Harshvardhan Navathe

We were talking about eminent Indians who have made a mark in life. It had started with Sachin Tendulkar’s stupendous achievements and then we drifted to other fields. Suddenly, someone  asked, “Who is or was Harshvardhan Navathe?”

Nearly everyone had heard the name, but we could not readily recall the field in which he had achieved glory. To help us, our friend said, “I will give you four options and if you get the right answer, you get five hundred rupees”

That hint was enough. Most of us remembered the bright looking young man who had given the right answers to all the fifteen questions and walked away with Rs one Crore, thirteen odd years ago. Someone even remembered the last question which was really tricky. It was:

 Q 15. Who among these does the Indian Constitution permit to take part in the proceedings of Parliament?
a) Solicitor General b) Attorney General c) Cabinet Secretary d) Chief Justice

Harshvardhan took his time and analyzed the options. While he was doing that, Amitabh Bhachhan reminded him several times that the wrong answer would take him down to Rs 3.2 lakhs, whilst the right one would get make him the first Crorepati.  The hero of the show had the gumption to choose the right response, and ‘lock’ on (b) Attorney General. He received the check and became a celebrity overnight. Quite apart from the fame which he earned this young IAS aspirant had earned a sum of money which I was not able to save in my whole lifetime. It was enough money in the year 2000 to buy 20 kilograms of gold or a decent bungalow in a city. He was the cynosure of all eyes the next day.

Life After Kaun Banega Crorepati

Public memory is short. Within a few days, other events took over. No one seemed to keep a track of what happened to Harshvardhan after that sterling performance. A few years later, an enterprising journalist published the following story in a magazine:

 Rs 10 million may have definitely made a difference to the life of this IAS aspirant, son of a retired deputy commissioner of police in Mumbai; but it also turned his life upside down.

Now, as news of the doubling of the prize money on the show creates ripples of anticipation among aspiring crorepatis, Harsh himself is far away. In Edinburgh, UK, to be precise, completing a one year MBA, specialising in marketing and public relations.

While this may have been a lucky break for the 30 year old, the last four years have scarcely been so. Harsh himself is not in India to corroborate this, but those close to him say that Harsh suffered the after effects of his KBC fame while at college in Symbiosis in Pune. Asked out continuously to preside at several functions within and outside college at the behest of the authorities, Harsh was not able to complete the requisite attendance for his last semester – a fact that almost cost him his last term college, leading to severe depression.

Fortunately for the Navathe family, Harshvardhan recovered from his despair and earned admission in a good university in England. He is now a successful executive in a firm and doing very well, even though he does not make news any more. Shakespeare would say, “All is well that ends well!”

When dreams come true in real life…

In an idle reverie, I was browsing through the Internet to see if anyone has tracked the lives of people who win lotteries and sweepstakes. To my amusement, I found that in many cases, most of the winners were unable to savor the fruits of the fortune that fell in their laps. In fact some of these tales make you wish that such a thing does not happen to you. Personally, I would not like my dreams to come true. To give you an idea of what I discovered, here is a summary of ten real life stories tracked by a researcher in the USA. They have been described as ‘lottery losers’.

1. Jack Whittaker won a record $314.9m Powerball jackpot in 2002.
But life since then has been a long list of arrests, lawsuits, broken relationships and even death. In 2007, his then wife, Jewell admitted she wished she had ‘torn up the ticket’.

2. William “Bud” Post won $16.2 million in the Pennsylvania lottery in 1988.
He later described the experience as a ‘nightmare’ and wishes it had never happened – who can blame him after he was sued by a former girlfriend eager to get her hands on the cash and his brother hired a hitman in the hope of inheriting the winnings. He invested in ill-fated family businesses and within a year was $1m in debt. Today he gets by on social security payments.

3. Luke Pittard from Wales won a ‘measly’ £1.3m on the National Lottery.
After the novelty had worn off and the obligatory lavish holiday, wedding and new home were done and dusted, he got bored and returned to work at MacDonalds.

4. An as-yet-unnamed Sicilian won £79m on the Italian lottery in 2008.
Before he or she could even collect the winnings consumer groups were demanding that the windfall be seized by the government. The winner has since gone into hiding, fearing the Mafia will come calling.

5. Janite Lee won $18 million in 1993.
Her generosity in giving money to a variety of political, educational and community causes was commendable – but just eight years later she filed for bankruptcy.

6. Mark Gardiner from London won £11m in 1995.
Thirteen miserable years later, he hasn’t lost his money, but he has lost all his friends – even the ones he treated to new £100,000 homes – and lost touch with his family.

 

7. Michael Carroll won a £9.7m National Lottery jackpot in 2002.
Since then he has appeared in court more than 30 times and been jailed for drug related offences. In 2008, he admitted that ‘just’ £500,000 of his windfall remained.

 

8. Willie Hurt won $3.1 million in 1989.
Two years later the money was gone and he was on a murder charge. Hurt spent his fortune on a divorce and crack cocaine.

9. Charles Riddle won $1 million in 1975.
The original lottery car crash, he quickly got divorced, faced several lawsuits and was eventually indicted for selling cocaine.

10. Ken Proxmire won $1 million in the Michigan lottery.
He moved to California, and invested in a car business with his brothers. Five years later, he was bankrupt and back working as a machinist.

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Prodigals, who did their parents proud…

So much for those who strike diamonds and gold, while playing around in the wilderness. Now, let us turn our attention to the ‘bright’ students who leave everything else and concentrate on studies. The parents do all they can, to help them crack the entrance tests to enter prestigious institution or qualify for the civil services. In the larger cities, there are teaching shops which specialize in ‘coaching’ such students. When the results come out, we see pictures of proud parents and the students in the newspapers. For a moment, it seems that the successful children are all set for very promising careers. Here is how they look:

The next step

The race becomes more interesting from here on. Professional training courses are two to four years long, and the competition is intense. In most cases, medals are awarded to those who top the course. In the Army, the Gentleman Cadet who is adjudged the best is awarded the coveted sword of honor, and for a while, he is on cloud nine. His picture figures prominently in the newspapers and the service seniority is according to the ‘order of merit’ which carries all through the career. Here is how they look on that day:

In a University, the picture looks like this: 

                  This is a picture of a university topper, receiving the gold medal

Life after the medals and awards

Life does not end at the training institution. In fact, it begins there! Some work has been done to try to establish a correlation between the performance at the training institutions and the life beyond learning. Current results seem to indicate that there is no significant relationship between the two. Recently, there was a re-union of a military course which met fifty years after their passing out from the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun. The Cadet who later rose to be the Chief of the Army Staff had barely scraped through the training. In fact about two-thirds of his course-mates had performed better than him. An analysis carried out by a researcher showed that very few winners of the coveted awards have risen to shoulder higher responsibilities in the service. The performance of engineers who topped at the colleges follows the same pattern.

I do not consider myself competent to analyze this phenomenon. But having been associated with Human Resource Development in the Army as well as the Corporate sector, I think the causes for this disconnect can be grouped under the following heads:

• In some cases, the toppers burn themselves out, in the rivalry for the awards.

• Success, sometimes, leads to arrogance, and that leads to the fall.

• With the passage of time a person changes. The intellectual growth is a mysterious phenomenon, and no one has understood it fully. Some people bloom late.

• Personal circumstances change. A supportive spouse can make a world of difference.

• You need congenial colleagues and bosses, and for that you have to be lucky.

Of Honors and Awards

Excellence in performance is rewarded all through the life. It affects people differently. Some go chasing it, and end up in utter bitterness if it is denied to them. But I have also known people who shy away from public recognition. Jean Paul Sarte went to the extent of declining to accept the Noble Prize awarded to him. When I was in school I read a dictum which I think is very true. I do not know who said it, and it is not on the Internet, so the words may not be precise.

“Honors and awards distinguish the mediocre. While the Superior are embarrassed by them, the decoration itself is sullied by the inferiors” 

Dreams and real life are two different worlds.

I like to quote just one example. Once upon a time, there was a man called Mukesh Agarwal. He was a reasonably successful entrepreneur, who had just one dream: to marry a film actress. And it came true. He got married to the famous Rekha. For a while, he had achieved his ultimate goal. The following pictures say it all.

Mukesh with his wife, Rekha and Hema Malini

The whole world knows what happened next. In less than one year, Mukesh was driven to suicide. It was an unequal match, and the young man did not realize it. Indeed, he paid the price for his lack of understanding life and his grave immaturity.

“…and they did not live happily ever after”

In the childhood we read a lot of fairytales which ended in the prince getting married to the princess, and the story ended with the above five words. In the evening of my life, I find that in the real life, I have never seen it happen. You can gather all the wealth in the world, hold power over billions of people and achieve unbounded glory, and yet, you need to strive for happiness at every moment, Every instant is important, and the struggle every moment. Life itself is a transitory phenomenon, and death is, forever, just one breath away!

Many years ago, I read a book entitled, “The Wisdom of the Vedas” in which there was a verse which said,

“No two moments are linked. Mohan whom you now see is not the same Mohan you met yesterday, or the last year. The visible similarity between the two is illusory in nature.”

At that time I did not believe it. But a few months later, I met a retired general at a social get together who had come to inspect our unit a few months before. The man whom I now saw looked a few inches shorter, and said some things which were very different from the ‘sermon’ he had delivered when he had spoken to us from the podium.

Truth, the whole Truth and nothing but the truth

As I now see it, the world is in a state of ‘dynamic equilibrium’ It is more like a top which is spinning than the table in front of you. The table may seem static. It is not, since it is also in motion, in more ways than one. And the top is static, when it is spinning at its highest speed of rotation. The moment it slows down, it wobbles, and falls to a side. See it, if you like.

And now see how it looks when it siezes to rotate:

This is true of us, too. We are alive only as long as our hearts are beating, the lungs are breathing and all other organs performing their functions. The world has no time for men who rest on their laurels. What you did and achieved many years ago is of no consequence. To earn the respect of the people, you have to do something today…and in fact, now!

How do we distinguish between good and bad?

Let us assume that you are looking for a doctor to treat your child. Will you ask any of the following questions?

• Which medical school did he attend?

• What was his percentage of marks in the medical college?

• Did he win a medal during his training?

• Does he belong to a family of Doctors?

• Which hospitals has he worked in?

Chances are that you will not go by any of the above parameters. Perhaps the most important factor is his reputation and empathy. The way he meets you and the compassion in his eyes is more significant than the equipment in his clinic. One doctor whom I respect a lot had a little note on his table, which said,

It is no consolation to the patient that the doctor is right most often.

He wants him to be right this time

 

The Eighth Deadly Sin

The Holy Bible lists seven deadly sins. These are: Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy and Pride. In my humble opinion, there is one more emotional fault which we need to fight. And that is, “Mood Swings” When you permit yourself to become ecstatic, be prepared for a bout of depression. Only those who are able to contain their joys within limits are able to remain stoic during their sorrows. Said Gautam Budhha,

          “Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional”

Trying to Accumulate Happiness or Health

You can, with hard work and enterprise, earn a lot of money. You can also rise in status to gain control over large numbers of people. You can stack wealth in various forms, and through your societal power, you can become famous, or even be widely acclaimed. The media may follow you like a shadow, but an unfortunate fact of life is that there is no known method of purchasing a ‘fixed deposit’ of happiness or health. It has also been my experience that no amount of wealth is enough to satiate human desire. Just like the jungle fire, the human appetite for treasure is limitless. It is also a fact that those who acquire riches acquire an obnoxious persona. They are similar, in many ways, to a man who is inebriated with an intoxicant. There is an age old couplet written by a saintly Hindi poet:

कनक कनक से सौ गुनी मादकता अधिकाए

यह खाए बौराए मन ,  वोह  पाए  बौराए  !!!

Hindi word ‘kanak’ has two meanings; (gold and hashish) So this couplet translates to:

            Gold is at least one hundred times more intoxicating than hashish.

            Hashish intoxicates you if you eat it. Gold does that when you merely hold it!

Even when you look at its picture,something happens, deep within us!

The Gracious Path to Success and Glory

I have absolutely no doubt that people of all ages must strive for excellence in whatever they do. But the pursuit has to conform to a set of principles. If unfair means are employed, one is found out before long. And if herculean effort is put in for the desired results, one is not able to sustain it for long. I also find that those who do not carry a balanced head over their shoulders are unduly dejected when they are not able to attain the goal. Said, Kipling, You need to treat triumph and disaster as imposters of the same genre.

A Tailpiece

The kind of people whom I have admired in life are those lived life with a light hearted tinge. They have left pleasant memories, and I long to meet them. Amongst them was a boy called Malik, who was a student union leader in our college. A happy-go-lucky bloke, he could come out with an original prank in every situation. The last event in the athletics meet was the one-mile race, for which there were no heats. The entry was open to anyone who wished to participate. Malik was healthy to the point of being obese, and was not known to be an athlete. But he put on the right dress and joined the group. It was a nearly four-lapped race, and when it started, Malik took off like a champion, and at the end of the first lap, he was clearly ahead of the rest. And that is where he came out, in great style. He then went over to the commentator and whispered some thing in his ear, and we heard, on the microphone:

मलिक  जी थोड़ा  ही भागे, पर जितना भागे,अच्छा भागे !