Dreams do come true
Sometimes Dreams do come true. And when they do, our hearts overflow with joy! I have been fortunate enough to have seen many of my dreams come true, but what happened today was something completely surreal and a feeling that I have never experienced in my life before. I met my Hero, Inspiration, our Thalaivar, SuperStar Rajinikanth.
Our appointment was to meet Rajini Sir at his residence at 9:30 AM. We started from home around 9 AM. There were a hundred things running in my mind — What should I ask him? What will he ask me? I am sure he will ask me about freshdesk. How can I explain to him what we do at freshdesk? Can I invite him to our office? Will I be putting him in an embarrassing situation if he has to say no? I wanted to ask him if I can give him a hug. Will he agree?
We parked outside in the street and walked into his house. We were welcomed into the house by his staff and made to wait in his reception. It was almost 9:30 AM. It could be any moment now. We were asked if we would like to drink anything. We quickly refused not wanting to waste any time. But we were told that Thalaivar is ready but won’t meet us unless we have something. We were offered some buttermilk. We all grabbed the buttermilk quickly and finished it in a gulp. My son who doesn’t like buttermilk usually also gulped it quickly, because he understood that the buttermilk was the ticket to see SuperStar. We are then ushered into the home. We picked up all the awesome gifts that Ruchi Shah and the Freshdesk team had created for SuperStar and walked inside.
The house was beautiful like a temple and as we entered we could hear the divine “Om “music playing softly in the background. There are photos of Babaji, Ramana Maharishi and SuperStar everywhere. We are taken to a large living room and there he is — the man himself welcoming us. His shocking simplicity hits you hard. He was wearing a simple white long-sleeved shirt and a dhoti. A chain of rudrakshas adorned his neck and he was wearing a slim leather-strapped watch with a black dial. It looked very elegant.
I just wanted to keep looking at him. I had no agenda. My mind was blank. We were seated in the sofa opposite to him. The friend who had got us the meeting was explaining about me and how Rajini adorns our office walls. Rajini Sir was listening with genuine interest.
I wanted to show him the gifts that we had brought and explain the story behind it. He summoned me to the Sofa next to him and I started showing him the album we had created. I also used the map on the chocolate wrapper to subtly tell him that a 1000 people “Anbu Kootam” is waiting to see him in our office.
He asked me about Freshdesk and how we started. This is a story I have told a thousand times and inspired the audience every single time, but for some weird reason I find myself choking on my words. I was tongue-tied. I stopped my answer mid-way and apologized to him saying I cannot find the words to talk. I also told him I usually don’t blabber like this but I don’t know what happened to me today.
He must be so used to this situation. So like an expert interviewer trying to calm down a tensed interviewee, he asked me some easy questions like what are my hobbies etc. I felt happy and stupid at the same time.
He turned to my wife and asked her if she was a housewife and where she grew up etc. Now it was her turn to draw a blank. She simply could not answer him. She just couldn’t believe that she was having a conversation with SuperStar. Tears started flowing from her eyes and my friend had to tell SuperStar that she was getting very tensed and emotional.
He then turned to my kids and thankfully they answered his questions quickly without choking.
He spotted that Sanjay had the gift in his hand and said — Oh you have brought me a gift. Let’s take a photo. He summoned someone to take photos. It was very clear that he had seen this movie several times and knew how the scenes should progress smoothly from one to another.
He posed with enthusiasm for several photos with the kids separately, with the family, with me alone and with Shoba alone.
When I was standing with him, I asked him if I can touch him. He grabbed my hands and put it around him and placed a hand on shoulder and posed for the picture. I was really, really happy and I guess it shows on my face in the photos.
After the photo session we sat down again and now the talk moved to the book that Shoba had brought as a gift — Learnings of Ramana Maharishi. He asked Shoba if she was spiritually inclined and followed Ramana Maharishi. It was a difficult question for her to answer — she said her uncle was a staunch devotee :)
Now it was time to leave. We absolutely did not want to leave. I just wished we could stay there and spend more time with him. We didn’t want the meeting to end, we just couldn’t get enough of him.
After we came out for the next couple of hours we just didn’t know what had happened to us. We tried to get some breakfast, share some pics with friends but were just overwhelmed by the sheer emotional burden that we had never experienced in life.
By afternoon, we felt very tired and exhausted — it was like the fag end of a pilgrimage trip — like a Tirupathi trip or Vaigunda Ekadasi trip — you are exhausted, but beaming with pride that we got a “Super Darisanam” (Dharshan)
Today for half an hour, I was not my usual self, I realized that the Thalaivar-fan in me had taken over completely and I was living the dream of every Rajini fan — seeing SuperStar in flesh and blood, feeling his touch, spellbound by his words and touched by the warmth of his heart. Two words sum up the experience — Jenma Sabalyam!
P.S. Thanks to my friends NirmalKumar, Dr Ravi Selvaraj and Mr. Amarnath who made this meet possible.
