I have to digress a bit today.It is not about France,but about someone who impressed me immensely on our trip home to India this time.

We had fixed a lunch meeting at the Forum Mall in Bangalore and he was late-but he did ring us up and let us know he was on his way-so waited near the lift for him and...he rolled himself out- the sight was awe inspiring and chokingly sad at the same time.

My first sight of him was a cocky teenager-he was 18 or 19,walking into the house with a key chain twirling away on his finger.A sophomore in college,he was there to attend my wedding.He drove our wedding car(his Dad's car actually) and I am so glad he still drives.

Fate sometimes plays such cruel tricks on people that you wonder if God predestines things,he must be a mean being.(I am being heretical,aren't I?)In 2000,he met with a freak accident and was paralyzed from the neck down and after a couple of surgeries,is now paralyzed from the waist down.The whole family was struck down by this tragedy and it was a abyss no one thought we could step out of-in fact some members are still stuck in that horrific state of mind,but he decided that if he had to live life as a paraplegic,he would live it to its fullest.

He hauled himself off the sickbed, started taking courses in SAP (he already had a degree in Engineering) and was soon employed at IBM. He has shifted to Accenture since, and I for one, have been cajoling him to come Stateside just because life is so much easier for someone in a wheelchair here than anywhere else. He has succeeded in carving out an exceptionally busy life for himself back in India but the practicality of getting around in a country where the roads are so pothole ridden, and the sidewalks encroached upon by street vendors and parked vehicles (I saw bikes, running ones, not parked, on the sidewalk in Bangalore this time-what next, cars?) is mind boggling.

Once lunch was done, we accompanied him on the lift to his car and helped with him with the laborious process of getting himself seated in the driver's seat, and storing his wheelchair in the trunk (he has a full time aide who helps him with the nitty gritty of everyday life). He has a car with hand controls and off he zoomed, the same cocky kid, the same reckless abandon!! Thank God for making people like him who can thumb their nose at adversity and zoom off!! My older son, ever the charmer, climbed on to the passenger seat without a second's hesitation, and said he was going with Chittappa in his car-for once I appreciated his impulsivity! I am sure his Chittappa appreciated it too!

He seems to have hit that perfect balance of being able to ask for help when needed and rebuff overly solicitous offers of aid.There is no mistaking his pride,which he so richly deserves to flaunt-he has done so much more with his life than some of us even aspire to.

The reason he was late to lunch that day, he explained, was because he had to meet another acquaintance who had been similarly afflicted and talk him out of his depression. And I thought to myself,who better to do that,than him?

HE has polished his resume, and is starting to warm to the idea of coming here,so BEST OF LUCK Roby!!!Here's to you!!!

You did not just make my day that day, but you impressed the heck out of me!!

So,to quote Emmy, Thalaiva! You are Great!! I will leave it at that!!