Pardon the gestation period for my blogs. They may soon beat the elephant at its own game. Well, continuing from where I left last time…

Around 4:00pm in the afternoon, I got in touch with Maddy, to check if our date was still on. He confirmed a time between 5:00 and 5:15pm. Raghu (Maddy’s younger brother) was also going to join us. More the merrier, I thought.

It was 4:50pm and I had posted myself right in front of the vendor’s office gates on Sterling road; the mutually agreed meeting point. I usually am early to a friendly meet; call it punctuality or simple unbridled excitement of getting together with friends. The same happened here as well. The afternoon sun was a little uncomfortable, but the anticipation just took away all the discomfort. The clock ticked over 5:00pm and slowly crept past 5:05pm, no sign of Maddy yet.

My patience had started to give in and I was already SMSing him. Came the reply, “I am on my way, just 2 minutes away”. Having spent ample time around marketing/sales professionals, replies like “2 minutes away”, “round the corner” usually meant that the person had just started and was nowhere nearby.  So I revised my expectation to 5:30pm as the earliest that I would get to see these guys. Waiting was now becoming a little boring and I was becoming an object of intrigue for the passer by. I am not sure whether the reason was my disposition or my dress (I guess wearing a lounge coat and standing under the hot Chennai sun must be something unusual). Sharp at 5:15pm, a car pulled next to me and a gentleman alighted from it, with a smile and a quizzing look in askance “Are you the one that I am looking for?”. I too probably carried a similar ex-pression.

Well, our individual hunches were right and Teddy finally met Maddy. A warm hug and some exchange of pleasantries later, we were headed to my hotel, so that I could dress down a bit. Moreover it was too early for any evening activities. Soon Maddy and me were chatting up, while Raghu for most parts played the silent participant. I am not sure whether me and Maddy were too engrossed and he felt a little left out in the process.

I realized that Maddy looked different from the original picture that he had on the iLand, the one with the thick moustache et al (he has a much younger version on iLand these days). The gent I met was clean shaven with a boyish charm and eyes that crinkles at the edges when he flashes his charming smile. The hair was cut short and the gone were the curls that we saw in his original iLand photo. His well rounded personality could have easily earned him the Teddy Bear tag. He comes across as a blithe spirit who speaks from the heart, i.e. there is no mental editing happening to his sentences during a conversation. I like such people and I try hard to be one like them. But I have not yet mastered their art. I often mentally filter my conversation to ensure diplomacy and decorum, in other words avoid the ‘foot in mouth’ situation. Probably the requirements of my job has made me that way or I just don’t possess the skill or temperament to speak freely and still say the right things, a talent which Maddy seems to have in abundance.

We were soon at Park Sheraton. I had shed my coat and was feeling a bit more comfortable. In the meanwhile Maddy was telling me about all the wealth that Raghu was amassing and hiding away somewhere. As a Private Wealth Management guy he has now tasked me to find out the whereabouts of Raghu’s booty. I told him that probably it is under some “Numbered A/c” a term used in the PWM world for anonymity.

The focus then shifted to family and Maddy is one lucky guy who has his siblings and parents, all staying in the same city as him, a rare phenomenon these days. From his conversations I could see that he loves his two cubs (since he qualifies to be a Bear) a lot. The way Maddy is, I am sure he enjoys a fabulous relationship with both his sons.

By the time we had finished one round of discussing family and our own personal details, it was already around 7.00pm, time to leave for dinner. Maddy and Raghu took me to this fabulous place called ‘Malgudi’. The food was authentic South Indian (all states included) and fantastic in taste. I recommend this place to those who plan to visit Chennai.

Over dinner Maddy told me more about his business. For your information, he is an entrepreneur who is planning to make it big in the world of publishing. He already has done quite a bit in this realm and I guess his is a brand name which is recognized at least in this part of the world. Given his enthusiasm I am sure we will hear a lot more about Maddy and his company in times to come. Dinner finished, the brothers brought me back to my hotel and we parted wishing good night, promising to meet each other again whenever I was in Chennai.

Keeping with my promise I met Maddy again during my next visit and this time I got to meet his wife and kids and also got to see his office or should I say Den. I will write about it in my next edition, whenever that happens.

PS – Maddy has his own views about blogging during company time, which many of us do.