Straight From His Heart

Travelling alone can be sheer fun at times but 'bore-to-core' most of the times !!! I had anticipated the latter in my overnight train journey from Rajkot to Mumbai...

When i boarded the train...there was only one person in the compartment... this 33+ lad with a neat tucked-in T (Tiger-Woods-ishtyle) and office shoes...he had folded hands (Swami-Vivekanand-ishtyle).. seemed simple-living-high-thinking guy (Mahatma-Gandhi-ishtyle).

Then three ppl trickled-in in white kurta-pyjama... cudnt decide whether they came from a mourning or were planning to take up india as post-youth-politicians... whatever... nobody (5 of us) spoke to one another for another 2 hrs... i guess most of us dwell on some thoughts or feelings while travelling... hey let me not bore u with the mundane travelogue...let me focus on my protagonist (Mr Reliance) of this blog...

ya so i was telling that he was seated in a particular ishtyle... i learnt that the easiest way to break a travel lull is to ask yr co-passenger where he was travelling to... btw dont assume that eone travels to the last destination of the train he takes... so i jus asked ppl arnd where they were going and what time train will reach there...Mr Reliance flashed that he was going to Dubai !! Dubai ?? Was s-one trying to "show off"?? "To Dubai via Mumbai for an official inspection..." he clarified. Ohh !! He spoke in Hindi-n-English which meant he was not gujju (he didnt look like one also).... by now the three-extras of my blog were chattering between themselves and hence i had to start a conversation with Mr Reliance as there was nothing else to do. "So where do u work?" i broke the ice again. This set the ball rolling, you wont believe that within 30 mins i knew the Biography of Mr Reliance and also heard the shortest-n-most-effective-sermon of my life from him.

I didnt prod him to attempt this feat in record time...but let me see if i can sum that up in less than 30 sentences... mind you i am not trying to reveal someones life for public scrutiny... i want to pen it here bcoz most of us will relate to it.. maybe as a common-indian or as a aspiring-youth... and his sermon at the end, will make us think hard... so here my feat of 30 sentences go... i will put what he said in plain vanilla... this is not Sanskrit so i might not need to translate it and add thoughts of my own to it ;)

*** start ***

"I have been working with Reliance, Jamnagar for the past 7 years as an Instrumentation Engineer. I stay alone at Jamnagar and support my family (parents, wife, son) who stay in Bengal. I have an elder married-sister who is well off. I also have a younger married-sister but i have to support her as her husband is good for nothing. I have acres of land which i have conditionally given it to lil sis to earn a living in lieu of grains-vegetables she gives my family. Why do i need so much of land or in that matter so much money? I have decided that the day i earn 1 crore rupees, i will fully retire and spend my days in my field with my family.

We deliver projects in 3 yrs what the government takes 20 yrs. In return, we have to face many occupational hazards in this industry and have to be really hard-working and accountable here. We have lots of projects in pipeline and i am very excited abt it. Reliance city is like San Francisco and we get likes of Amitabh Bachan visiting us (campus) often in helicopter. You ppl (gujju) dont eat non-veg right? But now i have quite a few colleagues who come to taste-the-heaven-chicken at my room on Sundays.

Hey, you Gujjus are pretty business-oriented, majority of Reliance workforce is from Bengal and Bihar... i guess u ppl dont like to work under anyone ;). Talking of business, everyone respects us (me) here...the other day the cloth shopkeeper asked me to pay the bill of Rs 9k after i came from vacation from Bengal...he said i would not run away ofcourse... but i paid him upfront... spend what you can afford and maintan healthy relationship with everyone... life will be beautiful as much as you make it... hey have you seen "The Ten Commandments" 1956 movie? Those ten commandments are so very very relevant in this world even today...its so easy to understand each of them.

1. Pray and Please only one God
2. Do not take gods name in vain
3. Keep a day aside for rest and worship - sabbath day
4. Honour your Father and Mother
5. Do not kill.
6. Do not commit adultery.

7. Do not steal.
8. Do not be a false witness.
9. Do not covet neighbours wife.
10. Do not covet neighbours house/goods."

*** end ***

Mr Reliance had explained me these 10 commandments in his own words and i felt that it was not difficult to adhere to most of them ;) however the whole conversation kept on lingering in my mind for the rest of the journey....by now lots of ppl had boarded at A'bad station...and the train looked like a true "Indian Train" with huslte-bustle and snacks thrown around all over the place....

Most of my first impression about him was true except that he turned out to be 43 yrs of age !! Still cant believe that ;)