(Don’t wait for
someone to aim a gun point-blank at you!)
Go confidently in the direction of your
dreams. Live the life you have imagined.
- Henry David Thoreau
Our truest life is when we are in dreams
awake.
- Henry David Thoreau
My name is Marcos
Sampayo. I was born in a middle class family in Goa as an ‘ordinary’ boy but I
had so many dreams and fascinations … Among many other things, one thing that I
liked, as many children do, was to fly! But my story is different … I see the
birds flying in the sky and I wanted to be up there with them. I hear the
roaring noise of an airplane hovering in the sky and I rushed out (even
straight from the bath-tub, at times) to the balcony just to have a glimpse of
it … The years went by but my passion about flying did not die … I invariably
stretch my gaze at the blue sky whenever I hear the familiar sound of flying
objects…
As I grew up,
the only thing that ‘flew’ was time! … I had to park my dream ‘in some corner
of my heart’ and move on … I was probably waiting for ‘someday’ when I will
follow my dream. I still subscribe to aero-sport magazines but that is the only
thing I did for my ‘love’.
I completed my
regular education and joined my family owned grocery shop. I was making decent
earning and even started growing my dad’s business. As my father neared the
retirement phase, I took complete charge of our business and I am engrossed
completely in the routine.
One day, my life
took a sudden turn! It was a normal day, like any other so far … Customers were
pouring in the store at regular pace in the morning … then the rush dropped as the
sun rose above the head … I heard a big roar of an airplane and since there
were not many people in the store who needed attention, I stepped out and gazed
at the airplane … As the aircraft gets lost in the distant clouds, I returned
back to the counter with a ‘sigh’ and started attending to the few new
shoppers. Suddenly, there is a stranger who enters the shop and changes
everything. He takes out a pistol from nowhere, fires a shot in the air and
frightens everyone outside the shop before he rushes right to the counter. He
then aims the pistol at me and threatens to kill me if I do not give him all
the cash. I am frightened like never before and in no time emptied the cash
drawer into the armed robber’s bag and begged to leave me alive. The seasoned
robber then thinks of further frightening me and said ‘I still want to kill
you! So, lie down on the floor’. Not left with any other choice, I do as
instructed … but to my surprise, I find out that when the robber pulls the
trigger, I am not hurt at all – there was no more bullet in the gun! The robber
runs out of the store laughing at my plight – I was still trying to grasp my
breath.
This event
ruined me – I was frightened to death during the few minutes that keeps
flashing in front of my eyes – even after I was released unhurt physically. I
spent the next week in isolation. The introspection resulted into a reinvented
Marcos! I decided to make the most from this ‘gift of life’. I did not bother
at all about the financial loss I incurred … instead, I took the ‘boldest’
decision of my life! I sold off our shop and joined a flying club. I studied
hard to become a certified ‘Hang-Glider’ Pilot. I then set up my own adventure
tourism boutique firm (vôo duplo de asa delta) in Goa and not only live my
‘passion’ but I make a decent living out of it (‘more than what I would be
making from my boring shop’ – as I likes to emphasize)!
While taking the
tourists from across the globe up in the clouds, I always share my story of
life – and invariably poses a thought provoking question to everyone – “Will it take some insane to aim a pistol
point blank at you?? Please DO NOT wait for a single day. You may not be as
lucky as I was – FOLLOW YOUR HEART, NOW!”
So often times it happens that we live
our lives in chains
And we never even know we have the key.
- Lyrics from
Already Gone, performed by the Eagles for their 1974 On the Border album
