Saturday, June 9, 2007

Meeting the man


I met a guy today. May be known to only few of us, may be inspiring to only few of us, may be interesting to only few of us.

When I saw him the first time, I did not see anything strikingly different in him. He was polite, humble and seemed a little shy. More like a typical nerdy techi guy. No wonder I was not surprised, when I heard he did his PhD in physics.

But there has to be something special in him that took him to where he is at right now. This question kept bugging me all the time, while we all were talking to him in a casual dinner meet. To be honest, I was not at all impressed by his communication skills, neither by his personality. He probably was the most shabbily dressed guy in the room. Then what was it that made him special? What was it that made him leader of the path, only few of us would dare to walk on? What was it that inspired Ashutosh Gowarikar to base Swades's story on him? What was it??

I decided to talk more with him personally the next day after his presentation. I went on trying to introduce myself again, thinking that he might have forgotten me from last meet. This time I talked a little more only to find him standing like the most sincere guy in the world listening to my words. I took a lead asking him questions about himself. Followed by a little hesitation, he started to talk about himself and how it all started. After all his talk, during which he sounded more like a professor than an activist, I realized that he is not much different than all of us. What made him different was his sincerity, his dedication, his genuineness, and his passion. He was so humble in his explanations that he credited everyone other than himself for what he did.

He was inspiring...in a different way. I saw a very typical me and you in him.

I realized that it is first step that matters. If you are genuine and passionate in your beliefs, things ought to fall in place.

Yes I can do it and so can you.

-Manish

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1 comment:

Mrs. Joseph aka SackJo22 said...

Interesting. Your curiosity paid off in a genuine encounter.