14 minutes later, I received a response.
"Thanks a lot Akshay for your kind words.


With best regards,
Narayana N. R. Murthy"



------------------
Now sample this :
Last year, for an initiative, I wrote an e-mail to a person barely 2 levels above me hierarchically requesting him for his inputs.
Twice.
- No response.

I was flabbergasted at his indifference & the lack of response.
Negative or positive, everyone is duty bound to acknowledge a conversation.
Such people, would never be able to have the crowd on their side.
They have neither the wherewithal nor the mojo.

So, what magic does Mr. Murthy hold? 
Why is there this buzz of excitement on everyone's lips when he hasn't practically even started his work yet?
Why did the scrip jump 9% on a single day increasing the market capitalization by 6,500 crores?

To his credit, he very surely & easily :
1. Inspires confidence
2. Keeps the crowd motivated
3. Is a leader

How?

1. You inspire confidence when you lead by example. 
Much like Sachin Tendulkar inspired confidence in any cricketer, Mr. Murthy does the same. 
Always on time, hates excuses, works very hard & accepts weaknesses. Always works towards a culture of superlativeness, but never compromises on values.
That's enough to inspire ordinary people like me.

2. How do you keep people motivated?
Give them an ear & pat them if they do well.
Most people would forget awards and rewards, but a small chat with Mr. Murthy or a small photo-op would remain close to their hearts all through their lives.
He is famous for standing in long-winding queues with the employees for lunch or grabbing a chair & having a chat with a young engineer during coffee breaks.
This aspect, is what makes him popular with the masses. People sit up & take notice when he talks.

3. Being a leader
Well frankly speaking, if you do the first 2 points correctly, you don't need to do this one.
You already are a leader.

I like going through the numbers, I like data to prove a point & I know, based on numbers, there would be many people who would say - "It's not gonna work this time".
But, I would like to leave it for another day..
BECAUSE,
There are some things which the heart tells you are right.
Some things which you want to believe are right.
Mr. Murthy is one of those things, one of those factors which make you feel good, feel right.

With all his immense repertoire of qualities of leadership & expertise put aside, what strikes everyone is his ability to inspire people from the ground to the board rooms.

I am sure, he will inspire again, nourish his 'middle-child' & do justice to his own legacy.

I wish him only the best for his newest adventure.
Aye-aye captain, sail ahead.

I leave Moscow with sweet memories, not just because of the place, not just because of the people I met or knew, but also because I rediscovered a past phase of my life.
They say, you never forget how to swim even if you haven’t in twenty years.
Likewise, you never forget to live your life, like a bachelor.

While I am extremely happy & excited that I get to go back and meet my family & stay together and be back to my cozy old days, that should not take away the credit from the people who made me feel special here at a place where I was alone.

So here goes, for all you people :
Just like Jake Sully had a video log of every single day of his life on the Pandora, I would also like to chronicle & log my time here, so that I don’t forget the good times, good people & the bad ones as well.

Day 1, apart from a couple of people, I knew nobody at my workplace.
The team was new & so it took a while to get going.
I made a few choices, which I wouldn’t be proud of now.
Realized, corrected it & felt better.
Slowly, I found my roots, became part of a gang… like college kids do.

In a way, I felt happy because that’s what I did when I was 21.
A little over a decade later, I did the same again.

Apple, it's only other big ticket competitor is not too amused by this launch.
From what shows in the media, it looks like they are a little ruffled.
3 days before the unveiling of the Galaxy S4, Apple's marketing head - Phil Schiller comes out in the public and attacks Google's andriod and Samsung's 'yet to be launched' phone.
He said that the new flagship S4 would be shipped with a year old Android OS.
Why on earth would anyone of that stature do that?
That too, when there is a good 50% chance that you might be beaten to pulp by the media if what you say turns out to be false.

Well, logic is the nirvana that you cannot achieve when you are uneasy, perturbed & ruffled.
And 3 days later, the exact opposite happened.
Phil would be cursing himself.
Galaxy S4 ships out with the latest Android 4.2.2.2 Jelly bean - the newest kid on the block.
And there went our Phil... well, sinking.

I have basic problems with a few other Apple philosophies
- Of acting holier-than-thou and self righteously taking the moral high ground by not allowing people to share files through through standard file transfer methods.
- Of having the gall to block a few applications because they 'supposedly' violate their virtues.
-Of removing competition using the dirty way - Google maps did not make it to iOS6 & then putting it back when they couldn't pull it off with Apple maps. A public apology from Apple followed.

Well, while the two big giants slug it out... all I would like to say is that the customer, the 'me' in this war was never happier.
This brinkmanship between them is giving us absolute gems one after the other.

This lowdown is for people who already know the advantages of Galaxy S series & are fairly conversant with the Andriod eco-system.

Unlike the past, Samsung did not dwell on it's hardware superiority.
But they did silently make a mention of it's processor which is well, wait for it :
An oh-my-God 'OctaCORE' processor!

Let's check out the 'WOW' things about this phone :

1. It's slimmer than the Galaxy S3 :

Well, if you were one of them who thought S3 was ridiculously slim, think again.
Your S3 might want to do some treadmill routines now.

At 0.31 inches, it's the slimmest Galaxy ever & much slimmer than any iPhone ever.
Dimensions are : 5.38 x 2.75 x 0.31 in
And while the screen is a jumbo 5 incher, it is ridiculously light as well.
It weighs 130 gms.

2. Bigger screen demands more juice - and they've heard you.

A jumbo display of 5 inches requires commensurate juice.

So they've bumped the battery up to 2600 mAH from the previous 2100 mAH on the S3.
This should provide the much needed relief to the harried smartphone users.

The display specs  are quite brilliant :
1080 x 1920 pixels, 5.0 inches (~441 ppi pixel density)
Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors.



3. Now, the biggie - an OctaCORE processor

Yes, you heard it right.
What the hell is wrong with these guys?
Quadcores were the flavor of the season.. but not anymore.
The S4 sports a  Exynos 5410 processor with 8 cores.
4 of these cores are high performance - 1.8Ghz & the remaining 4 at 1.2 GHz.
Mighty, I must say.

4. Air touch - let your fingers do the talking

The S4 senses your finger hovering on the screen without the need to touch.
It would work for a few applications like the mail client.
The hovering of your finger without touching would display the first few lines of the mail content.
Similarly you could change songs in your media gallery by just hovering your finger without touching the screen.
You could hover your finger over images in the gallery and it would pop up the images you are hovering on.
This is extremely useful for times when your finger feels sweaty or when you are having your meals & don't feel like touching.

5. Segregation of personal & official stuff 
Now this is one feature, I first saw on the Nokia E series phones. But the implementation was primitive.
Not much is known, but it would be able to keep your official stuff and emails separate from your personal movies and pictures.

6. Video play lock with eye contact - an absolute ripper!
How many times have you started watching a 5 minute video and had 15 distractions in between with your mom or friends calling out for you?
Well, this feature locks your eyes, and if you look away - the video pauses
Look back and it starts.
Can it get cooler?
Well yes, look for the next one.

7. Auto scroller 
You are reading a book or a news article. You would typically read through a cell phone's screen in 10 seconds and then you scroll.
So here the S4 again locks your eyes & scrolls down if you just tilt your phone upwards mildly.
Tilt downwards and the screen scrolls up.
Quite neat right?
Wait for more.

8. Rear and front camera recording together
This is a new absurd concept, but might be worth trying.
In both video and picture modes, both cameras can operate simultaneously. 
Capturing the expressions of the one clicking the photograph might be interesting.

9. S-Translate & Infra red remote
The S4 promises instant translation between 10 different languages which is neat.
But the bigger one is the infra red feature which allows the phone to behave like a remote control for TVs, home theatres, DVD players and audio stations.

10. Cool accessories like the S-Health band
The S health ecosystem debuted with S3, but has been taken further with the S4.
Wear the band to monitor your workouts, how much you've burned, your heart rate, ambient temperature & humidity.
But this is an accessory though.

Well, these 'Wow' features would definitely come for a price & that hasn't been revealed yet.
But I expect it to be around the 42 thousand Indian rupees mark. Take or give 5%.

Samsung has shown resolute intent in getting to the top.
They beat Apple iPhone 4s with S3 sales, so they have been there, done that in the past.
Let's wait it out to see if Samsung emerges winner again.

I'll wrap it up with a funny tweet I read from Rajeev Makhni, resident Tech-guru from NDTV.
"The only thing Apple can sue Samsung now for is - spelling their phone name in reverse :)
S4 - 4S".

Like every kid looking for a super hero, I finally saw mine 

His frail face, unassuming talk made him an instant friend who I never saw, but could connect to easily.
He looked like someone who was amongst us, very unlike a hero.

Back then, we had just one TV channel in India.
Although it could be touted as the shining beacon of monotony and tiresomeness, that channel aired this interview which is now freely available on youtube.

You would instantly know why he was so easy to connect to for the kids of my generation.

Like every starry eyed kid, I watched his antics on the cricket field.
The enthusiasm gave way to adoration.
He just seemed to capture the imagination of a nation.

For a nation used to working hard to earn their living, he provided the relief and the cheer when they switched on their television sets for a game of cricket.
When he hit Abdul Qadir for 3 sixes in one over, he announced to the cricketing world that this, ladies and gentlemen, is an Indian.
An Indian named Sachin R. Tendulkar.

From the big bullies of West Indies to the spin quartets of Pakistan
From the wily australians to the regal Englishmen, everyone sat up and took notice of this 16 year old guy.
Over the years, the continents that he travelled and the surfaces that he played on, he conquered everything that came in the way.
With 35,000 international cricket runs, he was now towering above the world of cricket like an emperor who had earned his masses. 
His facebook page, now all of 6 months has 8.8 million followers.
When 'Toruk Makto' played, everyone watched.

In doing so, he unwittingly, realized the dream of a small boy struggling at his level in a city, south of India.
Me.
I had got selected in my school team.
That streak is long gone now.
But a recent incident rekindled the old times.
I met a school friend settled in USA early this year, when he came home. His name is Vikram & I thought of him as the best fast bowler in our school.
He told me : 
"I still remember that six you hit off me, which went on top of the building next to the ground".
And this coming from a guy who I considered the best fast bowler of our school.. I could only think of one guy to thank.
Sachin R. Tendulkar.
He was the one who taught me to believe.
I was and am an average cricketer, but it was only inspiration which turned a gawky school kid to a presentable player on the field.
I will be ever-indebted to him for that.

Like every letter I post on my blog about Sachin, I prove the critics wrong with data and statistics.I am not going to do that today because this is not about 'them'.
I have achieved the confidence to go out in the open and question his critics, give them a nice little punch on their nose, but today, I won't.
I have got the courage to ask them what their achievements have been all their life? But, I'll leave that for another day.
I have had numerous fights in person debating with people on Sachin-data and they've woefully lost. But today is not that day.

Today, for me, is the saddest day in my life.
It's like an emotional shutdown which I knew was coming, but now that it has come, I don't know how to react.

Ladies & gentleman, I am proud to say and believe that he may not be God, but he isn't any lesser...
for me at least.

I know I am sounding like an emotional fool, but I'll let my guard down for today.
With very moist eyes and a gut-wrenchingly choking feeling, I write & I know that for me : This is truly the end of an era.

And like all my posts about HIM, I would again sign off with the same words :
"Sir,
I won't bow specially this time, for I have been in that position since 1989."

All respect Sir. Life will always miss you.
- A true Sachin Tendulkar fan.

PS : Seeing HIM in flesh & blood 13 times in my life on this planet & getting his 'real' autograph have been the foremost achievements in my life.