Start Saving for 2012 !

Every morning I get up and turn on channel 9 (there are just 5 channels that you get for free in Australia and channel 9 is the best amongst all that’s free ;)) and after every 20 minutes, a short fat Engligh looking man speaks up in Pure Aussie slang – ‘Yeah Mate, have you thought what will happen if you die tomorrow. Are you prepared for it(yeah right, as if I have nothing better to do than plan my undecided funeral). Would you like to leave your family in all that debt after you are gone.’


Now normally, I would expect someone to say, leave your family in all the mourning, pain, loneliness, sadness and whatever, but why DEBT??.. what do they shower you with gold biscuits when you die ;)

And then I sorta did some research, and believe it or not, the average funeral cost in Australia is AUD $6000 and can go up to a whooping AUD$20k !! and that’s why these guys are hard selling insurance to help you save for your own grave. The short fat man’s apparently scary(funny to me) intro is followed by loads of typical tele-shopping style case studies of how Jason left his family in debt when he died and how linda never thought about her funeral but how the aussie insurance guys have made her ‘aware’ of it.

So why does it cost so much to die in the west ? The answer is real estate ! You are buried here and when you get buried – you occupy space – and for space you got to pay- living or dead. So in fact you got to keep paying rent even after you die. And I am almost sure that we would have a sub-prime crisis for graveyards been allocated at higher interest rates to the dead – and the banks can then claim that the dead are not able to pay back and ask for a government bailout.

Fun fact : Infosys India actually has around 600 software developers employed in what is called as a “Death Care Business Unit” who support softwares that help people sorta save for their funerals.

If the Mayans calendar , India TV, Aaj tak, and now the Hollywood is to be believed, we all better start saving for whats going to happen in 2012 ;).

Backpack Go !

        There are many things that I did for the first time after coming down to Australia. First time jet ski, first time drove a tractor through a farm, first single engine open aero plane ride, first hair cut taken from a lady barber (we can call her barbara)..fist time snorkeling, and finally first night out with one of the most unique creatures within the human species – backpackers.

These guys are amazing, they are available in all the sexes possible, in all colors, but mostly fair colored, believe in wearing minimal clothing, mostly pierced – n yeah.. not just on the face and decorated with unfathomable mural art- on any part of the human body that you can stretch your imagination to and many times carrying huge sacks that are almost 2/3rd their own size. Needless to say, with so much of a fuss, only the fairer sex among them looks presentable- just in case you are interested in ogling at them.

As foolish as I normally am, just to get a closer look at the lives of these guys, I checked into one of the backpackers hotels in south Melbourne.(Serious note for all readers : by reading through the words that you are now reading, you have morally signed the official terms and conditions for not letting the information revealed in this blog post to any one of my family members ;-))

I met Ben who had graduated in mathematics(wished he had learned some programming), was backpacking around Australia and was down in Melbourne to see if he had any job prospects. Sarah who was bored of her work-from-home language translation job and was down for a change and boy.. was she enjoying herself. Rogers who was retired from the US military and was going around places in Australia to see if anyone wanted to support his project for accepting alternative medicine into mainstream medicine line through government support. Gean(Pronounce as John) fuon quaon, French guy, who, along with his irish girlfriend got drunk till 3 in the morning and still got up at 6:30 and took me around for a 12 hour long tour of entire Melbourne in just $3. Stacey and kewn(travelling for being dumped by her boyfriend), travelers from NZ who joined us on the $3/person trip.

They say that you know that you are really living when you would be able to write a book about the past year of your life. These guys certainly can do that. They have a lot to tell if you ask them ‘hey hows your travel coming up’. If anyone thought that the dwellers of slums of Mumbai are the only ones who master the art of survival, these guys do it at a global level. Most of them don’t know if they are going to be able to collect enough money to board their next flight scheduled in a weeks time. They are ready to take up any job that pays hourly and save every penny – just to splurge on diving with sharks in the barrier reef ;). And if anyone got the message of ‘swawlamban’ (self service) from Gandhiji, its these guys. They stay in places that have sharing rooms, common toilets and kitchens and common lounges – and have the greatest time that no five star can offer you. You can easily start a conversation with anyone with 2 easy topics – how beautiful the city in which you currently are and how inconsiderate the bastard employers of the city are who don’t pay more than $12/hour ;).

Almost all these guys live to travel and when you have a closer look at them, many don’t know where they are going to be in a few days time. If their survival capital is in doldrums, they might just have to get instant flight changes and go to some other place. Mostly look aimless and not at all focused in life – but really happy. After all, that’s what all the comparatively sane people are looking to achieve.

Narayan Murthy, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates – all have been there and done that(Narayan Murthy in fact took up entrepreneurship as a result of one of his hitch hiking trips near the Serbia border). And for those who are willing to learn, I think aimless globetrotting does teach you a lot of things. It would enhance your faith. Because when you decide to go all on your own, many a times, things are going to get out of hand and you just have to rely on some higher power to get you through. Fear vanishes as you know that you are just going to fine if anyone throws you in any corner of the world. Apparent risks in daily like start appearing menial. You meet millions of different types of people and come closer to what would be called as a global citizen. And if you ask me, it might just set you free as a person if you are looking out for that- but freedom as usual, comes at a cost. And for those who are ready to pay for it, it’s a f**king roller coaster ride.