God Money in Rome and what we did with it!

I recently came across an article on Indians being lousy tippers, which reminded me of something that happened last year when my friends and I went on a backpacking trip to Europe.

Last year, my friends and I went on a backpacking trip to the Europe and during the last leg of our trip in Italy, while we were trying to board the metro in Paris, , my friend who lives in Germany noticed something fluttering on the platform, he noticed a 50 Euro note lying in our path, I ran and grabbed  the note before it flew away, my friends joined me and we all had a Eureka moment.

We an early morning flight to catch and so we didn't have time to discuss what we had to do with the 50 Euros, we retired and early and the next morning caught our flight from Paris to Rome.

We checked into our Air-BNB's that afternoon, hunger forced us to venture out.
We walked around the streets of Roma, looking for half-decent cheap hotels that would fit in our bootstrapped budget. While we walked, we all debated on what we should be doing with this 50 Euro note, we termed it "God Money".

We arrived at an Italian place in Roma, Italy, we were still debating what to do with this "God Money", when the waiter an old man in his late sixties came over and charmed us by ranting out the Menu in classic Italian, we couldn't understand a word, but we were thoroughly impressed.

The debate on what to do with the God Money was put on hold to satiate our hunger. My Vegetarian friend ordered a Pizza which had a bizarre name, assuming it to be Vegetarian. Just when it arrived, he looked at it, Unquote, " Maga, this thing doesn't look Vegetarian and smells funny.  It turned out to be true and that Pizza was made of Fish, he then ordered another that was Vegetarian.

While we had our Pizza, the debate on what to do with the God Money continued, we were pondering over whether we should buy something for ourselves or just add this to our pool and spend it, that's when a brilliant idea came-up. We all knew we had tipped badly (Literally hadn't tipped) previously in all restaurants we had visited, that's when it hit us, the next place wherever we went, we would be very generous in our tip. We had taken the responsibility of changing the image of us Indians in Europe and we took our jobs seriously.

At the very place which witnessed our world-changing debate, we let the old man who served us and served us well have a very big tip, before leaving he gave us all a salute and a warm smile and for a moment, we felt newly crowned-kings and left the place with an air of superiority.

We continued to tip generously till the 50 Euros became zero, after that we became the lousy tippers we originally were. 

Raghu Dixit - The voice or the story behind the voice

Long back, I had heard from friends and acquaintances the story of Raghu Dixit- a nice guy from a middle class background who took up music because of a silly challenge with his classmate. A bharatanatyam dancer, and a Gold Medalist in Micro Biology. He quit all that and took up singing, went on relentlessly for 6 years looking for a big break. He did get one, at a Bar in Mumbai and the rest as they say is History. I have since then been a big fan of his story.

Straight from the man himself - TEDx-Raghu Dixit

Its 8.30 PM and a gazillion people have gathered at Basavanagudi for the Ganesha Utsav, a stage set, lights flashing. Comes there a man, in lungi and anklets, guitar in his hand followed by two other guitarists and a violinist and the drummer settles at the back. He waves and the crowd roars. He strums the guitar and sings, there is pandemonium all around.

The song is a poem composed by a 19th Century Saint Poet, " Santha Shishunala Sharif. He begins, the crowd roars and sings along. Is this a rock concert or what!!

The first concert I attended was way back when Raghu Dixit and his band had come to our college (Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering) in 2010. I had heard his songs and I did have a thing for them. He has what I think a soulful voice and a quirky style. That's what makes him so popular!

The dude went deep into Kannada literature hunted down some of the most meaningful and beautiful songs added a folk rock tune to it and stole our hearts away. He has travelled aroung the globe and his music is popular in Europe and the US. His concerts are packed and he gives the international rock bands a run for their money.

His music is soulful, innocent and quirky  & His story is unbelievable
A lot has been written about Raghu Dixit in the past and a lot will be written in the future as well. He has been one of the most celebrated artists from Karnataka.

But what is it about Raghu Dixit that makes him such a big crowdpuller, that makes people chant his name and that makes people sway, dance and jump whenever he sings. 

Is it the voice or the story behind the voice ?