He doesn?t agree with the adage that all work and no play make Jack a dull boy. Instead, he believes that every moment needs to be spent ?upgrading? himself. Meet the workaholic?

Prem Maddali comes from Hyderabad, the capital city of the southern Indian state of Andra Pradesh. His world has been filled with computers for a long time now. Prem has always believed, you see, that information technology was the way forward and that it would take him a long way. It did indeed.

Some four years ago, a Mauritian firm, the Secure Information Technology Solution (SITS) offered him the post of software engineer; he is now the company?s general manager. When he first heard of the company and learnt that it was based in Mauritius, he thought ?great, beaches, sun and sea!?

It didn?t take him long to realize that there was actually more to the island than what Bollywood portrays it to be. A kind of little India, wit traditions and cultures of a forgotten time. ?It is a good thing. Changes do not mean we should forget our values.? Prem could spend hours telling you about his job, the same sparkle in his eyes. I thought I?d stop him because we were slightly short of time. So what do you do when you?re not working? ?I?m upgrading myself,? is the unhesitating reply.

I didn?t quite get it. What on earth does Prem mean? ?You see, I will not always be here. At some point we?ll have to go back and so we have to keep abreast of all the developments so we can fit back in.? OK, so there are no developments in Mauritius? ?The growth rate is small. People here are not proactive enough. It will be hard to make the country a cyber island if the very essence of IT is lacking here. In India, on the other hand, IT talk is everywhere.?

I felt some discontentment. So I had to ask, didn?t I? Are we going wrong? ?The way of life is not conducive to hard work. People need to start building a career instead of just looking for a job,? says Prem.

I had noticed that Prem often answers questions by saying ?we? instead of ?I?. Who are we? And the man laughs. ?No, I mean I,? he says sheepishly. Oh the royal plural, huh? He blushes. When he leaves Mauritius, Prem will miss the traffic. Surprising, huh? If there?s one generalization one can make, it?s that all Indians love the Mauritian traffic and everybody else moans about it! ?Traffic is no problem. In the morning, it takes me some 30-45 minutes to get to work and 15 minutes in the evening. At home, it?s a couple of hours. Precious time wasted,? deplores a serious Prem. Time that could have been spent upgrading oneself?

He looks up, not too sure whether to laugh at such a serious issue. Pauses. Thinks hard. And then his tightly set lips give way to a smile that lights up his whole face. And Prem laughs. ?Definitely,? he replies in between bursts of laughter.

He may be right, our Prem. Jack needs not be a dull boy?