Friday, January 23, 2015

Voyage .....

Sebi always believed in one thing in life, the power of experience is eternal. He used to say, “Experience is like scattered dots on a paper, if not connected together it would not mean anything”. 

Once you have connected those dots you would know the true meaning of life. To prove his philosophy (as Tulip would say) he wanted to experience everything in the world and then somehow connect it together. I was in Morocco when I first heard about Sebi’s Ultimate Bungee Jumping crew in Auckland.  Being a huge fan of Mountains I could not resist myself and got in touch with Sebi’s assistant Tulip. To get to know more about U.B.J and Sebi, I wanted to spend some days in Auckland with him so I called up Tulip. Tulip is Sebi’s only family and love of his life. They have been living together for past 3 years in Auckland, New Zealand. 

According to Tulip living with Sebi 24x7 is the true experience of her life. I have heard many definitions of love in my life but nothing like Tulip’s version of love. As I was on the phone with Tulip these were the exact words she used to describe love, “Love is the eyes of god, always watching you no matter where you are and how you are”. After good 20 minutes of talk on the phone I was convinced that I would not be disappointed in Auckland so I booked my flight. All the time during my flight I acted like a 6 year old kid, unable to hide the excitement. I could not sleep on board as my mind was going off the chart thinking about what is waiting for me on the other side of the globe. There was a point during my flight where I felt my senses were more anxious than me. My ears wanted to hear me screaming from top of my voice while bungee jumping from Waikato River Valley and my eyes wanted to gaze the beautiful mountains of Auckland. After a long excruciating wait I finally landed at Auckland International Airport. 

Outside the Airport there was a car already waiting for me thanks to Tulip, I am already envying Seby. The driver himself was a crew member of Sebi’s team and was really glad to see me. Daniel told me that their office is another 20 minutes from the Airport but assured me that I would not regret a single minute of it. Let me take this opportunity to say that I have never seen such scenic views in my life. I asked Daniel to pull over for couple of minutes at one of such picturesque place. I have been smoking for past 10 years and it has been taking toll on my health for past few months. The moment I stepped out of that car I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. It was like reaching nirvana as my lungs were completely cleansed. Every blow of wind was stimulating my senses as I was being touched by an angel again and again. After pleasing my eyes with such beautiful outskirts of Auckland I was on my way to meet Sebi, Tulip and rest of the crew. We stopped outside the office which had small hoarding U.B.J on the roof. Daneil introduced me to Rachel another crew member who served me a glass of red wine. Let me tell you I have a really soft corner for red wine and I can tell you it was no ordinary red wine. Aroma of wine nearly made me drown my nose in it and the taste was so exquisite that it made me speechless. Before I opened my eyes again after such ecstasy Rachel told me that Auckland is one of the biggest exporters of wine in the world of past 50 years. 

Finally Rachiel and Daniel took me to Tulip’s room. As expected she was one really gorgeous woman and I took less than 30 seconds to admire her beauty. We all had really interesting and engaging chat about our lives for next hour or so and then decided to leave for the first site for bungee jumping where finally I am going to meet Sebi. It was probably one of the highest points in New Zealand where I would experience my first bungee jump. While crew were setting up all the harnesses for the jump and checking my safety gear I heard someone calling my name from behind. A man sitting on a wheel chair probably in his mid 30s, it was Sebi. I think I took more than 30 seconds to get the correct picture of Sebi in my mind and introduced myself to him. He wished me best of luck for my jump and Tulip pulled his wheel chair little for safety reasons. Here I was standing on the edge of the bridge all choked up from inside. I took a deep breath and jumped. I had less than a minute to interpret ate true meaning of experience in Sebi’s life. 

After returning to Morocco after a week I described my experience to my friends as a leap of faith….not bungee jumping. 

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