When the liquor baron Vijay Mallya encouraged a Hindu priest to become a pilot!

Vijay Mallya was the reason a Hindu priest in California became a pilot. He worked as a priest in the Hindu temple at Livermore, California. Vijay Mallya maintains a residence in Sausalito, CA. Once this priest had gone to perform some puja at Mallya's residence here. There the priest shared his practical problem with Mallya. The problem was the priest was getting a lot of requests from devotees to come to their homes and perform rituals. Most of the devotees lived within 200-300 mile range and some even farther. So, the priest could handle only one or maximum two appointments daily if went around in his car. Mallya gave him a suggestion. "Why don't you become a pilot? Then you can rent a plane and fly it yourself. Many towns have airstrips. You fly in, perform rituals, take off, land again and repeat. If you plan well, you can probably cover 3-4 places in a day. It won't be that expensive either. Many devotees like me will reimburse you appropriately. Please think about it."

The enterprising priest took Mallya's advice seriously. He worked hard, completed the requisite training, passed the necessary exams and obtained his flying license. Since then he has been flying everywhere and has been very productive. I heard now he is the head priest at the Sacramento temple.

There was a documentary in Kannada called 'flying pujari' (or something like that) in which the priest shared his experiences and gave full credit to Vijay Mallya for changing his life forever and for better.

Remembered this when Mallya is getting battered for having defaulted on the loans taken from Indian banks and then escaping to the UK. Thumbs up to Mallya and bigger thumbs up to the enterprising and tenacious priest who achieved something that not many manage to achieve.

* Copied from my Facebook status.