Prejudice?

Thursday, 03 February 2011

King Shaka International Airport, Durban

Exchange rate

1 ZAR = 0.513 AE Dhiram

            1 ZAR = 6.345 Indian Rupee

Durban Weather: 29°C, scattered cloud

Mumbai weather forecast: 35°C, sunny

Dubai weather forecast: 22°C, sunny

I recently watched the movie “The Social Network”, the story behind the development of Face Book.

Something in the movie made me wonder whether I should reconsider my activity and availability on the Internet.  I wasn’t so sure I wanted aspects of my life to be too transparent in case I shared something that would later incriminate me and be used against me.  Scary.  But maybe that just means I’m going to have to learn to be VERY P.C.  Somehow.  Anyway, against my momentary better judgement (thanks to ”the Big Screen”) I’ve decided not to give up on this Blog thing till I’ve given it a fair go.  So here’s my 2^nd entry (I’m a slow starter, ok!!)

I’ve been challenged by another part of my conscience of late about developing pre-conceived ideas and making premature judgements on things and people without having enough – or sometime NO – information.

Three examples of my recent poor judgement calls (that have taken place in my mind – not necessarily expressed verbally – so this is a little confession!) have been:

1.       I’ve started going to Pilates classes on a Monday evening at the gym (yes, I know some of you are jumping to conclusions yourself; I know how your minds work!!).  This past Monday was my second attempt.  And I’m NOT very good at it.  In fact, I suck!  But it’s been fun going with a small group of us from work – as a legitimate reason to get out of the office before dark!!  I attempted to remain unphased at the fact that on my first occasion I was one of only 3 guys in a class of about 30 people (you do the maths!!)  But I was quite secure in myself if not hugely insecure about my ability to balance on my own to feet, let alone on a ball.  I endured the 59 minute (yes, I counted) class and had a good laugh with the others afterwards during our post-mortem as we left the gym.  I was glad to overhear the only 2 other guys in the class talking to one another confirming that they were attending the class for “rehabilitation” reasons.  Ha, so now I have my PUBLIC reason for attending Pilates … for rehabilitation.  Actually, it’s a darn fine workout.  I’m still NOT convinced it’s going to help me develop the 6, 4 or even 2 pack that I’ve NEVER had.  But I did make a poor judgement on the effort it takes to do Pilates!!  So hats off to you stalwarts that do attend regularly!!

2.       I’ve recently had new neighbours move in next door.  The fact that they live together, are still very young, and are not “like me” did make me a little nervous and cold-shouldered.  So I categorised them and haven’t given them much opportunity to prove me wrong.  I mean, why would I be wrong in my (pre-)judgement?  Well, if only you knew how cool they actually are.  I had reason to hook up with them last night the fact that he loves and keeps reptiles as pets actually makes him FAR more admirable than I’d originally assessed in my own mind.  Listening and hearing him talk about his hobby and passion gave me a whole new respect for him (but no greater appreciation or love for reptiles, I must admit!).  So blow me down, I’m wrong AGAIN.  And I even took the plunge and asked them to baby-sit my solitary goldfish whilst I’m away for the next 10 days.  I do have to admit that if I get home to find the goldfish deceased or M.I.A., I’ll have no guarantee that it actually just went belly-up from natural causes (like my previous 2 fish), or whether it became a convenient offering to the local reptile gods.  I guess sometimes you just got to hold lightly to these things J

3.       My 3^rd premature judgement has to do with India.  I have some conjured up idea of what it might be like.  And there are aspects of it I’ve romanticised, whilst there are others that movies like “Slumdog Millionaire” have dramatically de-romanticised for me.  So I write this blog update from Durban’s King Shaka International Airport waiting for my flight to Mumbai via Dubai.  I’m super-excited.   But I can’t help wonder how long that excitement’s going to be maintained.  I mean, how bad can it be after Lagos, Nigeria.  I’ve said that to a few people who have been to India and I wonder why they just give me a wry knowing grin?  I think they know something I don’t!!  So I’ll be updating you on my pre-conceived ideas of people, places and activities though the eyes of a blogger visiting India – if time allows.

Just to add to the experience of the moment I’ve just purchased the book “Shantaram” to add to the richness of my journey.  Not thinking that I now need to lug an encyclopaedia-sized book around for the coming week.  Don’t know when I’ll get chance to read the book seeing as I have loads of work to catch up with on the plane.  But I do have an 8 hour train journey on Friday night from Mumbai to a village somewhere in the north where I will be visiting a soap manufacturing factory for the day before training back to Mumbai overnight on Saturday night.  I have the day off in Mumbai on Sunday before participating in a workshop with a whole heap of my global counterparts from around the world, which I’m looking forward to.  I then return home to Durban on Friday night the 11^th February.  So I hope I find some time in between to make a dent in “Shantaram” and to give you a bit of an insight into India from my first encounter!!

Spot you “from the other side”!!