Meeting Great People – Bloody #GoodLuck

Lot of books adorn my study table, apart from maggi packets of course. At the right end of the table resides a dictionary, unperturbed and undisturbed since ages. I wanted a good opening line for this story and I opened this wonderful little verbose chunk of pages to see what luck actually is. It says,

“The chance happening of fortunate or adverse events”

Well, in that case, I consider myself lucky as I have been host to more number of fortunate events than adverse ones. And it would be my genuine pleasure to pen down my good luck stories.

If you ask me, good luck for me is not about having a super rich dad and getting drunk every night. It is also not about having a super hot girlfriend like Katrina(although the latter prospect is quite exciting). According to me, good luck is knowing wonderful people. It is, indeed, a chance event, that you meet someone, you like their traits, you learn those little things from them, the conversations that you have. I believe that is luck! Bloody good luck! 

So here what I am gonna do is, list down my opinion about those two people who have had a great impact on my life, their key learning so that we all can benefit and I get a brand new book to read!

1) Durgadas Kulkarni – 
My Grandfather! My inspiration! Our family calls him ‘pappa’ and his elders call him ‘balu’. Born in a modest marathi brahmin family, this young guy in 1950-60’s showed tremendous grit. Despite financial constraints and too many siblings, he fought his way hard and joined Fire Brigade. He even got selected in Jamnalal Bajaj Management Studies but had to drop out due to some issues. But that did not deter him and he worked his way up the ladder. In 1989, pappa became the Chief Fire Officer of Mumbai Fire Brigade and retired on in 1997. He was the longest serving Fire Chief Officer in the history of Mumbai Fire Brigade and was a role model for many firemen, We have his mention by S Hussain Zaidi in his famous book, The Black Friday. He was applauded for doing a wonderful job during riots in Mumbai and 1993 bomb blasts that shook the city.
I know the introduction was too long and lets get down to the business. This man has followed two things and has diligently followed them:
1) Hard Work
2) Love people
Pappa always says there is absolutely no alternative to hard work. He hates excuses. This is one thing I have learned from him. He hates ‘no’. In addition to this, his unselfish and undying love for people around him. I have lost count of how many families he has helped, financially or sponsoring their education. Our family is a big one, we meet every year, have wonderful trips, once a year get together, we sing songs, celebrate festivals all thanks to this one person!

Image credits: 

2) Rajesh Kulkarni –
Like father like son, My uncle is a unique personality. He is crazy fun, a book lover, enjoys his occasional drinks, spiritual, likes Buddhism(we discuss vedantas for hours). He is basically everything. Settled in US since past 20 years, he has been my role model since beginning.

Key Learnings – 
1) Read. All he knows and all he wants us to know is reading. I read ’50’ books every year and the credit totally goes to my uncle who has instilled that habit in me. Reading, as he says, makes you ready for anything and everything. We read common books, we discuss things, we have great conversations. You really need to have a bloody good luck to meet such people.
2) Excellence – He always says this, ‘Shun Mediocrity’. What Ranchoddas Shymaldas Chanchad said in 3 Idiots, my uncle has been saying it his entire life. Put in your best efforts and give your 100%.Results will follow! And man. they do! 
3) Talk about ideas, not about people – He says normal people talk about people, good ones talk about ideas!
To know more about him, read this post.

I request my fellow rodinhooders to write their lucky events, where they got to meet interesting people and their key learning. Happy Rodinhooding and have a great weekend!

– Tejas Nimbargi
Twitter Handle (@nimbo_baba)

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You can also WIN Ashwin Sanghi’s book ’13 Steps to Bloody Good Luck’
by posting your #goodluck story on trhs!

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