5 reasons to love Belgrade, 5: The spirit of Nikola Tesla

Can you imagine a vacation in Damascus? How about an exotic cruise on the Tigris river in Baghdad?

Two decades ago, when the balkan was caught in a cruel war that no one could see its end, a vacation in Belgrade was equally unimaginable. Although Serbia and the other republics of former Yugoslavia are still recovering from the effects of that war, the difference between then and now can make us hopeful about the prospects of other war zones in the world.

In a small room, at the back of the Nikola Tesla museum in Belgrade, there is a gilded urn with the cremated remains of the great inventor. The spherical urn is about the size of a volleyball - which demonstrates how very little remains of our physical bodies when we die, a fact that should make us rethink our priorities in life.

Tesla was an extraordinary inventor in many ways, but perhaps the most notable one is that his inventions were always designed with one principle in mind: Scalability. If a solution could not be used in the smallest to largest scale, it wasn't good enough for Tesla. This approach was not only incredibly successful from a technological perspective, but it also signified Tesla’s forward looking life philosophy.

Tesla was driven by a genuine care for the future of humanity. He wanted his inventions to help mankind cope with its greatest challenges: Poverty, disease, and the lack of peace and stability, and all that while as he predicted, the world population would grow dramatically. Tesla believed that we the people can face our challenges with dignity, through - and not against - our human spirit.

There are those who refuse to let go of the past and to dare to go into a brave future instead. But not the Serbians. They chose to be open and optimistic, and it is probably in great part, because of the inspiration of one of their greatest national heroes.