Meeting Jimmy Wales

In case you don't know who he is, he is the founder of Wikipedia and thanks to Kiruba (the list of things to thank Kribs for is growing kinda long), I happened to meet Mr Wales over dinner at Residency Towers along with a select few.
My knowledge of Wikipedia goes as far as looking up the Madras Baashai on Wikipedia quite a long while ago. Generally for reference and then one fine day a wiki on moi was brought to my attention.

First off, I could only apologise for being overdressed thanks to all the wedding kinda finery that warrants some concerts. And, I realize the classic long tables are no good for conversations. And there is the noise from other tables to consider. Despite that, I happened to gather quite a bit from Mr. Wales' responses to others. I eventually asked him, no prizes for guessing, on the kind of music he listens to. I didn't quiz him too much, I preferred listening. Not that I could ask him anything smart anyway. It took him a while to get my name, and he kinda 'practised' it a couple of times. :) Nice I say! But I guess I must have a tough name *sigh* I was also pretty surprised that he was in Chennai only for a few hours. And definitely, he is extremely simple, easy to talk to and how name dropping is a huge thing no matter where. And yes, there were a few things I learnt that evening on how to talk to just about anybody.

Pictures of this do; thats something I do not have. But others went clicking on their phones. I headed to the meet right after a concert, pretty much wringing my hands and fearing that I wont make it, but despite Chennai and its traffic, I did make it. And I was to head out of town again at about 3 in the morning. Quite an eventful weekend.

Here, on Ergo, is a more learned, expert report on the meet.

And yeah.. I Met Jimmy Wales!