Bhadant Nagarjun Arya Surai Sasai (b. 1935), a Japanese-born Indian Buddhist monk who came to India in 1966 and made it his home, released my book, ‘Peerless Benefactor of Humanity: The Life and Thoughts of Gautam Buddha’ at Ananda Buddha Vihara, Mahendra Hills, Hyderabad.

On November 19, 2006, on the occasion of the inauguration of the Care Hospital at Nagpur, I visited Sasai Maharaj at the Indora Buddha Vihar. He made me sit opposite to him, exactly at the center of a huge dome, and chanted sutras in his booming voice, while rattling the kapali ka damaru. For about five minutes, I felt like I was in a different realm.

“I have dusted off the bad smears of your earlier incarnations and invoked your hiri–ottappa,” said Sasai Maharaj, walking me out of the stupa. When I asked for an explanation, Sasai Maharaj laughed and said, “Human life is like an iron rod smeared with excrement at one end and heated to a red-hot glow at the other end. It hurts the ignorant one day, debases him another day. Hiri is your disgust at grabbing the rod in the place where it is smeared with excrement, ottappa is your fear of grabbing it in the place where it is red-hot.” Well, I did not exactly become a pious person after this, but my conscience started poking me more frequently and rather forcefully, suggesting that hiri–ottappa were very much active!

Sampooran Singh Kalra, popularly known as Gulzar (b. 1934) met President Kalam to present the audio version of our book, ‘Wings of Fire’, that he had translated and narrated in Hindustani, with the title, ‘Parwaz’. When asked the meaning of ‘Parwaz’ by Dr. Kalam, Gulzar sahib explained that having wings is not enough to become a bird. The existential truth of the bird is to fly. This struggle, this endeavor, this aspiration to fly higher and higher is ‘Parwaz’. Hearing this, President Kalam, setting aside protocol, got up and held Gulzar sahib’s hand.

After coming out of the Presidential Study, where the meeting took place, Gulzar sahib lovingly hugged me and said, “Kya khoob likh diya bhai apne.” I told him, “Sir, we are all channels, as you so aptly wrote – noor ki boondh aise diyon se baha karti hai.” Whenever I read the lyrics of Gulzar sahib’s song, ‘Parwaz’, ‘Meri zindagi parwaz hai, wo hawa meri main urujahan’, divine energy passes through me like some invisible and yet, powerful magnetic field. I am a firm believer in Gulzar sahib’s line, ‘Jinke ke sar ho ishq ki chhaon, paon ke neeche jannat hogi’. Meeting him has been like meeting an angel in flesh and blood, a cherished memory that will remain ever close to my heart.

President Kalam hosted a ceremonial banquet for the Russian President, Vladimir Putin. I was given a seat on the 44-member dining table, with 22 guests on each side; the Presidents facing each other in the middle and the guests by their side in the decreasing order of their stature. Ignoring the great fortune of being present there, my ‘lower self’ felt relieved that I was not placed at the corner-most seat. The small orchestra at the balcony played ‘Awara hoon’ with its most melodious piece on the piano and accordion. President Putin waved towards the musicians in appreciation.

Every member of President Putin’s large delegation, some 80-odd of them, wore formal black suits. They looked right out of a movie scene – measured steps, half-smiles, and black briefcases and ladies’ bags. The variety of dresses, facial expressions and body language of the Indian leaders and guests, on the other hand, were in complete contrast. President Putin held my hand in a steel-like grip and looked straight into my eyes. “This man means business and knows how to get what he wants,” I felt.

The next day morning, Dr. Kalam told me during a walk through the Mughal Gardens, “Russians are magnanimous people. They are people who live by their hearts. Russia has endured so much and yet, her people never fail to rise up from adversity and strife more confident and stronger for having achieved victory over the challenges she has faced! Russia was almost destroyed in the last ten years, but this man is a man of destiny for his people. Russia will rise again with him!”

Sachin Tendulkar visited the Care Hospital with his wife, Dr. Anjali. He came to see me; a great gesture on his part. I have been a cricket fanatic since childhood and had earlier met Sachin in 2003, when President Kalam hosted a reception at the Rashtrapati Bhavan for the Indian cricket team, who had lost the finals to Australia. When, before the arrival of the team, Dr. Kalam asked me what he should say to Sachin, I told him that he should talk about Sachin Tendulkar’s Master Class against Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis and his iconic six off Shoaib Akhtar at the Centurion. Dr. Kalam noted down the names, rehearsed them and mentioned them correctly while praising the team, to the great delight of Sachin and all the other team members.

I thanked Sachin for dropping in and spoke of the joy I experienced when he had scored an unbeaten 241 at Sydney as a New Year celebration for the country. We made some small talk. His father had named him after the great musician, Sachin Dev Burman; he was a fan of John McEnroe and grew his hair and tied a band around it in his style in his teenage. I told Dr. Anjali that Sachin was a national treasure and she said that she was aware of that and was guarding him properly. This visit was the high point of my mundane hospital stay.

Meeting President Lula De Silva of Brazil was a great personal experience. He was invited as the Chief Guest of India on the occasion of the Republic Day 2004 and President APJ Abdul Kalam had hosted a dinner for him at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Not only did I get a seat at the dinner table, but President Kalam also briefed President Lula about the work he had assigned to me – developing civilian spinoffs of defence technology in the medical sector with the aim of reducing the costs of certain devices and materials which were not affordable in the 1990s (many of them are not affordable even today). 

President Lula held my hand in a tight grip with love and admiration. Such warmth is rarely seen in leaders who occupy high offices. In President Lula’s grip, I could feel the missing little finger of his left hand. Lula was born in poverty and earned his bread as a shoeshine boy. He started working in a factory as a teenager. When he was 19, his finger got crushed while working as a press operator in an automobile parts factory. Looking in his eyes, I could feel an indomitable spirit in flesh and blood. 

Brazil was ruled by the Military in those days. Young Lula joined the labor movement and rose to become the president of the Steel Workers’ Union in the ABCD Region, four industrial cities near Sao Paulo. Brazil got rid of military rule in 1985 and has been a stable democracy since then. A strident union organizer known for his bushy beard and Che Guevara T-shirts, Lula was an icon, even before he won the 2002 Presidential elections. 

President Lula became a great friend of India. He was honored with the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding in 2006 and the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development for 2010, before he served two terms as president and left office on 1 January, 2011. His Fome Zero (Zero Hunger) program is a shining example of what a committed leader can do for his people. Under Lula’s presidency, not only did Brazil become the world’s eighth largest economy and the sixth largest shipping industry in the world, but 20 million people were also lifted out of poverty. 

In the 2010 elections, Lula’s Chief of Staff – Dilma Rousseff was elected President of Brazil. She won a second term in 2014. But then, every rise is followed by a fall, as day is followed by night. In 2016, she was impeached for corruption charges and removed from presidency. In 2018, Lula was the front runner, but was arrested and sentenced to a prison term for ‘passive corruption’ charges, ending the Left-rule, and Right-wing politician Jair Bolsonaro became the President, ending the long rule of the Left Party.