Love ke liye - One day Maharaja contest winner

In 2004, Tata Indicom conducted an SMS contest a few days before Valentine's Day. It was called One day Maharaja (One day Emperor) contest, participants were asked to send an SMS with a phrase or a quote or a short poem starting with "Love ke liye"  (which means for love's sake),  luckily my short poem won the prize and I got a chance to be the One day Maharaja, a chauffeur driven Mercedes Benz for a day and dinner at 5 star Hotel ( Taj in Bangalore) for two on Valentine's day. Back then, I was still in college, we dint even have a car and had not even been to 3 star Hotels (Restaurants attached to 3 star Hotels), so you can imagine the joy we all had. If I remember correctly the short poem was as below


Love ke liye
Kya kuch nahi kiye
Cigarette, Sharabh chod diye
Ab jo tum milhe
Zingadi hum jeene lage
Love ke liye
jyo kuch bhi karo, kam hai
Isliye hamehi tumhe de diye 


For those who don't understand Hindi, here is a rough translation in English

For love's sake
What all I did
Quit smoking and drinking
Now that I have you
I started living life
For love's sake
Whatever I do, is less
So I give myself to you

Now the funny thing is, at that time, I didn't know if I had love for my friend (my wife now) or not and we never discussed about love, we just liked to be together. So when I won the prize, I asked the guys at Tata Indicom and they said you can bring anyone (female) and it is not mandatory that you have to bring your girlfriend for dinner. So, I requested my mom and took my mom in the chauffeur driven Benz, we visited my friend's home (my in-law's home now) and two other places and then left to Taj. 

We reached Taj and we were treated like celebrities,  there was someone already there to take our photos and welcome us. Really felt like a Maharaja. And guess what, I also got a chance to meet Puneet Rajkumar  at Taj.  One month later our photo (mom and me) was also in the booklet send along with monthly bill to all the customers of Tata Indicom and some people recognized us. Tata Indicom also sent us a nicely framed photo (see below).

Love ke liye one day maharaja contest winner
Mom and me

Tata Indicom - It has taken me a long long time for me to thank you publicly. Here is a big big thank you for that unforgettable day and experience. 

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