My tryst with Rajiv Gandhi

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By Manoj Chugh, President – Group Public Affairs and Member, Group Executive Board, Mahindra & Mahindra

On the 21st of May, we marked 30 years, since we lost our former Prime Minister. Mr Gandhi took over the reigns as the Prime Minister in 1984, just a few years after I started my career. For those of us, who had stayed back in India and had chosen the Computer Industry as our professional home, we could not have hoped for a better leader at the time. It was the era of the Pre-economic liberalized India and nothing exciting seemed to be happening. We were delighted that finally, we had someone at the helm, who believed in the power of Technology and what it could do to change the destiny of India. We would stutter around proudly, as the sceptics took a cock a snook at us, name calling us as the “computer boys,” rather cheekily.

We got down to business and began in right earnest to help computerize a large part of the Government ushering in steps that would bring in transparency and speed. Immigration, passport, law enforcement, we sprinkled the magic dust of computerization on them all and many others.

I vividly remember that day. It was in 1986. We were working on some key Projects. It was late in the evening, when we got a call that the Prime Minister wanted to see first hand the kind of systems we were building in India. Within a couple of days, we would have to present ourselves before Mr. Gandhi along with our wares. My organization asked me to represent us, given the nature of projects I was working on. I was both nervous and excited. I had butterflies in my stomach. I asked one of my colleagues from our Services organization join me, just in case the system decided to go “kaput” at the last minute. Experience had taught me that it was Murphy’s Law and not Moore’s Law that kicked in, before an important event.

We were there on the appointed day, a few hours before the PM was to arrive to see our “machines of marvel”. I wore my best tie. We set up everything, made sure the operating system was behaving well and rehearsed the demo. We checked on the printer and made sure that it was not printing gibberish. An hour before the formal demonstration, the Security personnel showed up. They asked my colleague to exit the room.

“Only one of you will stay,” they said. That was a rather rude shock for me. My heart was in my mouth and it went totally dry. I was clearly on my own. I prayed silently, hoping that everything would go well.
At the appointed time, the PM showed up, punctually. I thought that he would stop by for a brief moment and then breeze through. None of that was destined to happen that evening. With a slight smile on his face and an ease that will always remain embedded in my mind, he came up to me. He asked me to explain the system and asked me as to how easy was it to learn and use the keyboard. I took him through the demonstration and shared that the layout of the keyboard was the same as that of a regular manual typewriter- the QWERTY keyboard. He took one more keen look at it and remarked “well then a lot of people should be able to learn to operate it easily ” and walked on.

That evening when I came home, all my neighbors were out, smiling at me. “What happened,” I asked my aunt. “Don’t you know, you were on TV with the Prime Minister, earlier this evening. We all saw you.” Overnight, I had become a mini celebrity amongst my friends. Televisions were not that common those days, but the folks who had them, had all seen me on the evening news.

It has been over three decades, but this incident has remain etched in my mind as if it had just happened yesterday. As I remember Mr. Gandhi and what he did for us “computer boys”, we know that we will always be indebted to him. I wish him happiness where ever he is and I am sure that his radiant smile will continue to captivate.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author. They may or may not reflect the opinions or views of the author’s organisation

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