van had 5 people. It was a perfect division between brash, rude guys and uptight resourceful guys. Everything thing fitted in perfectly and we called it a natural division of first and third world countries. Great per capita GDP barrier even if we account for PPP. They had all the cameras and tickets and money and the trip plan. The stage was set and battle swords drawn. The objective of third world was to exploit resources without giving much leeway to the developed world.

Battle plan being ready, the next thing was clarity on individual positions. I being the poorest of us all naturally became Somalia. No conflict in this. I guess I lived up to my expectations by asking camera from one and all and getting a kick at the butt at all times. Next in line was Morya. Reason: come on man! look at his face once. Third was Sanjay Jain. His unwanted deep insight on many things and data; specially with trade in it helped us suggest his name. Also his dear love for Olam and he was named Nigeria.

Two guys remaining in the van. Both at the opposite ends of adrenaline rush. Gaurav Gaud would have easily accepted any name and would have taken it personally but Mongolia fitted in like a mold. The large wasteful size of both, extreme lack of useful intellect (Mongolia has 20 horses for 1 man) and the fact that Mongolia is known for its Ghodas and the choice was final. The last remaining Akshay. Unfortunately he was wearing a Sri Lanka Coka Cola jacket and you guessed it. As always SL is an unfortunate addition to the third world and so in some ways semi refined Akshay in this group.

To talk about the other van. The first one, Dahuja with all the planning and strategic financial backup like trusted Swiss banks was named Switzerland. Next Hari, for unmentionable and very obvious reasons was deemed England. The third proud camera owner with Stuttgart belt was HS code-12 and we called Handa Stuttgart rather than calling him Germany. Sony trying to belong to the group by forming alliances (NAFTA like) was a pseudo third world member and was aptly named Mexico. Next was someone about whom no one knew or wanted to know. Just that for some odd reason all knew the name of this little country. In short, both Togo and apne Golu bhaiya knew how to occupy the center stage. The last guy remained and i wont comment- crisis.

Our van driver was playing fast bollywood numbers and we were dancing and humming all the way. Fun, pun and sarcasm, we all enjoyed every bit of it and thanks to countries and namesakes.