Journalism of Courage
While life offers opportunities to all,very few are up for the moment to grab it. Speaking about how their lives changed here are five achievers in their own right,who dared to capture that one moment,which defied all odds and changed their life forever
Dr Shriram Lagoo,Actor
I believe that life is a process and there is not one single moment that plays pivotal role in deciding ones destiny or future. I remember when I was in school; I was told to act in the annual gathering,one year. Standing in front of the fellow schoolmates,I was so scared and tensed that I forgot my lines and instead ran away from the stage. This was my first tryst with acting and after that day,I started watching plays and films just to realise that acting was not that difficult a task! My father was a doctor and there was a lot of pressure from home on me to become a doctor too. During my college,as well,I continued to act in plays but then education remained a top priority. In fact I not only became a doctor,but also earned a specialist degree and went abroad to pursue further studies. But the old love for acting came up once again and then came a decisive moment where the question- acting or medicine needed to be answered. I chose to give up the latter that too at the anger and opposition of family members. Today,when I look back I feel happy for choosing what I could not live without- acting!
The life changing moment for me came when I lost my husband in 1987. In my beautiful life,that incident suddenly created a void leaving me devastated. But that is probably the moment that changed me forever. At that time,when I had nothing to look forward to,my father in law’s attitiude towards life gave me an altogether different outlook towards life. He taught me that nothing in life is constant and the happiness of life lies in the fact that human being has to look forward. Since that day,I look forward to each and every day of my life. Like everybody else,my life has been full of ups and downs but by now I have learnt to accept it and instead look forward to whatever it brings.
Dhanraj Pillay,Hockey Player
The moment that was a turning point in my life would be when India won the Asian Games (1998). I was also the highest goal scorer in the Bangkok Asian Games. Many senior players in the team including me wanted to give our best shot and had thought that this would be our last chance and game but that win and the confidence helped us play further for many years for the country. And the pride of winning and the support of the people and recognition after that cannot be put in words. It gave me a lot of boost not only in terms of my career but also to go ahead with the game and realise that people recognise your hardwork when you put in true efforts.The Maharashtra Government also honoured me with a flat then and there were thousands of people to receive us at the airport.
Mohan Dharia,Environmentalist
There are countless moments that are etched in my memory. I was 17 when I was selected as the volunteer of the All India Congress Committee. And on the very first day,I was assigned the work to serve water to the members of AICC- Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. That was a different period altogether. Patriotism was in the air. Inspired by Bhagat Singh,Subhash Chandra Bose,Sawarkar,I participated in the freedom struggle and was imprisoned. Before being sent to jail,I was planning to be doctor,but I walked out with a decision to study law. Chandrasekhar and I were known as the young turks when,during my years in the Rajya Sabha,I decided to adapt politics for commitment against politics for convenience. For opposing emergency in 1975,I was imprisoned once again for 17 months. Those months gave me time to think and introspect and this time again I came up with a motto for myself – If we have to save India,we have to protect its environment. Since 1980,through Vanrai,I have been working towards environmental causes. In between,I was invited to be the governor and even the vice president,but I denied it for the cause I had decided to give my life to. Today,we have a chain of 7000 NGOs under one umbrella and have brought 1,80,00,000 hectares of land under green cover till date. What got me a Padma Vibhushan was my work towards environment and not my political career.
Ganesh Natarajan,CEO Zensar Technologies
It was back in 1985 when I was the head of product planning in Crompton Greaves in Nashik. While I was on a visit to Delhi during that period,it was a short conversation over a cup of tea with Amarnath Dutta of DPS Technologies from Kolkata that was the turning point in my life. He told me then that the real future of our country lies in the IT industry and made me realise the opportunity that sector presented. The idea of global positioning when the industry was in a nascent state was instilled in me and it was during a time when we as a country had less than a billion dollars worth of exports. His advice changed me from a traditional engineer to a risk-taking entrepreneur. I had been interacting and taking guidance on and off from him for a decade after that but it was that ten minute meeting which changed my thinking.
