[Ashwin Morey]

One fine day or rather one fine night I get a WhatsApp pic from my close friend (brother from another mother) - a group of 5-6 guys doing cheers together at a party somewhere, followed by a very cryptic message "You know at least 2 guys from this pic". Intrigued, I scan the pic and notice that one of them is of course my friend and I continue to scan till I notice... him! I zoom in and zoom in to ensure that I am not dreaming and that indeed he is who he is. I slowly typed the name and replied to my friend and pat came his reply "Bingo". And that's exactly how fellow BHPians the chain of events start unfolding, leading me to meet the legend, the fastest (or at least one of the fastest) Indian - the one & only Narain Karthikeyan!!!

What started as a whatsapp message less than 24 hours ago (at the time of writing this I guess I am in the 19th hour) actually got converted into a lovely and delightful meet & greet with Narain.

My friend is in the media industry and often hob-nobs with celebs of all kind, always giving an offer to meet & greet anyone that I fancy (bollywood, cricketers, rockstars, popstars, TV and what not). Needless to say that none of the celebs from other spheres have interested me enough to take up on any of his offers, up until today! Obviously if I were to say no to meeting Narain then I might as well leave this forum and stop calling myself a BHPian or a true petrol head.

Anyways, to cut a very long story short, the very next day i.e. few hours ago I went to the media house office where Narain sat down with 20-30 people surrounding him and gave a long interview followed by motivational tips, followed by obligatory pics and then followed by felicitation (Puneri Pagdi and all). Amidst all this chaos I was in one corner wondering who amongst us is more patient - me who is waiting for all this circus to get over so that I get some quality time with him exclusively OR he who was patiently acknowledging and obliging everyone with his humble mannerisms and sweet smile. In the end I figured out that he is the clear winner because after everything he will still have to endure one last fanboy - yours truly

So after an hour of all the chaos, I finally managed to have my first close encounter when my friend literally pushed me on the centerstage to get some exclusive pics. See now, up until then, I must have played a thousand conversations and pictured this moment in a million different way but alas I am no Dr. Strange to view a million scenarios and predict the only one where we all win and world is saved. When it came to the penultimate moment, I did become nervous and froze and mumbled & blabbered God knows what. But after those initial anxious moments, I regained composure thanks to the infectious smile and top notch humility of the guy in front of me. I even managed to mention that I am a Team BHP member and I bet all my fellow BHPians will be delighted to hear about this encounter. Two things happened immediately - His eyes lit-up at the mention of Team BHP and second, he gave me the widest smile at that exact moment. It felt to me that he finally found some common ground with which he could associate me with (maybe up until that point he must be wondering who's this that they have sent up on stage) and maybe now he understood that why I was so eager to meet him and be with him.

From thereon it kept going smoother, we exited the office together, we took the elevator together, we went to a restaurant together and ended the day by sharing light snacks at the restaurant. This entire second leg of the encounter was a private affair with my friend and me and couple of other blokes and of course the legend himself hence couldn't really muster the courage to click some pics at such a private gathering and truth be told this second encounter was 4-5 guys sitting in a causal setting, in a relaxed manner and it was intimate as it can get so was focused more on chatting with Narain.

To summarize, the dude is as humble as they come, has an infectious smile, has a small stature which I suspect must have made his contemporaries underestimate him giving him a chance to outsmart, outshine them. He is brilliant, he is intelligent, he has a deep study of his art (it is an art come on) and his passion is at another level. All in all a great meeting with an absolute gem of a person, a true legend and I savored every moment of it.

Enough of talking, here are pics that I can share:

Here I am giving some 'gyaan' to him


Here is him pretending to keenly listen and winning the patience game hands down


Here is us finally agreeing that he is the legend and I am the nobody

[pyrodrive]

Nice to meet these legends, that helmet add on confused me momentarily though
Here is a pic with another fast Indian. 7 time INRC champion Gaurav Gill. Pic taken this month at an INRC rally where I had the privilege to be a race marshal.
Thats him in the middle with bhpian jajabor on the left and me with the cap.

[Fiatfan]

Hi Ashwin,
Lucky you to have had a chance to meet an all-time legend who we were all proud of when he became the fastest Indian that too on a profession we all are so passionate about.

His smile and looks says it all- a very gracious and humble human to have scorched the tarmac with memories to cherish.

I congratulate you to have the opportunity to meet him, I feel ecstatic as though I have met him after reading your letter, that's how we as auto enthusiasts feel like.

Regards

[Ashwin Morey]

Originally Posted by Fiatfan

Hi Ashwin,
I congratulate you to have the opportunity to meet him, I feel ecstatic as though I have met him after reading your letter, that's how we as auto enthusiasts feel like.

Regards

Thanks much for the kind words Fiatfan

[14000rpm]

Originally Posted by Ashwin Morey

.. the one & only Narain Karthikeyan!!!

Nice. I've had a similar opportunity as well but this was a long time ago.

Originally Posted by Ashwin Morey

To summarize, the dude is as humble as they come, has an infectious smile, has a small stature which I suspect must have made his contemporaries underestimate him giving him a chance to outsmart, outshine them. He is brilliant, he is intelligent, he has a deep study of his art (it is an art come on) and his passion is at another level. All in all a great meeting with an absolute gem of a person, a true legend and I savored every moment of it.

Completely agreed. His humility makes it easy to converse regardless of his achievement.

Thread on my 'encounter':

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/intl-...hikeyan-2.html (..and I meet the FASTEST INDIAN in the world-Narain karthikeyan)

[megazoid]

What a lovely encounter. Your enthusiasm is as infectious as your writing. So tell us what all transpired over snacks? What was the conversation?

[Ashwin Morey]

Originally Posted by 14000rpm

Nice. I've had a similar opportunity as well but this was a long time ago.

Wow!!! You actually met him on a race track!! Amazing to read your encounter as well. I can confirm that he hasn't changed one bit from how you have described him to what he is today. Great guy and truly remarkable personality

Originally Posted by megazoid

What a lovely encounter. Your enthusiasm is as infectious as your writing. So tell us what all transpired over snacks? What was the conversation?

Well mostly it centered on his latest venture DriveX which is in startup stage (pre worshipped 2 wheelers) and he is very excited about this venture and he has good backing too with TVS onboard. I wished him all the best for his venture.

Other than that it was just casual banter around the food, restaurant, Pune, Pune's traffic etc.

[Dippy]

Narain is a gem of a person. Have got to know him over the years and its always fun listening to his stories on racing, cars any anything to do with wheels whenever we meet. The last I bumped into him was at the Formula E in Hyderabad in Feb. I was waiting outside on the road for my cab and he also happened to be waiting there for his cab as well. Since there was a huge traffic jam, got to catch up for around 20 min before we left. Even he agreed that the race organizing left a lot to be desired.

Here is us outside the race track. I'm the short guy along with a friend.