What can you ask a CEO? By Dilsha Dinesh 11A
I felt my palms sweating as I entered the UAE exchange head office. Sure I’m around 12 of my friends and I would be lying to myself if I said that I wasn’t a tad nervous. It’s not every day a regular 15-year old gets to meet the CEO of UAE exchange. The preparations I had taken by seeing YouTube videos seems to be of no use in real life experience that I’m about to face.
As I entered his office, I noticed the simplicity of the office. Of course there was a table full of golden trophies shouting their presence in the room but it was a classic office with few modern art paintings and few portraits of meetings with famous people.
We introduced ourselves. He shook hands with each one of us. He had a sense of leadership with which one could have guts and talk freely and was really cheerful with us throughout the conversation. With a subtle sense of authority he asked his employee to give us a visit to the treasury. I felt like a lost lamb. What is treasury doing in an exchange? Well, actually it was the place where dealers ensure the deals and watch the rates of the currency (go figure).
As I entered the treasury, I saw a long conference table filled with computers. The employees started explaining what they actually do over here. It must’ve been in Greek because nor did I understand or remember a single word. My brain was filled with doubts. I saw a group of my friends conversing with an employee and I just stood there. Another one of my friends just came and asked “did you understand anything? “. So I just did a little happy dance inside my head thinking I was not the only lost lamb and in fact there was a herd.
After the quick visit to the treasury we made our way to the cafeteria where we were welcomed and seated in front of the one and only Mr.Sudhir Shetty. One could notice the age lines but he seemed like he didn’t care about them and gave us all a warm carefree smile. He started off by reminding us how lucky we are to be here and to be given such opportunities. The idea of 13 teenagers interviewing a CEO seemed really intriguing. And it was. Each and every one of us held on to the words said by this personality as if it were pearls.
It was 3 hours long and trust me when I say that it was not at all boring. Well, if I were to ask to repeat whatever he said, even if it were the exact same words it would never have the same effect. He asked us to follow our dreams, whatever they may be, and to face the difficulties with confidence and determination that you can do it. He quoted famous personalities like Mahatma Gandhi, Ratan Tata, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Jawaharlal Nehru and many more. He asked to read their books and see how a Chai-wala can be a prime minister. He encouraged us to make our own decisions and stick to it. At one point he made us write down almost 10 quotes of famous personalities. He asked us to follow the virtues and traditions of India and to be always proud to be called an Indian. He said that all countries will have its ups and downs but what remains is its patriotism. He ended his informal speech by asking us to stick with simplicity and humility.
Now it was us youngsters’ turn to ask him some questions. The questions that I had prepared, he had already answered them in his talk. One could tell that this was not his first interview but it was my first. So I had to open my mouth to ask a question which just popped in my head: “How many hours of sleep do you get?” Although I meant it in a serious tone, it earned a lot of chuckles from our group. He answered with the smile which had never faded since we’ve entered: “To achieve something we have to sacrifice something too”.
- Dilsha Dinesh XI-A
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