BIG SHOTS...

No matter how far away they live, how much busy the are, these brother-in-law's always have some work to be done by their little mates. As assigned by one of his brother in law's, Harsha wanted to visit Manipal hospital in his second attempt to install a piece of software in some BIG SHOT doctor's laptop, the doctor who helped his brother in law recover from a health problem by doing a world class surgery. I was along with him. He told me that the doctor that we were going to meet is some one with very unique qualifications, some one who is very busy, who works for 6 months in India and 6 months abroad, etc. etc., to put in a single word 'BIG SHOT'. We were told to wait for half an hour as the doctor was busy with some work. We were sitting in the waiting room looking at the aquarium, observing the people roaming around and having left with no option, enjoying the hospital smell. After an hour, the doctor came in. I was expecting him to be a bit fat, old and to wear a steth and a white coat but he looked like a middle age man with rich clothes and spects, shirt toughed into the pants. For my satisfaction, there were two junior doctors following him meeting all my imaginations. We installed the software and there were some modifications that were suggested by the doctor. Harsha, only to avoid visiting the hospital again wasting a Saturday, suggested the doctor to follow certain steps to import the modifications after he sends an email with all the updated files. The steps were very simple like clicking a short cut, browsing for a folder, and clicking a button. We thought that the job is over. But the doctor replied saying that all this computer/software stuff is is Greek to him, that he cannot do any of those steps suggested, and that all he is good at is doing surgeries !!

To me (or most of us) surgeries, operations and all other health related stuff is something the most difficult and those big shot doctors are like some immortal beings. But to me one such an immortal being looked so silly when he said that he is scared to do some simple copy/paste, clicking some buttons etc. which is easier than eating peanuts to me. After thinking for a while, to me it looked like the concept of 'big shots' is a very relevant. One can be excellent at one thing or few things, but it looks very funny, silly when they are so dumb at other things. That is why we see the best cricketers in the world sweating to act in ad films, the silver screen superstars, the best political leaders sweating to play in charity and opening cricket matches etc.

Let me share a couple of experiences before putting a full stop. I read an article about the Hotmail guy Sameer Bhatia who was telling how the acquisition of Hotmail by Microsoft took place and as part of that, explaining the way he met Bill Gates on invitation to talk about the deal. He said that he got to meet Gates after going thought several security checks and that it took not more than ten minutes for him to understand that BIGSHOT is as 'ordinary' as we all are. Similarly, I met the walking encyclopedia Mr. Jayaprakash Narayana in Hyderabad once along with my friends Shiva, and Naveen. I witnessed his knowledge, control on emotions, clarity on things, iron desire etc. several times in TVs and news papers. I was thinking that his presence would be magical and wonderful but soon after meeting him, I understood that he is just a normal human being with two legs and two hands.

I feel it is the individual's commitment, iron desire, work, efforts, creativity, luck and stuff like that that makes the individual special, that makes the individual a BIGSHOT. A big shot filmmaker who gives 100 classics looks like a fool after giving a piece of crap. A big shot politician who commands politics with single hand for years looks like a fool when he gets to sit in opposition. Big shots are never born, but are made. It is an every day effort, every minute effort that builds big shots, it might be you or even me.