A few days ago, I visited New Orleans and attended a program dedicated to the courageous spirit of the people of the city. The function was the brainchild of Ashish Verma, the General Manager of the renowned Windsor Court Hotel. As part of the program, Mr. Verma invited my spiritual teacher, Sri Chinmoy, to say some encouraging words and give a short concert.
Also, a couple of New Orleaneans were honored for their outstanding efforts to help rebuild the city. I was so inspired that I decided to attempt a Guinness record the next morning at a local track even though I wasn’t completely trained.
The record was for an event which involved running the fastest mile while balancing an object. I invited the media, had all the proper witnesses and timers, and also had a person taking video. This was one of those records which requires a complete videotape of the record to be submitted. In front of a crowd of startled teenagers training at the track, I survived the 90-degree heat and broke the record by more than 20 seconds. However, the battery of the video camera died halfway through the mile and only the first part of the attempt was recorded. The record didn’t count because of technical difficulties!
Which brings me to a story that Mr. Verma told me afterwards about technical difficulties that occurred to a guest in a hotel that he used to manage in New York City. The guest was from a foreign country and must have been impressed by all of the latest innovations which we take for granted in the U.S. For example, the bathrooms at the airports all boast motion-activated water systems and when you call the airlines nowadays on the phone, you can converse with a computer.
The gentleman certainly expected that the expensive hotel he was staying at would have even more advanced gadgets, so you can imagine his shock when he discovered that the shower didn’t work. The outraged guest called the reception desk and demanded to see the manager. Ashish was contacted and, although he thought it was more of an engineering problem, he went up to the gentleman’s room to see what all the fuss was about.
Sure enough, there was this short man, screaming that it was a disgrace that the hotel couldn’t provide such a basic service as a working shower. He then proceeded to demonstrate. He carried a stool into the shower stall, stood up and, talking directly into the shower head, repeated the word “water” several times. To the man’s dismay, not a drop of water issued from that shower head!
Mr. Verma quickly assessed the situation and somehow managed to contain his laughter. He knew that the company which manufactured many of the hotel’s bathroom fixtures was called “Speakman” and he could clearly see their name boldly printed on the shower head. Mr. Verma, ever the diplomat, apologized to the guest for not having voice-activated showers yet and then politely showed the gentleman how to turn on the shower the old fashioned way! Now, if only Ashish could do something about my blank videotape!
