A trip to the Six Flags!

Six Flags, the Great Adventure is an Amusement Park in many states in USA. It is not just an amusement park. It is a place where you can go wild and crazy.

This was my second visit to six flags. I have been there earlier, in October last year. At that time, I was not too keen on taking the rides. Alright, thats not completely true. Let me just confess, I was scared. I was scared of the fast, mind boggling and crazily unpredictable rides. I was amazed to see people, sitting on those tiny cars, with that seat belt on, and ready to take the dive in those crazy loops. I would think, these people are really very strong hearted. I would get all the weird thoughts, about, what if a screw goes loose? What if, my seat belt suddenly opens up while I am upside down on the ride? What if, one mistake by the person who handles the controls of this ride, and it malfunctions? And, with no answer to myself, I preferred to stay away from those rides and look at them from a distance with an awe.


A very good option for those people who do not enjoy the rides is that they can enjoy 'The Wild Safari'. The wild safari is a 4.5 miles auto trail which preserves around 1200 animals, including several endangered species. The animals walk right to the car, for a up-close and personal encounter. You can watch the animals, cross the road, right in front of your car. They stand in the middle of the road as if they are standing there to welcome you. This is a very interesting and educational exploration.


After the educational ride in the Safari, it was time for me to face my fears with open eyes by going to the other rides. I made up my mind to take the fastest, wildest, tallest rides. So there I was, in the queue of - Superman - Ultimate Flight. Well, if you are really keen to know how it feels to fly like a Superman, heres the ride for you where you lie face down and soar into a twisted steel tracks and highly banked curves. It was a cake walk.

The next one was The Twister. Its like the bigger version of Appu Columbus of Appu Ghar, New Delhi, except that it sways from back to front, up to down instead of side to side. It had its turns, twists and dives, it was a cake walk again.

Then, I ended up in The Ride. It is strange how it is named, "The Ride". It sounds like, there is nothing beyond it. Its called Batman The Ride. With my feet dangling in the air while I went around the loops on the track, I faced it with open eyes. When I climbed out of it, my head was spinning and it took me atleast a few minutes to get my head straight.

Then, was the turn of THE ride, Kinda Ka. I call it "The" Ride because this was the ultimate, deadly, beyond vision of thoughts, and beyond my capacity of courage. It zooms from 0 to 128mph and takes you 45 stories to the sky. It is 456 feet high, takes a U turn, spins around, and comes back to the ground. This was the father of all rides. With this, I faced my fear of height, speed, and spirals and got over with it. Checkout the video here.

Coming up next was, The Great American Scream Machine. I didn't know how many loops there were until I checked their website. It has 7 monstrous, one corkscrew and two boomerang loops. A 2 min and 30 sec rides felt like forever.

It was getting dark, I was starting to feel dizzy with my head still spinning from the rides, I had faced my fears and it was time to go home. A 3 hour drive home, felt like I was still on a never ending, fast ride. On the way back, every time I closed my eyes, it felt like I am still on some ride and I am going to scream. It was late before I could hit the bed. I was totally exhausted, and fell asleep immediately, however, all I could dream of, I was still on the ride.

It was a fun trip. Now I am looking forward to going to Six Flags again and enjoy the rides.

Ciao!

Are all men chauvinistic?

Chauvinism literally means: Prejudiced belief in the superiority of one's own gender, group, or kind.

A very common question often asked by many women and often denied by many men is "Are all men chauvinistic?". I got into thinking about all the men in my life - my dad, my brother, my cousins and my friends - are they all chauvinistic? Well, my dad always raised all his kids with an independent thinking where all of us were allowed to make our own decisions, of course with his guidance and help. However, in my years of growing up I never felt that he is chauvinistic. He is never biased between my sister, me and my brother. He treats us equal. Which is why, I think, I feel odd when I see men around me thinking of themselves as superior only because they are 'the man'.

This small question asked to many men and women, gave me disparate answers.

1. One of my female friends, told me about how her cousin's husband is totally non-chauvinistic. He cooks, cleans around the house, has tremendous amount of patience, earns less than his wife, and is still, very-very cooperative.

2. One of my guy friends, mentioned that non-chauvinistic men can only be gays. I beg to disagree, for one reason. I have straight friends, whom I have knows for various years now, and are non-chauvinistic, and regard women equal to men.

3. Another guy friend of mine, showed me a different perspective. In his own words, "Women bring up the household while men earn the living is the natural order of things it doesn't mean that it should be like that always. Thats how our bodies have been designed and our minds doctored by centuries between man and woman, only women can achieve the miracle of advancing the human race and its one feeling no one can take away from a woman and society is shaped by centuries of civilization and at the dawn of civilization man was meant to earn a living and woman was meant to look after the house, because back then life was black and white, earning a living meant hunting for food, and running the house meant rearing children, the roles just couldn't be interchanged. It was a purely physical concept dictated by the nature of human body".

Phew!! I was not too sure if I agreed with that. My personal belief could not be shaken by these facts fed to me. I got into thinking what God would think about this. He made man and woman both. He gave man and woman different qualities, characteristics, skills and abilities. What is God's gender? Is he a male or a female? Is he chauvinistic? Does he think that men are superior than women?

After a lot of questions and answers, discussions and thinking, I got to the conclusion that yes, men are chauvinistic. However, not all men. Some men, still believe that men and women are equal. They believe in the equal opportunities for both sexes. They believe that women are capable of making independent decisions. Those men are rare, but they exist.

Adiós!

'Workendships !'

Very recently, I was talking with one of my oldest and closest friends. The conversations left from one topic to another and I don't exactly know how we started talking about 'working with friends'. That got me into thinking, about working with people we know from before, who are our friend, siblings, or boy / girlfriends.

In past few years, I have seen people who work with friends, brothers in shared business, best friends, boyfriend / girlfriend, college friends in same company, room mates became colleagues, colleagues became roommates. As we discussed the depth of working with the 'closed ones', it exposed some very disparate findings. I don't believe that all 'such' 'workendships' (work-friendships) are the same, but I strongly believe that most of them are, somewhere or the other, in that situation.

Allow me to deconstruct the essential elements. There are people all over the world, who work with friends, siblings, relatives etc. The very first thought, that comes in the mind of these people, when they join hands in the new work / team / business / partnership, is "We have known each other for a very long time, we understand each other, we share the same vision and we will be successful." This may not be true. May be others don't think on the same lines. I got into thinking how different people have different work ethics and sense of responsibility. There might be a conflict between two such people with regards to superiority, responsibility, ownership, difference in opinion and difference in wants and needs.

This may also happen when people start thinking about themselves more than the others, the team work and the partnership or when people are not tolerant enough to overlook the shortcomings. While others might feel threatened from competition, some might lose the patience.

I once had a roommate, who also happened to be a teammate and friend. The more closely I observed her, the more I thought I was losing my patience. The more I was accommodating to make her feel comfortable and live peacefully, the more I felt uncomfortable. I had never lived with a roommate earlier, and honestly, I didn't know how to behave when I had one. Little did I know, that she was making some compromises with me too. With the way I wanted the apartment and kitchen clean ':)'. We ended to a point, where neither of us would want to live with each other again. It's strange, but true.

This discussion, reminded me of another similar discussion with another friend. He says, he keeps his personal and professional relationships separate. No fuss, no muss. I wondered, how easy is it to achieve it?

The good point about having best friends at work, is the healthy competition and increase in productivity and also satisfaction at work.

While the downsides, I assume, would be something like, low morale in case the relationship turns sour, lesser development at work and jealousy in case one of them gets promoted. One may also use the other, to get the work done, and to cover up for slack of work.

Finally, I realized, the best way to face and solve such problems, is to talk it out, to compromise to a point where it is adjustable. There are times, when you would need to let it go, forget about it, forgive the person, move on and never make the mistake of looking back again. I strongly believe there is a very thin line between compromises and adjustments. While, I am personally, ready to adjust on anything, but compromise is something which needs my very serious thoughts. But when do you know that the thin line between the two is crossed?

I have seen many partnerships, relationships, friendships dwindle because of 'workendship'. Friends turned foes and changed jobs. A girlfriend ruined her ex-boyfriend reputation in front of the team, after their breakup.

Some relationships are also tossed, because the two parties become too comfortable with each other and share too much personal information, that they don't realize when the boundary is crossed. While one person may not realize it, the other might feel encroached.

When in such a situation, how do you know that the line is crossed? How do you know that the expectations have been raised and 'talking' is required? And finally, how do you know, that its time to forgive, forget and move on?

Au Revoir!