Okada in Nigeria

Every country has something unique to themselves. Nigeria has Okada. In India we have 3 wheelers plying the roads as Taxi carrying people to their destination for a small charge.

Here in Nigeria, there are 2 wheelers, which are used as Taxi. You have 2 wheeler taxi (called Okada) stand at different places in the city. You will find anywhere from 5 to 50 of them waiting for customers.

my Father

this one is for my father. one person who let me "live", though in many ways, in my early days i was a failure. he was never critical but always supported me for any request i had towards improvement. the most important quality he had was to tell me, "Son, you know, that what you are going to do now is very difficult and that very few, or probably just one person out there wins. you are trying among many out there. just remember that, it is ok to fail. dont worry." my father always told me this every time, in fact literally before every test that i have given, every competition that i have taken part in, every difficult situation that i had chosen to go through, every single time, my father has reminded me of this: "it is ok to fail; dont worry."

i just saw the movie, "Taare Zameen Par" and i was wondering, how similar my dad was to Nikumbh. had it not been for my father i would have been like Ishan, if Nikumb would not have come along.

Thank you Dad !!

Nigeria

On June 25, 2008, morning at 5 am, my Qatar Airways flight took off to Doha. My plane was racing against the break of dawn as it took close to 2 hours for the Sun to appear. That is when I realised that i was flying away from the sunrise - towards west.

My next flight from Doha was immediately after I landed in the Airport - within 20 minutes. In the flight more than 95% of the occupants were from Nigeria. Thus though I had not reached Nigeria, geographically, I was already there.

I landed at the air port in Lagos, Nigeria on the same day at 5 pm local time (9:30 pm IST) and I was promptly taken to the company guest house.

First time out of India !!