15 minutes of fame
This month, The Dominion Post has taken not to the streets but to the phones and internet, to ask people who might not normally feature in the media a series of random questions. Akil
Narayana lived in Wellington for 16 years, moving from India to study. Now he is on a quest to travel the world, so far ticking off 16 countries. He managed to get a flight to London from Morocco about five weeks ago, and is in lockdown alone in London, staying connected with news back home online.
Are humans inherently good or inherently bad?
It’s a hard one to generalise humans into two broad categories. Everyone is doing what they can to be helpful, save lives, care for the planet, reflect, but come 2022 should the world have reopened by then, most of them will go back to what they were.
Would you like to be famous?
Enough to be recognisable, but not be crowded upon. Enough to be able to influence others, but not sign endorsement deals. It’s a balancing act between your private and professional lives, and I like my privacy.
What is your very first memory?
My earliest memory was my infatuation with a girl in my kindergarten when I was 4 years old, a chubby-cheeked girl with a double pony tail, who I had a thing for.
If you could give advice to your teenage self, what would it be?
That I shouldn’t be following societal norms. Get out there and be a lot more adventurous. And appreciate everything that you already have, because you’ll only realise its true value when it’s taken away.
Best movie you saw recently?
An Indian regional language movie called Lucia, about lucid dreaming where one can control their dreams and live an alternate life in them. It’s exceptionally well-made, won international acclaim and screened in multiple movie festivals across the world.
Last book you read? What did you think?
The only book I’ve read in the last decade has been Rich Dad Poor Dad, very apt when I was running the rat race to get to where I wanted to be. But not so much when I realised it isn’t worth running that race.
Favourite three-course meal?
Start with a prawn cocktail, then crispy skin duck breast with cranberry sauce, accompanied with a good NZ sauvignon blanc, and finish off with coconut panna cotta.
The dairy industry – great for the economy, or environmental time bomb?
Great for the economy no doubt, but could be made more sustainable so as to not have a negative effect on the environment. Hopefully with the world on hold due to an invisible virus, I suppose the earth has recovered a bit, buying more time for the climate change policies to be worked upon more seriously.
Best thing that happened today?
I just completed filing my taxes for last year, excited I don’t have to do it next year as I’ll still be travelling. And the creator of #ChChswing in Christchurch reached out to me after seeing one of my Instagram pictures (@akil_travelogue) wanting to send a picture in for an appreciation or award.
Do you have a party trick?
I do have one, but I always forget what it was after the second drink. Oh wait, party trick did you ask, what party? Hic! Where were we?