Life, my friend, just happens.
It happens when we least expect it.
As a certain lady "Gini" did (right down to the name "Gin", hehe, if you get my drift, and her long unending legs ...) while I was climbing the hill In China.
I still remember it.
I was coming back from a monkey job.
Oddly enough, that was one I wasn't being paid for - neither did I want it - because yours truly was "tutoring the owner of the learning center" - a guy who always had wads of red RMB's so thick bursting out his wallet that I wonder where he kept 'em all.
He was not uber rich either.
He just did the equivalent of "carrying all his cash digitally" in his wallet!
Lots of self help gurus talk about carrying cash in pocket where you can SEE and FEEL it daily.
I know what they mean.
I could tell you the smell of freshly minted bank notes, hehe.
Not that I use 'em!
I haven't used any form of cash for YEARS - last was in 2013, I think!
Or 2014, actually, before my phone updated to let me use "wechat Wallet".
Anyway, I met Gini on my hill climbs thereafter.
We hit it off instantly. A month or so later, it all "went South".
I have no clue where this lovely lady is these days. Maybe Shanghai? I dont know!
Anyway, I was also developing a website for a model back then who told me "I had everything it took to be a model and then some!".
Judging from the feedback I got from others, he was right.
(and this when I was a phat phock).
"You look like that movie star", I still remember Marc the African Silverback Gorilla saying.
Many people agree on that in the great country of Canada!
But anyway, a girl showed up at one of the paid gigs I DID do for "Rocky" (his name) - on Sunday mornings.
First time I saw her, it was like a vision in red I never saw before!
Like; even for me, stunningly drop dead gorgeous!
But I didnt think much about her.
Second time, she was wearing a MASK of all things.
I forgot who she was, oddly enough.
Later, she was to tell me "I like my teachers to remember me!"
LOL. After she introduced that old lady to me who did such a stellar job of cleaning my house!
Heart thumping as she did so, except she didnt know it ..
(I didnt either. I had truly no inkling!).
Third time?
She was looking equally as gorgeous.
But of course, these Chinese dames love showing up for class late. I took her Wechat - NO, not for any other reason other than to check if I could start the class.
I didnt have to.
I could do it my way. If she was late, she was late!
For some odd reason though ... I dont know.
Anyway, that sparked off a time in 2015 that I'll write about in detail some day.
It sparked off some of the most intense feelings and emotions I ever felt.
Truly an "Italian thunderbolt" she was!
Even yours truly "notches galore on the bedpost" was hit by it. We all can be sometimes!
I could write a book on this. I probably will sometime.
But anyway, during an October "holiday of sorts", yours truly got in a car - her car.
I had never driven in China prior to that.
China, of all places - think about it!
India, yes, tons of driving - but all on an old "castaway" - which I refurbished ON MY OWN DIME to turn into a great car (and learnt a lot about cars while doing so).
I've often said, and it holds true, if you can drive long, long stretches in India and not end up in an accient you can do that anywhere.
To an extent, back in the day, that holds true for China too - but when I did it - I was shocked to see the ultra modern highways which I knew of, granted, but all over the country? Truly, I didnt have a clue!
And while China doesn't have Highway Patrol, the people in general seem to follow rules fairly well. Until they get into the city when they have to park, and ...
But anyway ...
The first day I drove, it was like "normalcy" again.
An automatic car, power steering, A/C that did not conk out at every given opportunity, and so forth.
You know how it is - the hand kept moving to the non existent stick shift!
Pun not intended, hehe. And I slammed on the brakes a little too hard - because while in the US of course I drove power steering, I had not for years in India.
Anyway ...
The next day, or two days later, I woke up.
6 AM or so.
Went off on one of the most amazing adventures of my life in terms of - NOT the places I went to - but HOW I did it.
I just got into the car - and drove.
Thats all. Period.
It might not sound like a big deal to you.
But given the circumstances, I hadn't driven for years, given it was CHINA we're talking about - given it's the difference in cars etc - given all those things - and given I jumped straight into what turned into a 15 hour long drive (though I'm not a stranger to long drives - never have been!) ... it was something!
Given I believe I was driving with a driving license issued in Hong Kong (perfectly legal Hong Kong driving license) - well...!
Grey area. But hey. The things we do!
Whether or not this is fiction or fact I'll let you decide. And I'll leave some of the juicer Bezos like facts out of this piece, hehe.
There were a lot!
Maybe I'll detail them in future adventures. I mean, emails.
But point of me saying this, as (I just paused while writing this, and looked off into space, remembering the sheer freedom I felt on that trip) ...
Is again, doing things people generally don't do - and in a way most people wouldn't dream of doing - and those opportunities showed up because I did a job well - for which I was being WOEFULLY underpaid - but I did it anyway - and did a damn good job of it.
Napoelon Hill speaks of the following in the Laws of Success -
The man who does a job better than what he's paid for for doing it, if at all, and keeps doing it - will soon have the world beating a path to his door with offers that far exceed what he's making now.
I'm paraphrasing, to put it in modern terms.
IT was true - for me - both financially, and otherwise.
Some of the relationships I built during those years are still there ...
As they say in the PRC, "guanxi" aka relationships . Some say connections. I'd say the former.
Anyway ... That drive - or trip - or whatever YOU choose to call it didnt stop with the 17 hour drive.
Daily, it was a hectic schedule!
I'd have liked to park my butt for a week in the hotel room after that, doing nothing but drinking with beer, and not get into minor accidents on the road in China!
(during a massive and mammoth traffic jam - and I ended up being fleeced for way more than I should have been. But hey!).
Names changed to protect the guilty!
It truly, my friend was a magical time - and those drives. Holy smokes, I remember being GLAD to return home at the end of the trip.
She wasn't ... the opposite.
I won't get into why here.
Anyway, whats the point of all this?
Certainly not just to Tom Tom my abilities to DO somethign - learn on the fly - adapt - improvise as you go along - and overcome!
CErtainly not to say I'm Harry Houdini either (though I had a Houdini momemt there where my heart was truly in my MOUTH).
It's just one of those things I've been meaning to write about.
One of those things I've been meaning to tell you about - over a few cold ones!
Obviously I can't do the cold beer thing now. Maybe some day some of us can meet up!
But until then, hehe, the 0 Excuses Fitness Ship will serve.
Plenty more to tell you - stay tuned!
And yeah, one of those "bro" things you can tell each other over those long nights spent drinking ice cold beer.
Geez, the memories!
China, you beauty - yes, despite its many flaws, China has many good things too!
If you've read Gorilla Grip for one, you know what I mean.
Anyway, Da Xing Xing aside, let me tell you this bro.
Lumberjack Lodestone Fitness brings you training secrets from the country that it "all started in".
INDIA!
All these countries were originally the subcontient, my friend.
Even the Eastern sideboard of Africa fits in perfectly with the left side of India if you see the picture on the map.
As my wife said the other day proudly, "the first man came from India!"
Africa, actually. The first person was black, but given India and Africa were one these days (but some of us get ticked off at the Chinese bracketing us into the same lump NOW) welll..!
That, of course, started the pro India thing - much like in China.
"India is where civilization started!"
"India had the worlds first sewage systems!"
And then the more esoteric stuff about Vimanas or what not.
Which truly some of that junk I dont believe.
Like the myth being spread out there about Albert Einstein supposedly making ships disappear in the middle of the ocean to be replaced with green dust.
Lost secrets my ass (apparently from the veddddddddddddddddooo my lovely wife saw, it was done so the enemy could be vanquished that way, except the secret was never let out).
Yeah.
Right.
Simple quetion - HOW?
Of course.
Secrets!
Much like people believe the old timers knew how to time travel - this one is another piece of baloney.
I mean really, imagine time travel, going back in the past, meeting a younger you - yourself?
Maybe in LSD induced hallucinations you could ...
But anyway, I responded with this.
"Wouldn't it be great if we could build a time machine, and go back to India when it truly was the jewel in the crown before the canny Brits figured it out?"
LOL.
I mean, really.
Focus on the present!
And the future.
The past, well, its great to draw inspiration from,, and judging by real world results out there, precious few people DO IT. And because it "was a certain way" isn't an excuse to forget what it is NOW.
Like they said in the great 2008 Emraan Hashmi starrer (another great guy who with the long hair - looks like me! Hehe - true story - Google's your friend) Jannat which I loved and watched while "groping my then girlfriend" in the movie theater ...
"India is only for dreamers!" (he didnt mean practical dreamers)
(India sirf Sapne dekhne ke liye hai was the precise line)
Why not draw inspiration from the past and make India great again is what I ask people.
Another similar Bollywood movie "Blood Money" about a guy in South Africa - his wife finding out her husband was involved in crime - and then she asks a friend about returning home.
"Forget it, honey!"
"After drinking the water in South Africa, you won't want drink the water in Mumbai again!"
No, it ain't me saying that. For me, bottled water (the genuine stuff) is bottled water ANYWHERE. India, China, Peru, Africa, USA, whatever. (but gal was right, she pictured via words the lead heroine walking around with bottle of water in hand, kinda like I do!)
Ask why the makers of Blood Money said it.
Because it' true, an dthey made sales saying it. Hehe. (tickets, box office, what not)
No-one, unfortunately cares.
They do however about getting out asap, hehe. Not many like to hear this. But it's true!
I still remember a dude in 2003 telling me when I was off to China, Rahul, please, please, please do anything you have to, but get me out of - anywhere, BUT India. He worked in the same office I did, not for me or with me, but for the employer who contracted me out to an US based employer at the time.
Anyway, I'm out.
Remember, the secrets I'm going to tell you in Lumberjack LodeStone Fitness are REALsecrets that work - REAL STUFF - not airy fairy "veeeeeeeeeeeddddoo said that so they're right" horse manure and baloney that doesn't stand the flimsiest chance of, you know, being called out in terms of PROOF!
Place your pre-orders now, my friend.
Truly worth it.
I've been talking a lot.
Lets see if this ends the remniscent mood I'm in today!
Best,
Rahul Mookerjee
PS - Speaking of Bollywood, if you can, watch the 2007 classic "Aawarapan". Closest you'll ever get to seeing Rahul Mookerjee in "reel life", hehe, right down to the dress style!
Hashmi is a classic, bar none.
His 2006 "Gangster" is worht a watch too.
But Jannat and Aawarapan.
BEST EVER!
