Aamir, Kumble speak to Blair

bangalore: they each got 90 seconds with the man described by one and all as ``the youngest world statesman'' and ``upcoming, dynamic world leader'' __ british prime minister tony blair. nearly 40 ``young achievers'', identified by the confederation of indian industry, had a half-an-hour closed-door interaction with the pm, with three of them on video-conference from london, bhubaneswar and hyderabad.``it is definitely an honour to meet him. he is the head of a powerful nation,'' ace spinner anil kumble told the sunday times of india. most of the achievers echoed this feeling of awe. ``he is a very charismatic man, on par with bill clinton. his young age gives him a different perspective; he's a young achiever himself,'' microland ceo pradeep kar said. odissi dancer surupa sen found blair ``really warm, very witty and with a very young vision of the world.'' blair listened to all they had to say and answered every one of them in depth. racing driver narain karthikeyan, who suggested to blair that formula one racing would be a good industry, said: ``he (blair) agreed. it's very encouraging that a man in his position is so willing to listen.'' kumble, kar, karthikeyan, actor aamir khan, cricketer sadagopan ramesh, hockey goal-keeper ashish ballal, ibm md abraham thomas, mindtree research labs head sharmila saha were among those to meet blair. lawyer manoj ladhwa spoke from london, ortel communication md jolly panda from bhubaneswar and reddy labs md sathish reddy from hyderabad. lagaan star aamir khan set the ball rolling, describing to blair the ways and life of bollywood. ``i don't think i am an achiever. in fact my only achievement is having read all the harry potter novels to my children,'' he said in a lighter vein. ladhwa went on next, describing indian business projects in britain and the environment for them to grow successful. blair responded saying indian business had integrated with the british economy. kumble spoke of government policies on sports and contended that everybody had to extend support for the field to grow. ``in india, cricket is similar to the craze for soccer in england,'' he told blair. the pm confessed to not being a cricket fan himself. ``but sports should be used as a medicine, a means to remove the evils of society,'' he told walchand capital ltd cmd pallavi jha, who outlined international financial and business related problems. responding to surupa sen, blair pointed out that restrictive regimes on art never work. ``in afghanistan, the minute they got freedom, there was a sudden rush to the movies.'' iterating his stand that globally all economies have to open up, blair said this ``utopia'' wouldn't be easy. ``national boundaries will still remain, but economically, we all are already impacted by changes anywhere in the world,'' he added.