Life Is Abracadabra: 21 Magical Stories from My Travels to Make You Look at Life with New Eyes by Baisakhi Saha

Author:Baisakhi Saha [Baisakhi Saha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hay House India
Published: 2023-01-04T00:00:00+00:00

13

THE STREET OF NINES

How Danger Became Magic for Me

Overcoming my fear of danger led me to encountering real magic . . .

I have always sought the unconventional life, done the uncanny thing, trotted the uncommon path, and when there was no path for me to tread, I created my own, without knowing how . . . in my imaginations. I have flirted with fire, seduced the storm, danced with danger, and turned it into magic. And I don’t believe modesty is virtue. So, I tell my glorious tales, of magical coincidences and miracles, to whoever wants to hear.

From the moment I set foot on Venezuelan ground, I was gripped with fear. Stories of crime, violence, drugs, murder, kidnap, robbery, rape, and assault were everywhere. Everyone I met told me different versions of the same story—about how dangerous the place was. So much that I almost felt it was a mistake to have gone there.

‘You should have gone to Colombia,’ some told me.

‘Teacher, why on earth did you choose to come to a country like Venezuela?’ My students posed. I don’t know why I went there. I had chosen it after a lot of deliberation between an opportunity in Colombia and that in Venezuela. I guess I liked the exotic name and how it sounded when you pronounced it. But it seemed to me that nobody felt safe in their own country. It was not their fault. Everyone was absorbed with the same fear—of losing their lives at the hands of a stranger with a gun. That’s all it took to grip an entire nation in terror. The fear of death can be so real. And some obtuse men with weapons had managed to keep the people from enjoying the bountiful beauty their country was blessed with—abundant sunshine, rain, fertile soil, exotic beaches, rivers, lakes, waterfalls, mountains, tepuis, greenery, shrubbery, and beautiful people. Venezuela is one of the most beautiful countries I have ever seen. The pristine beaches of Los Cayos and Choroni with natural swimming pools in the middle of the ocean, cocoa plantations, flat-top mountains amidst thick rainforests, the Great Savanna bordering Amazonian jungles, and the rivers and cascades of Merida for rafting and canyoning were simply breathtaking. Many of them had not even explored their own country. It was hard to find a middleclass civilian taking a nice evening walk on the streets of Maracaibo, where I lived. Everybody I met only told me how unsafe the country was. I jokingly called it the 3C’s—Crime, Climate, Chavez! Maracaibo was very hot. Thus, people either complained about criminality in the country or the weather or President Chavez.

When people live in so much fear, they can only talk about fear. Venezuela is not a country where they show you a gun and ask for your belongings; they shoot you and then loot you mostly. There was and is no regard for life with crime at its peak. Blame it on the government, corruption, military regime, or lack of police control, but this is the state of the country even now.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.