Day 36, 37, 38

24^th , 25^th and 26^th May, 2011

Tata – a brand associated with almost every business. They make everything from watches to salt to cars and software. Come on! Who doesn’t know them! I mention the name of Tatas here because since last three days I have been meeting Mr Russi M Lala – a well known non-fiction author who had known the Tatas quite well. He has written a lot of books on the Tatas; The creation of wealth, the heartbeat of a trust and beyond the last blue mountain – to name a few. I first time met him in the MRA center. The interns here had a special session with him. He was happy to see the young people getting into the idea of MRA. At the first look, he is an old man of 82 years with shivering limbs who can hardly walk with the use of his walker. But when he speaks, he gets a new wave of energy in every new thread of thoughts he starts. His sentences are full of knowledge and each word he speaks carries the load of the experience he has gathered during these 82 years. Probably that might be the reason of his looks. The way he explains things is amazing. The voice modulation with the modulating emotions seems quite natural in his speech. Well, you can understand if one can do wonders with his pen, what if that pen starts speaking!

Suresh uncle gave me a recording of RM Lala’s lecture on ‘The role of purpose in Life’. I broke it into 6 parts and uploaded them on youtube. Suresh uncle asked me to show to Mr Lala, what exactly have I done. So I brought my lappy and after lunch I showed him his videos on youtube. Well, it was a small job for me but I was astonished to see the pleasure on Mr Lala's face when he saw himself being published on net. He asked me to come for lunch the next day to Pune. He was going to have lunch with Mr Chetan Tolia, the director of Tata Management Training Center, Pune. I really find myself privileged to have lunch with such dignitaries. They both had some stories and anecdotes to share about their experiences with Tatas. Mr Lala shared a story about how JRD cared about people. I have read many such stories about JRD. But this was the first time I was listening it from some one who has been WITH JRD when things happened! It was as if everything turned live. He insisted me on going to Tata Archives and have a look at the exhibition about the Tatas. It is one place to visit in a life time. When rest of the population in India was struggling for the political freedom, this family was preparing for India’s economic liberalization. From India’s aviation industry to automobile, from steel to software – they have pioneered many such industries. And in this exhibition there were bits and pieces of those moments. Its like visiting the Gandhi Ashram. I am thankful to Mr Lala who insisted me on going there. Otherwise I was in a plan to skip it.

All in all, I had wonderful time with the man called Russi Lala. Some of the most precious moments that I would carry back would be from these 3 days.

-SD

P.S. The Video Link - Role of purpose in life; RM Lala's website