Mr.Narayana Murthy's speech

I have been forwarded a copy of Mr.Narayana Murthy’s speech which he <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1:State w:st="on">del</st1:State>ivered at the <st1lace w:st="on"><st1laceName w:st="on">Stern</st1laceName> <st1laceType w:st="on">School</st1laceType></st1lace> of Business,NY.
Mr. Murthy is relating to the students some key aspects of his life which can on retrospect be considered turning points.
The first was as a graduate student Mr,Murthy attended a talk by a famous computer scientist and whose talk influenced Mr.Murthy to take up computer science as a career.
The second incident I am going to copy here from the speech itself.. “Friends, when I look back today at that pivotal meeting, I marvel at how one role model can alter for the better the future of a young student. This experience taught me that valuable advice can sometimes come from an unexpected source, and chance events can sometimes open
new doors.
The next event that left an indelible mark on me occurred in 1974. The location: <st1:City w:st="on">Nis</st1:City>, a border town between former <st1:country-region w:st="on">Yugoslavia</st1:country-region>, now <st1:country-region w:st="on">Serbia</st1:country-region>, and <st1lace w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Bulgaria</st1:country-region></st1lace>. I was hitchhiking from <st1:City w:st="on">Paris</st1:City> back to <st1lace w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Mysore</st1:City>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">India</st1:country-region></st1lace>, my home town.
By the time a kind driver dropped me at <st1lace w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Nis</st1:City></st1lace> railway station at 9 p.m. on a Saturday night, the restaurant was closed. So was the bank the next morning, and I could not eat because I had no local money. I slept on the railway platform until 8.30 pm in the night when the
Sofia Express pulled in.
The only passengers in my compartment were a girl and a boy. I struck a conversation in French with the young girl. She talked about the travails of living in an iron curtain country, until we were roughly interrupted by some policemen who, I later gathered, were summoned by the young man who thought we were criticising the communist government of <st1lace w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Bulgaria</st1:country-region></st1lace>.
The girl was led away; my backpack and sleeping bag were confiscated. I was dragged along the platform into a small 8x8 foot room with a cold stone floor and a hole in one corner by way of toilet facilities. I was held in that bitterly cold room without food or water for over 72 hours.
I had lost all hope of ever seeing the outside world again, when the door opened. I was again dragged out unceremoniously, locked up in the guard's compartment on a departing freight train and told that I would be released 20 hours later upon reaching <st1lace w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Istanbul</st1:City></st1lace>. The guard's final words still ring in my ears -- "You are from a friendly country called <st1lace w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">India</st1:country-region></st1lace> and that is why we are letting you go!"
The journey to <st1lace w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Istanbul</st1:City></st1lace> was lonely, and I was starving. This long, lonely, cold journey forced me to deeply rethink my convictions about Communism. Early on a dark Thursday morning, after being hungry for 108 hours, I was purged of any last vestiges of affinity for the Left.
I concluded that entrepreneurship, resulting in large-scale job creation, was the only viable mechanism for eradicating poverty in societies.
Deep in my heart, I always thank the Bulgarian guards for transforming me from a confused Leftist into a determined, compassionate capitalist! Inevitably, this sequence of events led to the eventual founding of Infosys in 1981.”
My intention for bringing this here is to share how great some encounters are and how they shape and form a person’s life and get one ready to meet with destiny.