I was fortunate to be invited as a speaker at the European Premiere of the new film, ‘Lost Village’, [see http://www.lostvillagemovie.com/about.htm] on April 21 2010 in Prague, Czech Republic.

It features HH Lokanatha Swami and his home town Aravade (pronounced Arav day).  Its a Krsna conscious take on the lost values of the village culture and economy, and a peek at the impending crisis of big city life like Mumbai.

I was asked by Director Bhaktivaibhava Swami

to attend and say a few words about the illusion of consumer economics. He had filmed me two years ago at the Czech Rep. summer camp and included a couple of comments I made in the film.

Briefly: consumer economy is a cheating system because the propaganda is that by always buying new goods we will become happy. Yet the very impetus for buying new goods is dissatisfaction with the ones we already have-otherwise why would we replace them? The whole advertising industry is geared to creating dissatisfaction with what we already own so we will go out and spend, spend, spend. So the driving force to sustain consumerism is unhappiness, the very opposite of what it claims to deliver.

Getting to Prague proved to be a bit traumatic. Without boring you with the details, I was supposed to leave Delhi right when the Icelandic volcanic ash scare began.

I went out to the airport to catch a 1.50AM flt. to Vienna and a connection to Prague.

When I arrived at the airport, all European flts. had been cancelled, except mine. Considering myself fortunate, I duly checked in, went through immigration and patiently awaited a boarding time of 1.00AM.  The appointed hour came and went with no sign of airline staff. At 1.30AM they finally informed us the flt. was cancelled. We had to go back through immigration and have our exit stamps cancelled, and then collect our bags back. By 2.30AM we were all ready for bed. No such luck. The airline (Austrian) against European rules, informed everyone they were on their own and no hotels would be provided. We were unceremoniously dumped in the airport. Bad form considering the several families with little kids that were travelling.

I was lucky. I headed off to the Delhi temple, managed to contact the guest house manager and by 3.30AM I was gratefully ensconced in a clear air conditioned room (did I neglect to mention that the day time temperatures were 42 deg. C?)

I tried rearranging the booking but to no avail. The ticket was booked through Air India — forget it!

Prague also informed me that unless I arrived on the morning of the Premiere they would have no choice but to cancel the ticket. Since I had arranged to visit several other countries after Prague, I was rather keen that that didn’t happen. So on the second night, the one before the event, I decided to just front up at the airport and see if I could get on wait-list. Of course the airport was unbelievably crowded since several thousand other hopeful fliers were there doing just the same thing.

I waited in three separate lines for 1.5 hrs. before I even go in through the doors to the airport. At the Austrian counter hundreds of travellers were lined up, but at least the flt. was on ‘go’. The wait-list line was 50+ so I dutifully joined it, praying to Krsna for a little travel mercy.

At midnight they opened up the wait-list, and I confess to jumping the queue ahead of 50 others and making sure I got my name listed. At 12.30AM, when the confirmed passengers had all booked in, they announced the first ten lucky wait-listers, and I wasn’t one of them. Then at 1:00 AM they called for another batch, and to my great relief I was on.

I booked in, went through customs again, and we finally boarded about half an hour late. I settled into my economy class seat to contemplate a night of discomfort, trying to snatch some sleep sitting upright before arriving for my engagement.

After 15 mins. the head stewardess approached me. “Mr. Harrison? I am sorry but that’s not your seat, you have been double booked!”  Then she smiled and handed me a new boarding pass. “This is your new seat. Pls. take your bags and move there.” I looked at the seat number — 1C. I was hoping it was what I thought it was. Grabbing my bags I went forward and as I passed the stewardess she smiled brightly “Enjoy!”

Sure enough, it was the front row of the business class. Great!. The seat was wide and had multiple tilt options, even a built in massager. After a few minutes we were in the air, and I was fast asleep, laid flat out on a fully reclined seat. I could have slept all the way through the flight, but Krsna has a sense of humour (or at least He makes sure we do!)

After two hours I suddenly awoke–with a bowl of hot tomato soup soaking into my lap! Business class has its own chef, complete with his white hat and tunic.

You get a variety of options for meals. I wasn’t going to bother, but I got served anyway. On his way past my row the hapless fellow tripped and gave me a hot shower.

He was of course very embarrassed and apologetic. The stewardess offered to take my pants and wash them. (Don’t even think about it!) I asked her what would I wear. “Oh we can give you a towel.” And do you have a washing machine or something back there in the galley? “No, I can wash them by hand in the sink.”

So I told her not to bother, went back to sleep and woke up just before landing in Vienna with dry pants and a deep stain from waist to knees.

Because the connecting flight from Vienna to Prague would only arrive at 11.00AM, one hour after the premiere, the Prague temple sent a car to pick me up and drive me there. As soon as I stepped of the plane we whizzed off down the highway at 160 kms. an hour for the three hour trip to Prague.

We got there just on 10.00AM at exactly the appointed time. I was still ten minutes late because I had to rush into a local Debenam’s store and buy some new trousers. But I made it in time to give my scheduled 10 mins. talk to a small but crowded theatre full of press members and well-wishers.

I gave a little spiel about the evils of consumerism,

B. Vaibhava Maharaja spoke eloquently about the need to return to simpler more spiritual values, and then the film was shown, to great appreciation.

Later I spoke with a famous local TV actress who told me how much she appreciated what I had said. She is a friend of the devotees and immediately volunteered to do the Czech language narration. Other visitors of note were a multi-millionaire who organizes a local millionaires club; the head of the Sociology department at the Prague University, a dozen members of the press etc.

B. Vaibhava Maharaja was very pleased with the turnout and counted it a success. He is working hard to get the film out to the general public. He and his crew have contacted 52 different film festivals and gotten some favourable comments and responses.

So that was it.  I spent a couple more days in Prague catching up with jet lag and sleep at the temple and then headed out to my next engagement, in Rijeka, Croatia.

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