Mr.N.Murali of The Hindu

Today's The Hindu, put up a photo plus news about Mr.N.Murali getting elected as President of The Music Academy, Chennai.

Reading about this great man brought back pleasant memories of a meeting with him, (he is now the Senior Managing Director of Kasturi & Sons) in the mid- 1990s and came back feeling so good about this gem of a person. He was such a thorough gentleman and listened so patiently to what I had to say, though I was meeting him for the first time and knew nothing of him or his background at that time at all.

The meeting lasted about 20 minutes and he asked another person to guide me to their newsprint section to get more details for a project I was doing then, for a market survey company called MARG.

Very rarely do we come across people who treat women with so much respect. His family, culture and class showed in his simplicity and humility. Such are self-realized people for whom outward shows do not matter. They wear their titles and positions so lightly without any airs about them. What struck me the most was his treating others as humans despite his position in one of India's leading newspapers.

Though more than 15 years have passed by and the meeting din't last more than 20 minutes, yet this memory has lingered on for me as a most cherished one, though I must have been one among the so many, meeting him that busy day. Yet I came away feeling so good about myself. I think it's all about the respect the other gives us that makes us feel so good.

Alas! God makes such gentlemen in limited editions.

Mahalakshmi.