Manas Ranjan Mahapatra, Puri, 28 July 2024
Amitabh Bachchan has written:
At the peak of my career, I was once travelling by airplane. There was a simple gentleman sitting next to me, wearing a simple shirt and pant. He looked middle class, and highly educated.
Other passengers were recognizing me who I am, but this gentleman seemed ignorant of my presence. He was reading his paper, looking out of the window, and when the tea was served, he quietly drank it.
I smiled at him trying to interact with him. That man smiled politely at me and said, “hello”.
Our conversation started and I picked up the topic of movies and asked, “do you watch movies?”
The man replied, “oh, very few. I watched a movie many years ago.”
I mentioned I worked in the film industry.
The man answered, “oh, this is good. What do you do?”
I replied, “I am an actor.”
Man smiled and said, “This is amazing! So this is the thing…”
When we landed, I shook hands and said, “It was nice to travel with you. By the way, my name is Amitabh Bachchan!”
That man smiled while shaking hands, “Thank you! Nice to meet you….I am JRD Tata!”
I learnt that day, no matter how big you are, there is always someone bigger than you.
The same happened with me once. I was travelling by air from Agartala to Guwahati during my early days as Director, North Eastern Council. Since it was Executive Class and I was seen off at the airport at Agartala by the State Protocol Officer, I was getting a bit more attention from the crew. The flight was waiting for someone. The person came and occupied the seat next to me. He was calm.We didn’t know each other. We travelled together without uttering a word for 45 minutes.
The plane landed at Guwahati. While leaving, I shook my hand with the person and said, “it was nice to travel with you. By the way, I am Manas Ranjan Mahapatra. Director, NEC.”
The gentleman humbly smiled and said, “Thanks, I am Himanta Biswa Sarma.”
Himanta Biswa Sarma is now the Chief Minister, Assam.
Be humble, it costs you nothing.
