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He came, he saw, they fawned

They fawned and they almost grovelled. The Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s C Subramanian suggested that Bill Gates start a 'Gates Foundation' for India and other Third World nations, Maharashtra Chief Minister Manohar Joshi almost begged him to come to Maharashtra while Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda asked why Gates didn’t visit his native Bangalore.

When Gates came up, he naturally saluted the Indian 'spirit of entrepreneurship and the art of salesmanship'.

Penned behind gates on the road leading to the Homi Bhabha auditorium in the defence quarter of south Bombay, families of defence personnel peered curiously out. Some wanted to see the prime minister, others were just waiting to be let out. One suit was urgently ordering someone over a cellphone to add another car to the convoy.

The entrance of the auditorium was manned by a squad of the hardest-bitten characters you’d ever seen. Two of them ran metal detectors over the invitees. One false move, and it seemed the offender would get clubbed with the detector itself.

Inside, the troops lined the right corner aisles, most of them with their hands behind their backs. The guests edged uncertainly past the few at the entrance and tried to find their allocated zones. Right up in front was the area marked 'reserved', the province of the privileged -- the prime minister, the governor, Gates… Behind them came the czars of industry. And every time a man walked down, the illustrious gathering would crane their necks to see if it was Nani Palkhivala or S P Godrej or some other celebrity. Most often, they weren’t disappointed.

One journo who couldn’t find a brochure went out and asked for it of the most likely looking person. But he got a blank stare in return. He repeated the question with the same result. He tried again and the man said "Bro..?" in an inquiring tone a zombie would be proud of. Security man, see?

Meanwhile, many smart young men were shuffling busily up and down the aisles, scrutinising invites and solving problems, except that of the journalist mentioned above. Finally, everyone got tired of all the excitement and settled down to wait. Manohar Joshi and Murli Deora, former president of the Bombay Regional Congress Committee, peeked out of the wings to worry about the arrangements and vanished again.

The minutes ticked by. The security forces decided to liven things up by moving to the left corner aisle. Then Deora again popped out, followed by Joshi, Governor P C Alexander, Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde, Gates and Subramaniam, president of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan which was organising the show.

The security staff had again plastered themselves against the wall on the right when Deve Gowda showed up and Deora started proceedings, comparing Bill Gates to H Ford and T A Edison. He made way for Subramaniam, who did ditto. When Joshi took the podium, people began to cough. The CM decided entertainment was better than pontification.

"I must share a secret with Mr Bill Gates if he won’t tell anybody else," he said, grinning broadly at the audience. He said he too taught computers, much like Gates did. Joshi, when not being operated by Bal Thackeray's famous remote control, runs coaching and computer classes in Bombay and other districts in Maharashtra.

Gates, Joshi declared, was the richest man in the country and the laughter prompted him to add, "in the world". He then proceeded to laud the state of Maharashtra, solicitously inquired if Gates had seen the city of Bombay, adding that when he came "next year, maybe next month, he should see this excellent city."

He went on to make clear that if Gates wished to come over to India, Maharashtra was very happy, nay, anxious, to have a permanent association with Microsoft "so that you prosper and the state of Maharashtra prospers".

When the audience had almost squirmed their way through the floor, Bill Gates came on and began his speech on the Social Aspects of Information Technology after applauding Joshi’s marketing skills. Then he exhibited some of his own, touting the Internet, PCs and, of course, Microsoft -- not necessarily in that order – as the stuffings of the future. Voice, he said, would replace the keyboard but things were not as easily as software producers thought initially. He raised hopes with the ambiguous comment that he now intended to do far more than he thought he would when he came to India first.

Lauding the possibilities PCs held to educate youngsters and keep them away from television, he promised Rs 5 million to the Bhavan and launched the 97 version of MS-Promise, which offered to help establish India as a global pool of talent and resource. While suggesting that private industry should work with the government, he made it clear that it was the private sector that should take the lead.

Gates finished and Governor Alexander took his place. Deve Gowda followed, and did not miss the chance to broadly hint that Microsoft should come to India and set up shop in Bangalore.

Clearly, the entertainment was over for the evening.

Waiting for Mr Gates

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