Markeet?

I have been in Mumbai for over a month. I still catch myself calling it Bombay. I write this sitting in the wait room of Dr L H Hiranandani Hospital. This city thinks it is ahead of Bangalore, where I live, in all respects. But I was suprised to see that I was the only one in the entire hospital, in all the 50 days I have been here, to lug around a laptop. No other patient attendant, no visitor, has come here with a laptop. And this is a huge, plush hospital, built to international standards, and surpassing international specifications in some respects.

A Gujarati family sat next to me in the wait room, and a middle-aged man from among them was peeking at my screen. It couldn't be that he had never seen a laptop. After a few minutes, I thought I should politely strike up a conversation. The moment I smiled, he asked, "Markeet?" I didn't quite understand the question. "Share markeet?" he repeated the question. I told him I was doing some routine mail checking, and had no idea about online trading. He lost interest in me, and continued talking to his family. He was explaining to them how online lottery works, from what I could gather.

Who knows, this man could well be another Ambani. Have you seen the movie Guru? It is based on the life of Dhirubhai Ambani, the man who founded India's richest business empire. I could connect this man in the hospital to the young, gauche trader in the film, played by Abhishek Bachchan in awkward clothes.

My laptop goes online with the help of a Reliance data card. This wireless device helps me check mail, surf and edit copy wherever I am. It has helped me work from airport lounges, hospital lobbies, and, once, even from a badminton court. The man who founded Reliance was this very trader, Ambani, whose manipulative skills and daring director Mani Ratnam has captured on celluloid. The Gujarati in the hospital wait room may have no idea how to use a laptop, but I am sure he knows how to make money from one.