Q&A: Media Contacts India and SEA boss Rajeev Bala

What is your current state of mind?
Sleep with one eye open.

What is your greatest fear?
That I lose my ability to get excited and get delirious at possibilities.

What is the trait you deplore most in yourself?
I wish I would be more equanimous.

What is the trait you deplore most in others?
Humility, obedience, conformism, religiousness.

Who is your hero? Why?
Muhammad Yusuf of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh is one of them. I admire him for creating a profitable bank that is owned by poor women, not rich men.

What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Obedience, reverence, (false) humility.

On what occasion do you lie?
It depends on the definition of a lie. No one takes me seriously anyway.

Name one thing about yourself that most people don't know.
I played a mean axe in a rock band. Our largest gig was playing to more than 3,000 people.

What words or phrases do you most overuse?
I've seen the future of the web and its name is...

What talent would you most like to have?
The ability to nap at will.

What's your most evocative childhood memory?
I have little long term memory.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Reinventing myself from a suit to a geek.

What is your most marked characteristic?
My tendency to be a troubadour.

Which historical figure do you most identify with?
Cassandra, since I keep seeing the future, but no one believes it.

What makes you happy?
Listening to Ronnie James Dio, RIP. When did you last cry and why?
I am a sucker for love stories and cry like a baby when I see them.

What is your regret?
None. Really.

If your office was burning down, what object would you save and why?
A plaque that says "Perfection is our goal. Excellence will be tolerated."

What would you do if you were invisible for the day?
Whisper digital wisdom into the ears of clients and whip them into a digital epiphany that's eluded them so far.

What do you see when you look in the mirror?
A 17-year-old puppy... I've aged better than I thought.

What's your best joke?
Everything in www.talkingcock.com

This article was originally published in the 15 July 2010 issue of Media.