What If It Means ...

D-Day : What If Rasmussen

I was going through the snaps on my phone from my MBA days yesterday... what a wonderful bunch of friends I have and what a wonderful time I had with them... precious! It took time for me to mix-up with them for obvious reasons, the introvert that I was, my shyness and I was in a foreign land!

During my last two semesters we were a close knit group, almost. And being the only international student in the class... besides Dirty V, who has a self declared multi-national citizen (American, Swiss and Italian) I had planned to gift all of my friends with something that will remind them of my country and me as well. So, I got few stuffs from eBay, basically Buddhist/Tibetan stuffs and presented it to few of them, if not everyone at that moment. Since all of those gifts had Tibetan inscriptions, I decided to gift my remaining friends with something in the same line.

My parents were visiting us in November, so I asked my brother to send some Tibetan rings and stone pendants for my friends with them. They were not as perfect as I had expected, and it felt awkward giving away rings (not ear-rings) to friends, so I decided to give away those stone pendants which basically had 'Om Mani Padme Hum' inscribed in it. What does that exactly mean, even I am not sure. I looked up in Google to find the meaning, but it was vague, kind of.

So, one day while we were in our MBA office, I start handing it over to my friends over their tables. Steffan got the first pick, then Josh, Sean and Sarah. After they were done selecting, Steffan thanked me for the gift and asked what does those inscriptions meant? I replied, "I am not sure but it is something about peace and all. I can send you the link about its meaning." Then Sarah adds, "What if it means, you people suck!", with her trademark big smile! Everyone erupts in laughter. Then I added, "How did you know that? Do you know Tibetan?"