My fifteen seconds with Indra Nooyi

I've been meaning to write this post forever. And by forever, I mean the last 2 months or so since my return from BlogHer. Not sure what took me so long. It's not like this post belonged to my "secret stash of topics" - the ones I know I can count on when there's no other fodder available - like the frozen pizza I have in the deep recess of my refrigerator, the one I pull out on a lousy Wednesday night.

Indra Nooyi - Chairman and CEO of Pepsico was the keynote speaker at BlogHer. Her powerful speech was followed by a Q&A session where she answered questions ranging from how she juggles work and home to Coke versus Pepsi. She was simply brilliant.

I had hustled my way to one of the front tables, long before her address began. And as she spoke and bonded with her all-women audience, I could she the admiration and respect on every single face in that over crowded room. She told her story of how she studied in Chennai, India and then came to the United States to get a Masters degree from Yale. She then joined the Boston Consulting Group in the eighties and then PepsiCo in the early nineties.

I felt so much pride that day. Not because she is from India and from the same neck of the woods as I but because of the powerful woman that she is in what is still a male dominated world. I'm referring to Corporate America where the upper echelons of management are still primarily testosterone.

I spoke sometime ago about Condi Rice, I have Indra Nyooi in the same category. It takes nerves of steel, tenacity and sheer brilliance for someone from rural Alabama to become Secretary of State. A picture, courtesy Forbes, of the two of them together, some years ago. This, my friends, is what I call a Power Shot.

As her address ended, I sprung out of my seat, elbowed my way through the quick crowd that had already formed around her as she exited the stage, bypassed the entourage and asked her for a picture. LOUDLY. She looked at me and said "One picture". It was the only picture she posed for that evening.

And for those fifteen seconds, I was in the presence of greatness.

P.S: Be kind, that's what too much adrenaline, too little sleep, an overload of CARBS and no makeup does to me. Also, hair bunched up in a tight knot is obviously not my best look. I've made note.