[LI] [Offline] Vijay Mukhi Digest ;->

[Sushanth Sowmyan <sush@xxxxxxx>]

Raj, u got it! ;->

Well, this is kinda long. I hesitated before posting to LI, but thought
that the interest level of this would be high. Really sorry if u were
offended by this long mail.
I remembered he'd featured in an old 'Living Computers' mag(Sept 96) .
Its long yes. but very funny indeed considering what happened.I type the
article verbatim. Here goes:

<quote>
Digerati Lifestyles:

Vijay Mukhi is chief of Vijay Mukhi's Computer Institute(VMCI). Besides
being a veteran in the computer training business, Mukhi is quite a
luminary in Indian Information Technology circles.
He's one of the leading lights of Internet User's Club, a movement to
promote Internet Usage in the country. He's in illustrious company
there, what with the likes of Pritish Nandy and Shammi Kapoor being
other members. Mukhi is also an active member of the Bombay Computer
Club. What's more, he is among the most colourful characters in the
industry.
</quote>

Thats the intro. There are even 2 pics of him, both reading books, one
infront of a bookshelf, and another in bed with 3 pillows. He quotes in
big red letters:: "When we were in college, we used to go to class only
to make friends with the girls" & "I sleep whenever I please. In fact, I
must be the only man in the world who can sleep for 48 hours
continuously without food or water". I guess that explains a lot doesn't
it?
Now comes the main article:

<quote>
<bold>Normal is Boring</bold>He eats, breathes and talks this maxim, and
makes an effort to live it too. Vijay Mukhi of the VMCI is one of the
true characters of the Indian computer industry. Call him a computer
professional and he sees red. "That's a damn insult."

Mukhi would rather have the world call him an Internet pro. "Computer
folks are always spewing jargon. Always confusing the rest of the
world." A rather bizarre statement for a guy who runs a computer
training academy for a living and authored over a dozen books on
computers. He loves to travel but hates the "sight-seeing business."
When in Rome, he prefers to study the Romans and interct with them
rather than visit dumb monuments and sights. He wouldn't be caught dead
doing what the Romans do. 

A man of very strong likes and dislikes, he goes into fits of delirium
when he talks about the internet. "People who have discovered the
Internet live the most exciting lives in the world. Because no two days
are similar for us."

He considers it a rare privilege to be a denizen of Cyberspace and has
all the trappings of one. "We are a breed of people who don't recognize
caste, creed, religion or geographical boundaries. We are the ones that
will decide the future."Brave verse, indeed.

Today, Vijay Mukhi fids time for little else but the Internet. But the
younger Mukhi had a few passions. Palmistry for one. He took a strange
fancy for the "science" of palmistry and devoured every book he found on
the subject. "When you can read palms, it's very easy to impress
people." Mukhi revealed being the entertainer at parties and gatherings
by virtueof his newly acquired skill.

And one fateful day, he read an African's palm and told him that he
would lose his marbles soon. Call him prophetic, or call him unlucky,
but Mukhi's prediction came true. The African had a mental disorder and
was taken to an asylum. Mukhi stopped reading palms since that day.

He hates classical music. "All that tabla and violin. My head starts
spinning." Someone suggested MTV."I don't understand what they are
singing or doing out there." Oh yes, he digs Hindi film music. Mukhi has
this leaning towardth excess. He's not a regular movie-goer, but when he
watches movies, he does it by the dozen, at a stretch. So, on lazy
weekends, he picks up five or six video tapes and watches them - one
after the other. "I hate to leave things halfway. I would never ever
watch a movie at a cinema hall." "I've got no sense of time," he
declares. The only time he is punctual is when he has to deliver his
lectures. "Coz people are paying for it." He's got no regular sleep
habits. "I sleep whenever I please. Infact,  I must be the only man in
the world who can sleep for 48 hours continuously without food or
water." 

Like so many others in the computer business, Mukhi got into it by
accident. He enrolled at Victoria Jubilee Technology Institute (VJTI),
Mumbai, for an engineering degree."Those days, when we were in college,
we used to go to class only to make friends with the girls. Because the
girls we couldn't meet at the canteen were in class." One year in
college and he thought he would "go crazy". But survive he did and
walked out of VJTI with a bachelor's degree in Engineering.

Bachelor's degree in habd, Vijay Mukhi went on to run a mango orchard in
Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh. "Even now, I can look at a mango tree and
tell you how many boxes of mango that tree can produce." While running
the mango grove, Mukhi discovered God. " In Mumbai, you have absolutely
no reason to believe in God. But in Saharanpur, when a hailstorm
threatens to ravage your mango orchard, you have no one to turn to
except God." Mukhi doesn't grace temples any more. Something to do with
the absence of mango groves in Mumbai,perhaps.

Well, even mango groves couldn't hold his interest for long. He didn't
want to be a "farmer's son" all his life. So he left his mango grove and
came to Mumbai. He enrolled in a Masters in Computer Science at Mumbai
university. He never got to complete it because he found the course very
pathetic. "I quit in a month's time."

He then joined a small private computer trainig institute in Dadar,
Mumbai. Mukhi can't recollect the name of the institute run by a certain
Mr. Edwin D'Souza. Those were the days of Intel 8085 microprocessor, the
illustrious great,great grandfather of the Pentium chip. Mukhi used to
write code for D'Souza then.

Well, the enterprising Mr. D'Souza had signed a deal with the
neighbouring Remy's Institute ( which trained young women to become
secretaries and stenographers) that a professional from NIIT would teach
them word processing. D'Souza had called it "India's first course in
word processing." As luck would have it, the good man from NIIT couldn't
make it. Mukhi was asked to stand in and "I conducted India's first
course in word processing." Mukhi stumbled into Computer training
business by accident and couldn't quite get out. "Even today people tell
me, you should have done better things. But I enjoy teaching"

That's Vijay Mukhi. Love him or hate him. But please don't call him
normal-or a computer professional.
</quote>

Enjoy.
Ciao for now.
-sush


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