The legend called Jack Canfield was in Bangalore recently, and many of us who look up to the great man were thrilled to be able to see him in person. I was even more overjoyed when my friends Mac and Meena Sreenivasan asked me to be the guest of honour at his book signing event at the Leela Palace in Bangalore.

You can’t imagine how good I felt to be not just meeting a writer of the stature of Jack Canfield, but I would be on stage with him for over an hour. I was given a 3 minute slot to speak at the event. This was a moment to savour. Speaking with a legend. What could I speak about? What would create an impact? How could I welcome the great man to the Garden City called Bangalore? Myriad thoughts went through my mind, but I did what I normally do… I went with flow. I got this idea to use the metaphor of a flower, and a recent incident popped into my mind….

While I was photographing flowers outside my bedroom window one morning, I was delighted to see a monarch butterfly gently float into the camera frame… I got a few pics of the scene… and was lost in the wonder of the moment. How and why did the butterfly enter the scene… and it did its bit… looked for a little nectar from each flower that it chose… and then as though it was all a dream, the butterfly vanished.

I linked the scene outside my bedroom window to each of us… some are flowers, some the creeper… some the bees… or the ants on the trees… and there is the beautiful butterfly. Now … was the butterfly who played guest… the legend called Jack Canfield? No… I thought… Jack Canfield was the man behind the camera… who has seen a thousand such scenes out of his hotel window… as he travels across the globe. He is the man who records things through his books so that many more may read.. and learn… an improve their lives.

Jack’s visit was indeed a memorable one. Seeing him at dinner… where Nicole Faria (my daughter and Miss Earth 2010) was the chief guest at a charity dinner… was an additional blessing. I thank my friends Mac and Meena for the honour they have shared with me… and it is friends like these who share, and who add value to our lives. We love Jack…and we love those like Meena and Mac who move our world forward.