Can you guess whom the old man standing with the smart young one in the picture
is? Well, neither could I have been able to do that, had I not happened to see him last Tuesday!
Parametric technologies limited (PTC) invited people from my office to attend a thought forum on aerospace and defense. Nobody was interested but when told about the venue, Le Meridian, and allurement of free dinner and cocktails, we, the lowest cadre of engineers here, were tempted to join and hence we confirmed our benign presence. Four of us from cdot and one of my colleague’s friends finally reached the Le Meridian.
The forum was scheduled to start at 7:30 pm and all of us were equally excited as we have not been to a place of the repute of Le Meridian but it was quite understandable that the 5 star dinner was not going to be absolute free of cost since we would have to go through a mental trauma worth 2 hours of abstruse and monotonous technical talks. Though we are all technocrats but every technicality is what we try to avoid after 5 in the evening. The organizers probably aware of this fact overly emphasized the cocktails in the invitation.
And finally we reached D place; right ten minutes late, but it was not something to feel embarrassed about. After all it was an Indian event, supposed to be delayed for at least 20 minutes. So it was.
As we entered the convention hall, al eyes were on us. Of course, not because they were expecting us, but because, in a baroque ambience, dressed in ordinary office-wear, we were looking as pale as a drop of mustard oil on the clean water surface. But there could be no retreat now, so we pretended to ignore the gazing eyes and sometime later, the eminent personalities present there were also not staring us. We also didn’t stay behind to enjoy a variety of juices and appetizers.
At last, a huge fat-head, wearing a business suit, indicated the beginning of the grand event with an elite panel of 5 guests, a national hero as the convener and a meager number of audience including us.
The convener retired wing commander Rakesh Sharma, when called upon the dais gave an appearance of a distinguished personality and the way he carried himself, picking words very precisely; it was quite inevitable not to catch a glimpse of his charisma. The panelists’ credentials were equally impressive too. One Mr. Sisodia retired secretary, defense procurement; one Dr Attre, ex chairman DRDO; one Mr. Maheshwari, senior in Tata motors; retired chief of navy admiral Arun Prakash and one more man who is a member of space commission of India. It was very difficult not just to remember but also even to write down the plethora of titles and achievements all those were attributed. Here I m mentioning only a miniscule portion of what was said. We were bound to look towards each other, as Wg. Cdr. Sharma carried out with the proceedings.
The talks they give were all their practical experiences in their respective domains. The bureaucrat gave all the statistics; DRDO chief gave all philosophy; Retd. Admiral was all spanking the system; space commission member telling all hi abstract stories and the Tata motors man amalgamating his personal achievements with those of his organization. Well, it might take more than a thousand words to elaborate what everybody talked about but I have more important to write about what I said.
After the panelists were over it was the turn of the audience to give their views on the foggy agenda. That was, I knew, my chance to interact directly with the people of that stature. And I talked about student participation, hiring willing researchers for PSUs like DRDO, HAL and then praising the aerospace and defense, since it was necessary to tone down while getting back into my seat. I was trembling a bit while I got in to chair, the adrenaline retreating to its source! I got response from everybody and I was sure, I was going to have a personal chat with all of them and it happened soon.
First Dr. Attre, then space commissions member and then the person whom I was desperately waiting for Wg. Cdr. Rakesh Sharma. And to my surprise, he was talking to me just like a friend helping other in distress. One might not believe, how engrossed we were in conversation! As I alluded about his maiden space flight and enquired the truth of his statement which we have been reading about in books, he was emotional enough to tell me, “ young man, it comes right from the heart!” He also enquired about my aim in life, my dilemma and suggested me his self-tested remedy too. “Whenever you are in a dilemma, follow only the first instinctive thought that comes to your mind, all thoughts after that are rationalizations!” was his solution.
I felt privileged to actually communicate with a man of honor and equally elated to get his personal email ID as well. Of course my friends didn’t let me forget our real intentions of visiting the place in emotions and I dozed off heavily a variety of drinks from scotch, vodka to red wine.
The rendezvous was an experience of the lifetime and will stay in my memory for eternity. Later next morning, while discussing the night’s proceedings with my tl, a deep thought ran my mind. “When one always interacts with similar type of middle class people as himself, he is contented in the confines of his own little world, but to feel the kick of reaching to the pinnacle of social status, meeting such people definitely makes sense.”
Emulating my bosses or the director of my organization is not what I would hate to do but if could get to the level of extra ordinary men; life would certainly be much better!
