Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Rusi Brij - A Personal Tribute

Today I lost a Dear Friend, a Well Wisher and a true Mentor.

Rusi (Ex-Vice Chairman, Hexaware) was a man full of life. He knew how to live it and how to enjoy every moment of it. In his short life-span Rusi lived his life as if he knew he would not have time to enjoy a period of retirement and the so called finer things. He believed in enjoying the finer things while he still had a true appreciation of them.

I still remember the absolute SHOCK when he came to my office and told me he had cancer over a year back. I remember my initial reaction of not believing it. There had to be a mistake. Not Rusi. I was then up the whole night trying to understand more about the very virulent form of cancer he had.

He was always so charged and optimistic. He was sure he would beat it and continued to lead his life as he always did, with confidence, zest and the assurance that the future had much that it held for him. He inspired hope and instilled optimism in all of us.

He took a deep interest in my new venture which is in the Health and Wellness space and not only did he invest his personal money in the business but went out of his way to spend an in-ordinate amount of time with me giving constructive inputs and helping me connect with people who could support our business. And that is how he was with everyone who came in touch with him.

Always selflessly willing to help, always willing to give time and listening. He was profoundly intelligent and had a fantastic sense of what would work. His charisma, optimism and confidence was such that just being in his presence, its sheen would rub off on you and you would be inspired to go out and do more.

It made a huge impact to me personally as I worked at kick starting a new venture which was an un-tried and un-tested business model. His un-wavering confidence in our venture’s opportunity and potential gave me the courage to continue to drive the venture even more aggressively. And we are seeing the benefits of that now.

Rusi, you were a great Father, Husband, Son and just an amazing Human Being. You touched all of us in many ways, all of them positive. You will be missed not only by all your near and dear family, but by all of us who came in contact with you.

You were a bright shooting star which blazed through our lives shining brightly, bathing us in your glory and vanished before we fully appreciated the impact you had on us.

I will personally miss my Friend, my Golf Partner, my Sounding Board, my Mentor and Well Wisher.

God Bless and Peace to You.

Avinash

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Proud to be an Indian

So we have it finally. A vote for youth and competence. After decades of political fatigue and a mish-mash of murky alliances, the Indian Diaspora has voted in favor of a strong and stable Government. It has voted for Secularism and against Racism.

I believe this to possibly be a turning point in Indian Politics and the start of a journey that will finally put to bed (to a large extent) corruption and bring in force a political will which has accountability and purpose as its foundation.

Political parties will need to rethink the very platforms that they have so far leveraged and abused over the last few decades as they come to terms with a voter community which is increasingly aware, youthful and no longer as naive as they would like to believe. The typical “vote banks” can no longer be taken for granted.

This will force performance and a gradual shift away from the age old platform of racism and religion. It will force a generation of politicians to “gracefully retire” and allow a new – and younger – breed of challengers to come forward and lead with vigor, energy and hopefully honesty.

India has tremendous potential. What has let us down is the lack of a strong and homogenous political will and purpose. If we were to acquire this, India WILL finally take a leadership role in the Global Community.

I salute the Indian Diaspora as it continues its unwavering journey towards fulfilling its historic destiny – in spite of all odds and all the so called pundit-speak.