Raj, u got it! ;-> Well, this is kinda long. I hesitated before posting to LI, but thought that the interest level of this would be high. Really sorry if u were offended by this long mail. I remembered he'd featured in an old 'Living Computers' mag(Sept 96) . Its long yes. but very funny indeed considering what happened.I type the article verbatim. Here goes: <quote> Digerati Lifestyles: Vijay Mukhi is chief of Vijay Mukhi's Computer Institute(VMCI). Besides being a veteran in the computer training business, Mukhi is quite a luminary in Indian Information Technology circles. He's one of the leading lights of Internet User's Club, a movement to promote Internet Usage in the country. He's in illustrious company there, what with the likes of Pritish Nandy and Shammi Kapoor being other members. Mukhi is also an active member of the Bombay Computer Club. What's more, he is among the most colourful characters in the industry. </quote> Thats the intro. There are even 2 pics of him, both reading books, one infront of a bookshelf, and another in bed with 3 pillows. He quotes in big red letters:: "When we were in college, we used to go to class only to make friends with the girls" & "I sleep whenever I please. In fact, I must be the only man in the world who can sleep for 48 hours continuously without food or water". I guess that explains a lot doesn't it? Now comes the main article: <quote> <bold>Normal is Boring</bold>He eats, breathes and talks this maxim, and makes an effort to live it too. Vijay Mukhi of the VMCI is one of the true characters of the Indian computer industry. Call him a computer professional and he sees red. "That's a damn insult." Mukhi would rather have the world call him an Internet pro. "Computer folks are always spewing jargon. Always confusing the rest of the world." A rather bizarre statement for a guy who runs a computer training academy for a living and authored over a dozen books on computers. He loves to travel but hates the "sight-seeing business." When in Rome, he prefers to study the Romans and interct with them rather than visit dumb monuments and sights. He wouldn't be caught dead doing what the Romans do. A man of very strong likes and dislikes, he goes into fits of delirium when he talks about the internet. "People who have discovered the Internet live the most exciting lives in the world. Because no two days are similar for us." He considers it a rare privilege to be a denizen of Cyberspace and has all the trappings of one. "We are a breed of people who don't recognize caste, creed, religion or geographical boundaries. We are the ones that will decide the future."Brave verse, indeed. Today, Vijay Mukhi fids time for little else but the Internet. But the younger Mukhi had a few passions. Palmistry for one. He took a strange fancy for the "science" of palmistry and devoured every book he found on the subject. "When you can read palms, it's very easy to impress people." Mukhi revealed being the entertainer at parties and gatherings by virtueof his newly acquired skill. And one fateful day, he read an African's palm and told him that he would lose his marbles soon. Call him prophetic, or call him unlucky, but Mukhi's prediction came true. The African had a mental disorder and was taken to an asylum. Mukhi stopped reading palms since that day. He hates classical music. "All that tabla and violin. My head starts spinning." Someone suggested MTV."I don't understand what they are singing or doing out there." Oh yes, he digs Hindi film music. Mukhi has this leaning towardth excess. He's not a regular movie-goer, but when he watches movies, he does it by the dozen, at a stretch. So, on lazy weekends, he picks up five or six video tapes and watches them - one after the other. "I hate to leave things halfway. I would never ever watch a movie at a cinema hall." "I've got no sense of time," he declares. The only time he is punctual is when he has to deliver his lectures. "Coz people are paying for it." He's got no regular sleep habits. "I sleep whenever I please. Infact, I must be the only man in the world who can sleep for 48 hours continuously without food or water." Like so many others in the computer business, Mukhi got into it by accident. He enrolled at Victoria Jubilee Technology Institute (VJTI), Mumbai, for an engineering degree."Those days, when we were in college, we used to go to class only to make friends with the girls. Because the girls we couldn't meet at the canteen were in class." One year in college and he thought he would "go crazy". But survive he did and walked out of VJTI with a bachelor's degree in Engineering. Bachelor's degree in habd, Vijay Mukhi went on to run a mango orchard in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh. "Even now, I can look at a mango tree and tell you how many boxes of mango that tree can produce." While running the mango grove, Mukhi discovered God. " In Mumbai, you have absolutely no reason to believe in God. But in Saharanpur, when a hailstorm threatens to ravage your mango orchard, you have no one to turn to except God." Mukhi doesn't grace temples any more. Something to do with the absence of mango groves in Mumbai,perhaps. Well, even mango groves couldn't hold his interest for long. He didn't want to be a "farmer's son" all his life. So he left his mango grove and came to Mumbai. He enrolled in a Masters in Computer Science at Mumbai university. He never got to complete it because he found the course very pathetic. "I quit in a month's time." He then joined a small private computer trainig institute in Dadar, Mumbai. Mukhi can't recollect the name of the institute run by a certain Mr. Edwin D'Souza. Those were the days of Intel 8085 microprocessor, the illustrious great,great grandfather of the Pentium chip. Mukhi used to write code for D'Souza then. Well, the enterprising Mr. D'Souza had signed a deal with the neighbouring Remy's Institute ( which trained young women to become secretaries and stenographers) that a professional from NIIT would teach them word processing. D'Souza had called it "India's first course in word processing." As luck would have it, the good man from NIIT couldn't make it. Mukhi was asked to stand in and "I conducted India's first course in word processing." Mukhi stumbled into Computer training business by accident and couldn't quite get out. "Even today people tell me, you should have done better things. But I enjoy teaching" That's Vijay Mukhi. Love him or hate him. But please don't call him normal-or a computer professional. </quote> Enjoy. Ciao for now. -sush -------------------------------------------------------------------- The Linux India Mailing List Archives are now available. 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