Divya's Blog

So I’m a rather social creature….it’s easy to spot me at a party, a friend’s gathering, a movie premiere and even the odd book launch or 2….so yesterday when I was invited to be a part of the launch of oscar Award winner and fellow malayalee, Resul Pookutty’s autobiography….I happily jumped at the chance. My father’s family was the royal family of Cochin; but in Mumbai, kerala is almost another galaxy…far far away…The chance to meet other Malayalees , forget converse is near impossible….and so this seemed like a wonderful chance to flaunt my roots and enjoy my cultural heritage! An evening of funny stories, anecdotes (mostly in Malayalam, some in English) and wonderfully , talented human beings was in store for us….but what I admired most was A.R. Rehman’s incredible presence and his short, interesting and relevant speech which praised Resul and wished him luck for his foray into writing! The speech , all of 2 minutes, showed that where unlike some other speakers (that i have seen) who feel the need to speak for 1 hr or more showed that to keep an audience interested and to keep an evening interesting….a great speaker must not move off subject, be to the point, with an anecdote or 2 and then wrap up when the audience is still yearning for more!

another mark of greatness i think, is to be on time! i have seen this with sachin tendulkar, amitabh bachchan and resul yesterday…you don’t need to keep an audience waiting or be fashionably late because an audience respects those who respect their time!

all in all despite staring an hour late and aditya not understanding a word of malayalam and the vote of thanks speaker being far too liberal with the length of her speech….it was an evening of greatness and inspiration!

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