Stuck in an Airport - II

Was sitting at the Internet access point. A blond American boy from Texas ,looks about eighteen years old comes right next to me to charge his cell phone.

And we just start talking to each other.

His original flight was at 4 in the evening yesterday. He slept in the airport and he just came to know his next flight is canceled. He may get to go on the 2 pm flight.

We were talking for 'bout 1 and a half hours and he just left to get some fresh air

A very nice kid. Also very curious about the world. Middle class - upper middle class background. Parents run a ranch and elder sister is doing doctorate in psychology.

Right now he is working as a firefighting trainee in a big city a few hours from here. About six months from certification after which he intends to work for some time before going to college.

He has never heard of Bangalore. Knows that India is a big country. Thinks Russia should sell of their vacant land to other people like they did with Alaska. Has been down south for pretty much most of his life. Foreign countries he has been to are Mexico and Cambodia. The only thing he does with a computer is to check email.

Intends to major in business and in fire engineering for his degree. Business 'cause "everyone else is doing it". Fire engineering because it will give him upward mobility in his present job.

(Had to bite my tongue to prevent giving him any unsolicited career advice. We all have to make our own mistakes and come out wiser. )

He has a problem with illegal immigration. He was very careful to use words to make it clear that it was not any skin color prejudice. Just that he feels they speak in Spanish and that they don't want to get integrated into the American culture at all.

He wants to hitchhike through Europe, esp Germany. Though he does not have a high opinion on the whole about Europeans. For eg, he thinks he cannot have a conversation like the one we are having with a European. "They are always thinking, why are you talking to me, i don't know you. Are you going to ask anything from me?"

Question :" I mean, do you sort of worship cows in India? I mean, i sort of heard that you can get into big trouble in India if you hit a cow with a car, much more than if you hit a person? I know that in Egypt, it is okay to hit a woman with a car on the street - they were showing it on discovery last week."

Gave him a cultural context of cows in the Indian civilization and about the sharia law. Surprisingly, did not bore him. He had about a zillion follow up questions. Most of them very good ones.

Question : "Do women get to vote in India? I mean, a lot of people did not get to vote here for a long time...."

I think I left him a much more curious person than he was before he met me. So I guess an hour well spent.

And that is the big advantage that someone like him living in America has. He has much higher chances of meeting someone who has got a very different upbringing than him, who is from a very different culture, and still relate.

If you are a teenager who is living in tamil nadu, gujarat or for that matter Japan or Germany, the chances of such a meeting is close to non existant. And you are a lot less curious about the world 'cause of that.