Monday, June 09, 2008

Another Missed Opportunity

The day before yesterday I missed a wonderful opportunity that would have not only made me very happy but would have also made for a great post. I had gone to attend the inauguration of an art exhibition where the famous badminton player, Pullela Gopichand was also present. He had come to inaugurate the exhibition. I somehow bungled the chance to meet him and talk with him.

One of the few blessings of my life has been a friendship that began nearly twenty seven years ago. I don’t want to mention my friend’s name but will refer to him as only K. K and I were in the same college some twenty seven years ago and we became quite close over the years. He is a very intelligent person who is now an internationally known scientist with path breaking achievements. Not only that, he is also a gifted artist and seeing him now in that position I feel proud to be his friend. His younger brother also turned out to be a good artist and it was his exhibition that I went to.

When close friends call you to be present anywhere you drop everything and go. Though it was upsetting my typing schedule I went all the way to the State Gallery of Fine Arts at Jubilee Hills on Saturday evening when K called me up. Pullela Gopichand, tall, fit and every bit the gentleman he is, was going around the exhibition looking at the paintings (which were wonderful by the way) and conversing with the artist. After sometime they all sat to have snacks. It was not a big gathering as only a handful of people, mostly friends and relatives of the artist were present.

I could have gone up to Gopichand and complimented him about his upcoming badminton academy at Gatchibowli and also told him it was rather brave of him to turn down the lucrative offers of endorsing cola drinks. The least I could have done was ask for his autograph and I forgot to do even that. Instead, I was calling up home to tell them I’d be late and worrying when no one was responding. Apart from that was the worry about the dark clouds gathering outside. I was worried it would rain and hoped it wouldn’t because I was carrying my laptop on the bike. So that was how I messed up a chance.

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