Swiss fit

I have been in Switzerland for the last three days. The natural beauty of this place is striking, but we have long known that, thanks to a certain Mr. Yash Chopra.

What struck me this time was how fit everyone here is. Admittedly, people in Europe are generally more shapely than folks in the US and in India, but the Swiss seem to be at another level. And I might have figured out why.

I was chatting with a couple of Swiss folks over dinner yesterday and I asked them what they do on the weekends. In the summer, mountain biking and in the winter, skiing. Notice the involvement of mountains in both those activities. When I asked how far do they go on their mountain bikes - one of them shrugged and said, "About 40-50 km." Every weekend.

The Swiss take everything they do very seriously. When they sign up for a 10km run, they start training for it.

This ethos shows in the way they work too, and the way this country runs. Railway timetables are published with a least-count of 1 minute; not 5 minutes. You can make train connections that are 2 minutes apart. When I asked for the scheduled arrival time of the next train, should I miss my connection, it produced a blank look on the face of the girl at the ticket counter. "Why would you miss the connection?" she had the gall to ask. Needless to say, I made the connection.

One thing that all of this does not explain is how every person in every car in Zurich looks like they stepped out of the advert for that car. Right down to their picture perfect looks, their exceptionally well groomed hair and their stylish clothes.

I used to believe the ad agencies searched very carefully for the perfect image their models needed to portray of their prospective customer base. Now I know they carry their camera equipment to any random spot in Switzerland, set up the tripod and start shooting.  The background is picturesque, the model perfect and every other car is a luxury brand. A half days worth of shooting, another half days worth of editing, and they can probably take the rushes to multiple clients in Germany and Italy.