Destiny and Choices

Today we had an Extra Mural lecture(EML) in IIT. EML's are exactly like what they sound - basically talks given by eminent personalities. There have been talks from Medha Patkar, Gopal krishana(Deccan air ceo) and a lot more.
So this time it was Boman Irani. While I was thinking what better to do while there was a power cut for the whole day in IIT this opportunity landed at the right time, and I'm glad to have attended the talk(as opposed to the imminent dozing of). So though I was bored and went to the venue 15mins early(very rare phenomena-must be recorded in the history), I couldn't find a seat and had to sit down in the path way. This tradition of overflowing auditorium is quite old in IIT and speakers are overwhelmed by this overflowing enthusiasm of IIT(These guys don't want to miss any chance like this even if they have to stand for 2 Hrs). Boman Irani was no exception- this was the first thing he talked about-he was moved by our response and mentioned that he was obliged to share rare authentic scenes from his life with us different from that available for media and the mass.

Well it started of quite rudely with some people shouting 'mamu' and 'subah ho gayi mamu' etc. He was a humable person who didn't mind it as much as I did. His jokes especially the pervy ones weren't as interesting and stimulating as his adventurous life was. Throughout the session he showed that he was one of most humblest of speakers or celebrity one could have been touched by.

The talk was about finding the inner calling and this is roughly how it goes. Boman Irani was, in his childhood a very shy and quite kind of boy. His father had passed away before he was born and so he was surrounded by mostly women relatives(not the Priyanka Chopra type- he makes it clear) due to which he had developed a phobia towards male presence. With a speech problem of pronunciation of 's' word(made an 's' few s's long) and his phobia towards people, he greatly lacked confidence during his childhood. He was denied admission to school when he was asked to tell the name of the animal in a photo(a horse). He was very scared and hurt to pronounce the word since it had an 's' in it. Boman was dyslexic- he jovially quotes that he had seen Amir Khan's 'Taare Zameen Par' so he knew what was dyslexia was. He hated to be called a 'duffer' which was used constantly by his aunt to refer his dyslexia(she didn't know the technical term dyslexia)- she used to taunt him(with concern)'tu itna duffer kyun hai'(meaning why are you such a duffer). He had faced all problems that a dyslexic person would have faced. Being meek in studies he scored low while he was in school and college. He used to about 5 red mark out of 7 subjects that is. He managed to get through the rest by the leniency of his teachers(grace marks).
Looking back he is neither proud of it nor regrets it.

Not being able to qualify for anything he studied for he decided to become a waiter. So he approached the Taj Mahal Hotel(the one that was attacked by terrorists.) for a job. Did he get the job what happens next? still marriage is left and acting. wait for my next post.