We finished lunch. It was naptime of my thatha (grandpa). Naptime usually meant one thing story time. I rushed to my closet pulled out the latest Amar Chitra Katha that my dad had gotten and I ran to my thatha’s bench. We had a long bench in the drawing room and that was his resting spot. He looked at me with the usual smile on his face. He knew what I wanted. The bench could hardly fit that 6 footer man. We both lay side by side resting our heads on a couple of pillows. “So what did Bheema do till yesterday?” asked my thatha. I’d reply and hence began my introduction to the world of Ramayana, Mahabharatha and the whole set of affiliated stories. My grandpa was a great literate. He knew 14 languages and had won many a prize for literary work. He was the president of the Author’s Guild of India and our house never ran short of his guests and affiliates. He used to work as the personal secretary of Sri Rajagopalachari and a freedom fighter. His heroes were Mahathma Gandhi, Nehru, Tilak and the likes of Bharathiyar, Kamban, Khasa Subbarao etc.
A whole generation has come and gone since my thatha. The world around us changed so rapidly. The boundaries shrunk bringing people closer and closer physically. America was a Western dream for a few at one point. After that it became just a place where engineering students flocked to do their MS. What was mythical and mystical became commonplace. Concepts changed, rules were challenged and customs were questioned. We live in a world where there is always a threat of war but the concept of war has changed significantly. We hear stories of brave soldiers every now and then but our country in our age has not seen the need for a mass conversion of people’s vocation to soldiers. Hence we learned to live and grow differently. We learned to love differently and love different things.
Wherever we go or whatever we do we will always have people we adulate. The age we live in today constantly challenges us to keep getting better at what we pursue. Life changes in a matter of seconds. Failure occurs far frequently asking us the inevitable question when it raises its ugly head, if we have the strength to continue. Life being such our definition of a Hero changed. A hero became a person whose pursuit of his passion becomes the very definition of his life. He remains untouched by criticism, failure or depravation. The passion remains a goal unto itself and the person who just keeps doing what he does best and loves doing it is a pleasure to watch. A man that probably personified every bit of this was Steven Jobs.
His life was an example to live by. He was a man of many words. His biggest power was his power of expression. Such power comes from a mind that has the clarity of an ascetic. You can watch video after video of Jobs and you’ll see how his whole body forcefully drives his point home. His vision was extraordinary. His philosophy was unmatched. His biggest strength came from the fact that he never thought about anything as a chairman or founder or director. He always thought as a customer, a customer who had not used an Apple product before. All his decisions weren’t right. But his wrong decisions never stopped him. Wherever he went he drove his philosophy. People always wanted something new and Jobs always gave them something new. Whatever he touched turned to gold. He wanted to remain at the forefront of technology, envisioned something that wasn’t just progressive but also futuristic. He had so much faith in what they did that they could literally wait for the customers to adopt it and take the world by storm. We still live under the big canopy of the Banyan called Apple and a lot of other products are offshoots of an Apple concept.
He was unstoppable and he was stopped the only way he could be, death. Knowing him he would make heaven a better place to live if there is one. A man of a humble beginning, an iron grit and someone who was constantly criticized taught the world that great products are made out of great understanding of consumer behavior and an awareness created with crystal clear alacrity. The whole world mourned the death of the creator of atleast 2 things in their possession that is being used on a minute to minute basis. Innovation hung its head for the first time in salute to one of the greatest minds of the 21st century. He will live as a person who was made unique and irreplaceable. We will always remember our Hero as the Midas who walked amongst us.
A whole generation has come and gone since my thatha. The world around us changed so rapidly. The boundaries shrunk bringing people closer and closer physically. America was a Western dream for a few at one point. After that it became just a place where engineering students flocked to do their MS. What was mythical and mystical became commonplace. Concepts changed, rules were challenged and customs were questioned. We live in a world where there is always a threat of war but the concept of war has changed significantly. We hear stories of brave soldiers every now and then but our country in our age has not seen the need for a mass conversion of people’s vocation to soldiers. Hence we learned to live and grow differently. We learned to love differently and love different things.
Wherever we go or whatever we do we will always have people we adulate. The age we live in today constantly challenges us to keep getting better at what we pursue. Life changes in a matter of seconds. Failure occurs far frequently asking us the inevitable question when it raises its ugly head, if we have the strength to continue. Life being such our definition of a Hero changed. A hero became a person whose pursuit of his passion becomes the very definition of his life. He remains untouched by criticism, failure or depravation. The passion remains a goal unto itself and the person who just keeps doing what he does best and loves doing it is a pleasure to watch. A man that probably personified every bit of this was Steven Jobs.
His life was an example to live by. He was a man of many words. His biggest power was his power of expression. Such power comes from a mind that has the clarity of an ascetic. You can watch video after video of Jobs and you’ll see how his whole body forcefully drives his point home. His vision was extraordinary. His philosophy was unmatched. His biggest strength came from the fact that he never thought about anything as a chairman or founder or director. He always thought as a customer, a customer who had not used an Apple product before. All his decisions weren’t right. But his wrong decisions never stopped him. Wherever he went he drove his philosophy. People always wanted something new and Jobs always gave them something new. Whatever he touched turned to gold. He wanted to remain at the forefront of technology, envisioned something that wasn’t just progressive but also futuristic. He had so much faith in what they did that they could literally wait for the customers to adopt it and take the world by storm. We still live under the big canopy of the Banyan called Apple and a lot of other products are offshoots of an Apple concept.
He was unstoppable and he was stopped the only way he could be, death. Knowing him he would make heaven a better place to live if there is one. A man of a humble beginning, an iron grit and someone who was constantly criticized taught the world that great products are made out of great understanding of consumer behavior and an awareness created with crystal clear alacrity. The whole world mourned the death of the creator of atleast 2 things in their possession that is being used on a minute to minute basis. Innovation hung its head for the first time in salute to one of the greatest minds of the 21st century. He will live as a person who was made unique and irreplaceable. We will always remember our Hero as the Midas who walked amongst us.
Comments
But whatever he touched didn't always turn gold. Too many failures have been rocked his projects but what was impressive was the direction of the progression didn't change!
i think his biggest contribution to the "changing world" is the App store! An iPhone is nothing without the Apps. iPad is nothing without Apps.
As somebody said, Edison, Disney and now Jobs! Biggest loss to world.