AN  AUTHOR IS BORN 

It is the writer who might catch the imagination of young people, and plant a seed that will flower and come to fruition.
– Isaac Asimov

The more closely the author thinks of why he wrote, the more he comes to regard his imagination as a kind of self-generating cement which glued his facts together, and his emotions as a kind of dark and obscure designer of those facts. Reluctantly, he comes to the conclusion that to account for his book is to account for his life.
– Richard Wright  

Both of the above quotes well bear the significance of ‘Why’ to Mr Baljit’s venturing out into the literary domain.

==================.  PRELUDE 

Meena and I were driving back from Pune to our Borivali home along with her Aunt Mrs Sarita Mehta on 20^th Jul, when Baljit (younger brother of her classmate Harjinder) called her up to invite us to his Belapur Office for a chat halt. As we pulled our car into the compound of Skylark, Meena spotted Baljit waving at us. This was my first interaction with the dynamic youth icon of India, who took us to his Ajuba office. Cdr Gurbax Singh, Baljit’s Dad who is an instructor in a Belapur Maritime Academy also came and interacted with us. Baljit told us about his Book launch on 02 Aug on his Dad’s 77^th Birthday to be celebrated in JW Marriot in a big way, and it was decided that I shall be introducing Baljit during the function. Baljit told us that half the proceeds of the Book shall be towards Society’s welfare (installation of water filters). Baljit ordered delectable Masala Dosa for us all, that was sumptuous and filling. He came down to bid us goodbye at the Parking Area.   

               On returning to our Borivali home, Meena searched all her wardrobes for a suitable Dress for Baljit's Book  Launch....There wasn't an attire that she hadn't worn before. A renowned Fashion Designer that she herself is, she designed and stitched a wonderful suit for the Grand occasion.

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BALJIT  SINGH’s  PROFILE 

            

Baljit has a degree in Micro- Elect (making of computer chips) from Rochester Institute of Tech, NY. He’s been part of teams that brought innovation and game-changer products & services to the market. His Leadership and management have been instrumental in not only developing and implementing business strategy, sales & marketing functions BUT building motivated teams in turn-around environs. He was part of the team that brought the Accelerometer Chip, the chip that controls Airbags in cars. He led the efforts to bring the world’s first automated fuzzy logic defect classification for the semiconductor industry.

                  He developed New Business strategy & innovation process and due to his efforts, a new age Solar business was incubated. He led the cost optimization efforts where a saving of over $350 million was achieved in less than six months. He led the application development  and guided the R&D to bring to the world  fully automated Scanning Electron  Microscope (SEM). Baljit now assists companies in building their Innovation journey, mentors & coaches in their strategy and business development.

             He’s been instrumental in Non-profit initiatives with various NGO’s to contribute back to the society. He’s given support and guidance to the Punjabi Cultural Welfare Association (PCWA) of Navi Mumbai to create Punjab Heritage Bhavan in Belapur, a  3-storied  bldg to show how people can come together and deliver to the community. In 2001, his teams went to Gujrat to distribute relief material to the affected people. They also built temporary shelter for affected families.

           In 2004 Tsunami in India and the 2011 Tsunami in Japan, together with the members of PCWA, they came forward to support the affected people. In 2013, Baljit was active in supporting affected people of Uttarakhand. Post-disaster, he visited the affected areas and distributed relief material to 300 families and  school children.In 2015, During  Chennai floods He Visited the affected areas and delivered relief material to people in Saidapet, Chennai.

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THE ‘D’ DAY 

         We left Borivali at 2:30 pm in incessant rains drove to Andhera, crossed ‘Jalsa’ to reach JW Marriot on the hour and proceeded to Enigma Hall, the venue of the Book launch.

          Mr Baljit was busy briefing his teams for various events that he had packed for his special Guests for the evening, but as we entered his face lit up and he took time out and got himself snapped with us on Meena’s DSLR. Next to join us were (a  grand surprise for her indeed.).. her classmates Sanjay Chauhan and the ever beaming Vikas with their good ladies Ruhi and Vinita....The pleasure was many folds for them all....The Party in Party had just begun...  We welcomed the Birthday Boy Cdr Gurbax Singh who entered with his good friend Cdr Harnam Dillon (whom I had earlier met on a warship during Veterans day at sea about 4 yrs ago) and Kulwinder Kaur (Baljit’s Bhabhiji).  Baljit’s Mother couldn’t join us due to ill health. We initially gathered at the presentation Hall for the Press conference, where Baljit narrated the story of his Life’s journey and how he graduated in Micro Electronics from RIT, NY and was involved with various innovative processes in Micro-chips, Semiconductors, SEMs, Business Strategy Development in the past 20 plus years. How his only Daughter was a source of inspiration for him to write this Book on innovation titled ‘My Experiments with Innovations’…Which in turn shall inspire the youth of the world in their journey of Life…He spelt out a Formula that he devised L=C+H  (Life is nothing but a summation of Challenges and Happiness). He confidently dwelt on questions from the Audience before we all moved on to the Entertainment Hall. At this point in time, some more special Guests arrived Mr Gill, IAS; Mr Albert from Pune, Mr Nikhil Bhatia(Baljit’s classmate and RIT collegemate),  Actors Rakesh Bedi and Gavie Chahal (from Bollywood), Mr Manish Chawla & Mrs Ravina Chawla, Sunny and Megha.

 The Entertainment Programme commenced with an engrossing skit ‘Mast FreeStyle Gavahi’ by a professional theatre group Pratik Arts from Andheri. Next in line were high voltage performance of Bhangra and Gidda, which were appreciated by one and all. Later Anchor Priyanka introduced me before I took to stage to sing praise for Mr Baljit the Author, with a presentation. It was now the turn of Baljit to narrate to the audience the Journey of his Book scripting. Copies of his Book were gifted to the Audience free for the joint release amidst a big round of applause, as he read out a Poem from the Book that he had scripted when he celebrated his daughter’s 10^th Birthday. She had insisted on a very special gift from her Dad. This special Gift was a Poem dedicated to her and narrated by him to his daughter’s entire class. Hats off to Baljit for this awesome gesture.   

        After the Book launch, Baljit escorted his Dad, Cdr Gurbax Singh on stage for Cake cutting on his 77^th Birthday, amongst the cheer and roar of all present. The Punjabi Biradari members presented to the Birthday Boy a huge floral bouquet.

       The last item of the entertainment programme was by a mimicry artist who imitated Nana Patekar flawlessly, that was well appreciated by the entire audience. Mr Baljit then thanked all those who were instrumental in the success of this Book launch function and directed everyone towards the Bar / Dining hall. The class gettogether of Meena, Sanjay, Vikas, Vinita, Ruhi, Baljit continued and Baljit called over his friends Manish, Raveena, Sunny and Megha, whom Vikas and Vinita continued to humour and entertain till cows returned home. And the calendar at this time had changed date, Bar had closed, when Baljit decided to take everyone to ‘Jhatka’ Bar outside JW Marriot. Tea-totallers Meena and I bade all friends Good-Bye, even as Vinita and Vikas insistently invited us over to their place for Beer in the near future.  

             On our way home well past midnight, as we crossed Big B’s Jalsa, the line that rang in my mind was, ‘A journey of a thousand miles, begins with the first step’. That first step I had taken after attending RAdm Gulab Thadani’s Book Launch on 30th Jul, by selecting the Title of my Book, ‘Colourful Pebbles on the Beach’…..Today I took the second step by planning the nomenclature of the Book and decided it's going to be short inspiring stories from everyday life….As I pulled and parked my car in my Borivali Society during the silent hours, I fancied that My journey has Begun….Jai Hind.  

 Here are some Pics for you that speak ….. 

MEENA IN JW MARRIOT      

  

RAKESH BEDI  SHAKES  HAND  WITH  MEENA

MEENA WITH HER CLASSMATES  VIKAS AND  SANJAY

https://www.facebook.com/meena.dutta/videos/3599700823388774/

Click the link below for Mr Baljits Profile introduction  

https://www.facebook.com/meena.dutta/videos/3599579100067613/

About the Author

Commander Rajinder Dutta (Retd) has been a Naval Pilot and a Qualified Flying Instructor with about 3000 hrs of flying on various fixed wing Aircraft of Indian Navy, viz HT-2, HPT-32, Kirans, Islander, Super Connie, Fokker F-27 and IL-38.

 He is a Master of Ceremonies and a blogger.
http://rajdutta26.blogspot.com/