Egg on the Face or வார்த்தை தவறி விட்டாய்...(well almost!)

Now the story of UN did not end with the previous post.

Picking up from the PS of the last one...

G did button-hole the great man. After the initial pleasantry exchanges,

UN: (in English) So, what language do you speak otherwise?

Now you know what Kamal's views are w.r.t. language...

Refer back to the subtle, yet hard-hitting piece in D'ram where Balram Naidu chides Govind about the fact that an Andhraite can talk Tamil but a Thanjavur educated Tamilian prefers to continue speaking in English.

No, this post is NOT about linguistic preferences and the need for us to converse in our mother-tongue. Continuing the dialogue between UN and G...

G: (in English) Well, Tamil is my mother-tongue (semblance of an apologetic tone, perhaps)
UN: Oh... well... D'ram will come out in Hindi shortly (absolute Kamal-speak; usually the man jumps a few steps of logical thought process in his mind and expects others to be in the same plane)
G: (continuing in English) That is good. One small request. Can you please autograph a message for me? I can assure you that I will preserve it, as I admire your works greatly (and all that BS..)
UN: No problems. Where do you want it? (remember Kalaignan?)
G: (produces the work notebook - the usual G'earth one)
UN does a nice half-pager.
G thanks him profusely and withdraws from the scene.

All fine so far.

The only problem is what G did afterwards.

Now he is a great guy with a fantastic IQ and a razor sharp mind. Well-read, different perspectives to life, wine connoisseur, high network guy etc. Sometimes absent-minded, but then who isn't?

He leaves the hotel and after a hard-day's work reaches the airport.
Goes to the internet cafe to do some last minute e-mailing.

Now it beats me (haven't asked him the reason yet), why somebody who has just put in the hard eight hours at office 'and' wields a blackberry, would go to the internet cafe after all that. Let us attribute it to the vagaries of life.

And then - horror of horrors - forgets The autograph work-book in the internet cafe... @#$#%$^

Catches the flight and only after landing in SG realizes the missing autograph.

Oh my! I have given my word to UN and have promptly screwed it up...

(Bertie: Jeeves, what is the word that starts with 're..' and means that one feels very bad after letting somebody down?
Jeeves: Remorse, Sir?
Bertie: Right ho, Jeeves)

You would not be wrong if you thought that the lines above went through G's mind. Indeed, they did. But he is a man of action and calls up his team member in India and directs him to the airport Internet cafe to retrieve the work-book.

Steve Jobs (Apple-fame) said that life is all about connecting the dots and what you do will never go waste and will come back to repay you (good or bad) later. In Tamil they say... முற்பகல் செயின் பிற்பகல் தானே விளையும்...

Moving along those lines, I think Kamal did that song (வார்த்தை தவறி விட்டாய்... in இளமை ஊஞ்சலாடுகிறது) especially for such incidents. Thankfully, G managed to retrieve the autograph and life is back to normal again.

(some embellishments in the above post; but incidents are still true)