Oooooooh...Iam totally floored

Like the subject says,

"Yeah!Iam totally, undoubtedly, completely floored.Iam highly impressed and absolutely stumped...yeah in short,that's clean bowled.Blame this charmer of a man!He's adorable,admirable,respectable,damn smart and extremely witty.I've never been this fanatic about anyone, ever before.Never ever"

Well, after a slightly-exaggerated version of my fanaticism, here go his vital stats:

Height:About 5'7"
Smartness quotient:200 out of 100.
Wit levels:The highest I've ever come across.
Humour:Full of intelligent wisecracks that'll have everyone around, in splits.
Affableness:Absolutely no airs about himself; extremely down-to-earth; very, very friendly.
Education:BE (Chemical) + MBA from IIMA.
Occupation:Has been a consultant, a quiz master, a writer, a commentator and a producer!
Achievements:Too many to pen.
Passion:Cricket.

Age: About 45! :(
Name:Harsha Bhogle :)

15th October saw SPJIMR hosting the West Zone Finals of Acumen 2005 - the inter B-school debate and quiz contest.Being a member of the PR Committee, sweating in a black blazer on a hot sunny day, I waited at the gate for a good hour and a half to receive our guest of honour for the day - the host for Acumen 2005.The wait was made bearable,thanks to his pretty secretary who was a non-stop chatterbox herself.The man himself - Mr.Harsha Bhogle - my long-time idol, showed up after exchanging a zillion calls with his secretary (the zillion calls are quite understandable when you have such a pretty woman for a secretary :) ).Just as I was getting all jittery and eager to ensure impeccable welcome formalities, he alighted from his car. I said my hellos,shook hands and offered to lug some of his kit bags. He just flashed a warm ear-to-ear smile that put me instantly at ease.We walked into a classroom where he freshened up for the show.

To cut short the rest of the story,I got to tag around with him all day,chit-chat with him,watch him mug up his lines,watch him rehearse,host the 8-hour-long events with unbelievable ease and no drop in energy levels,gel unbelievably well on-screen with a co-compere whom he was meeting for the first time on stage(!),deliver a whole lot of hilarious off-the-cuff remarks on stage etc.

The best part, though, was that I got loads of snaps with him,got an autograph of my super-star on my T-shirt,got him to take time off for a one-on-one interview with me even though he had a flight in 45 minutes!Whew!it was one of my very best days at SP.Iam now too overwhelmed with admiration and awe, to write in detail about the 'mind Bhogling' conversations I had with him and about how impressive it was to unveil a man with strongly-etched values concealed behind a veil of light, rib-splitting-humour.Iam glad I shared a few of those gems from the golden guy with my folks back home.They were all-ears and all-happy to know I was finally floored but a tad too unhappy to know who it was who had floored me flat :)

Quote for the day:"If life were measured by accomplishments, most of us would die in infancy." A. P. Gouthey